"Young people have the right to grow up in a healthy environment which provides facilities for them to grow and develop"

The environment in which we live affects our lives enormously. It will affect not just our quality of life but also the sort of job we do and often how we spend our free time.

Activity

Ask each Six to draw a map of their local environment showing parks, built up areas, shops and so on. Ask them what they like about where they live, what they dislike and why.

Growing up

Young people have the right to grow up in a healthy environment which provides facilities for them to grow and develop and this includes for play and recreation. Young people are often the last to be asked about facilities which affect them but most of them would have an opinion. Why not try sounding out your Cub Scouts' opinions; not just on what they like and dislike but what could be done to improve their local environment for themselves, their friends and their brothers or sisters.

Activity

Go for a walk, visit your local park and ask each Six to consider how they could make their local environment more `children friendly'. The town planners will give them all the money required if they can come up with the ideas. Some suggestions might be.

1. Changing some busy roads with shops into pedestrian precincts.
2. Providing a 5-a-side football pitch in the local park.
3. Fencing the area with the swings to stop dogs entering.
4. Providing a play area.

You never know, your Cub Scouts might come up with such a good suggestion that you could pass it to your District or County Councillor.

What makes our weather?

Our natural environment depends very much on the physical features of where we live for example, beside a river, near the sea, in the hills or mountains or on flat land. It also depends very much on the amount of rain that falls each year and when the rain falls.

Activity

Ask the Cub Scouts to list all the things that we use water for. When there is a shortage of water ask how can they save it. Perhaps your local water board would have useful information too.

If there were no taps ask the Cub Scouts or their families where they would have to go to collect and how would this affect their lives?

Activity - The Natural Water Cycle

The Water cycle starts with the evaporation of water from the sea under sunlight or warm air. The moisture contained in the air rises to form clouds. As the wind blows the clouds over land the clouds rise and cool down. Cool air holds less moisture than warm air and so precipitation takes place and the water falls as rain onto the land. The water drains along the surface of the land as well as underground into rivers and eventually back into the sea.

Activity - Make a collage

Using old colour magazines make a collage to help the Cub Scouts understand and learn about the water cycle.

Activity - make a Rain Gauge

A water gauge will show how much rain falls each day in a month. Cub Scouts will need to keep a paper record and can compare results.

 

Activity - A Barometer

Using the diagram glue a straw to balloon rubber stretched over a jam jar and place a card graph at the side. The pointer will go down as pressure is low (usually wet weather) and rises as pressure is high (usually dry weater).