The Campfire Chronicles

Eric is our Scout of the Week. Eric demonstrates the leadership qualities of a cheerful and positive attitude, a kindness and respect to all of his classmates, and a strong work ethic. He is willing to revise or redo his work when it can be improved. Rather than hurrying to finish a task as fast as possible, Eric take the time to be thoughtful and thorough. He is also careful to re-check his work.

Not only did Eric earn his Citizenship Merit Badge, but he is the first and only scout to earn his Independent Worker Badge! The Independent Worker Badge is one of the most challenging badges to earn.

An Independent Worker is someone who can work quietly on his/her work while the teacher is working elsewhere in the room, often with a small group of students.

The Independent Worker...

1. makes sure he/she understands the directions of what to work on,
2. makes sure he/she has the materials needed to complete the work, and
3. focuses on his/her own work without talking to or distracting any other students in the class.

Often times there is a student monitor during Independent Work Time. If the monitor notices a student chatting with neighbors rather than focusing on their work, the monitor will put a checkmark next to that name. The students who make it through the entire Independent Work Time without a checkmark have earned one sticker on their Independent Worker Merit Badge.

The last of the 10 required stickers are the hardest to earn, as they require that the student doesn't receive a checkmark during Independent Work Time for the entire day.

Citizenship Merit Badge:

Tiano Krisztina

Ryan Schr. Eric

D.E.A.R. Time Merit Badge:

Melissa Ryan Schr. Alexis

Joshua Jessica

Independent Worker Merit Badge:

Eric

Every Halloween, Linus goes in search of the Great Pumpkin. At Linnaeus West Elementary School, he looked for it in the Halloween Parade, and during the Halloween Party…but distracted by all the amazing costumes, he can't be sure if he missed it or not! Once again, the Great Pumpkin proves elusive…

The Halloween Party at Camp Linus featured "Fishing for Donuts." Students raced to eat a donut on a string suspended from a yardstick! Treats, spooky music, and the movie "Balloon Farm" added to the fun!

Thank you to all the parents who provided food, supplies, costumes, and assistance with our Halloween festivities! Thank you especially to the moms of Eric, Jenna, and Lenny who managed the donut fishing!

Congratulations to all the scouts who participated in our "Storytelling 'round the Campfire" on Monday night, and Thank You to all the families who came! I think we had at least 50 people there!

Lenny's dad is lending us a plug-in fireplace-type fire. Hidden behind some sort of resin logs and flames is a red lightbulb and a rotating cylinder made out of something like tin foil. The light on the foil makes it look like the flames are dancing. It's really cool. We put some real sticks in front of it, and then a circle of stones (thanks to Miss Allio!) around the whole thing.

Our awesome custodians removed the tables from the cafeteria and set up a double-row semicircle of 45 chairs around the campfire. Within the semi-circle, in front of the fire, we spread out blankets for the kids. Thank you to our custodians!

During our campfire, Corinne and her daughter worked in the kitchen to make s'mores and hot chocolate for everyone. Thank you to them!

Ms. Spak, co-teacher (scout leader) of Camp Linus, brought all the necessities: fly swatter, bug spray, binoculars, camping hat, flashlights, books of scary stories, and camping chairs!

Josh's grown-up, Art, brought his guitar and led some singing 'round the campfire! After singing "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "B-I-N-G-O," our first storyteller took the marshmallow stick and sat in the camp chair by the campfire. After sharing her story, she moved back to her place on the blankets, gave the marshmallow stick to her neighbor, and then that person got up to sit in the camp chair and tell a story.

When half of the scouts had told their stories, Art led us in another song, and then the rest of the scouts shared. After one last song, we all got up to enjoy some s'mores and hot chocolate, and visit with one another. It was a lot of fun.

It is important to connect school and home as much as possible, and it was wonderful how proud the students were to have their families there - including parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings!

The "campfire," on loan for a year, now resides in the Camp Linus classroom where the scouts share with each other the stories that they write.

Having lost her voice to laryngitis, Miss Camp spoke to the class this week using the computer. By typing all of her words onto the computer in font size 36, and projecting the screen onto the TV, the class could read everything Miss Camp had to say.

Previous "Scouts of the Week" became Miss Camp's assistants in the classroom. For example, Colin had the job of reading to the class all the words that Miss Camp typed onto the computer/TV. In a way, he projected the voice of the teacher, and he took this responsibility seriously.

Krisztina carried the red clipboard and served as class monitor. If scouts were not listening or working appropriately, she checked off their name. Those who weren't checked received stickers on their Independent Worker Badges.

Due to Miss Camp having laryngitis, The Hobbit was not read this week, and it was sorely missed! There is plenty to share, however, from what we have already read!

Have you ever wondered what it means to have "half a mind" to do something? Check this out:

As Bilbo Baggins (the hobbit) listened to the songs of the dwarves, "something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking stick."

Bilbo's dad was a Baggins, and his mom was a Took. The Baggins don't like adventures, but the Tooks do. Even though Bilbo doesn't think he likes adventures, there's a part of him that does. He just doesn't realize that yet! The Took half of his mind wants to go on adventure with the dwarves, but the Baggins half of his mind wants to go hide.

Which half of his mind do you think will win?