Boogers Anyone?

Since my son started Cub Scouts last year I have taken an active role in his Packs and have been the leader for each of his dens as well as a Pack Committee Member.  We started scouting at the same time and I have been learning right alongside of him as he has completed the requirements of the program.  In the past two years we have been camping, to district events, to pinewood derbies, a raingutter regatta, on hikes and to what seems like tons of meetings.

Last week I had the pleasure of letting one of the other parents host a meeting and plan the activities (and being a school teacher she did an awesome job BTW) and I got to enjoy the meeting just doing the activities with my son.  I really, really enjoyed the break and the help and Aiden enjoyed the meeting, though he said he preferred it when I run things... and I will take that as a compliment..LoL!

We have been working on our "Germs Alive" belt loop and one of the activities we tried to complete was requirement #4 to conduct the mucus demonstration and let me say that Ms. Cindy did try this at home and though I forgot to tell her the recipe in the book was wrong she still figured out how to make it work when she did it at home. But, when it came time to make it at the meeting it just wasn't working... So we tried again this week and "ta-da" we have boogers in a bag!

To make this you need 4 simple ingredients: Food Coloring, Warm Water, Borax and White Glue and two containers for mixing in (we used a quart size bag and a plastic cup).  ((It is very important for the water to be warm or this does not work!))  First we took 1/2 cup of white glue and 1/2 cup warm water and we mixed them together in a Quart bag.  Second we put 1 tablespoon Borax in a 1/2 cup of warm water and stirred that until the Borax dissolved. Third we poured the cup of Borax Water into the bag and added a few drops of food coloring.  Last we took turns squeezing the bag and feeling the mixture thicken as we mixed it.

The kids took turns blowing glitter across their mucus to show how it catches germs and then they played with it some more and saw how the germs then got on their hands.  Some of the kids thought it felt neat and some of them didn't like the texture at all. All of the parents were super excited that they got to take it home too...well okay, maybe not... LoL!

After learning a little more about germs and boogers we changed direction and started "Digging in the Past" and learning about fossils and dinosaurs. We made our own fossil cast with Dollar Store play-doh and mini dinosaurs, a "Dino Dig" to dig into at our next meeting and edible fossil layers.  The kids all said they had fun and can't wait to come back next week to see what fun we can find next!