Hey Blog! On Tuesday I led my first session at Beavers, and since it went very well I thought I’d tell you all about it!
The Derbyshire Scout Archaeology Badge is a badge which I am familiar with. It is a new badge, set up by Morgause Lomas, an archaeologically minded Scout with a lockdown on her hands and a realisation that there was no badge in Scouting for archaeology. This first idea has grown into a campaign of annual digs or camps, such as the Willesley dig this summer, a Youth Committee (of which I am a member) and team of helpers, my Mum among them.
If you follow my posts, you will probably remember that I am in Explorers and also a Young Leader. This is a special category, where you are not an adult leader, but attend a younger section to help with sessions and get some practice leading groups. I help with the Beavers (aged 6-8) at my former group, which is nice as it means I have been in every section – Beavers (as a Young Leader), Cubs, Scouts, and Explorers. I’m not counting Squirrels as they didn’t exist when I joined. Being a Young Leader has mostly been attending, keeping the Beavers entertained and together if we’re out and about, and occasionally running one or two games. However, I realised the potential of leading a session for them to gain their DSA badge, and with some help, I persuaded both Morgause to help teach me how to run the session and the leaders to give me a night to run it.
I met with Morgause beforehand to discuss the running of the session and also helped at an archaeology session at another group to get some practice. I worked out the basic plan, ran that through, and practiced the words to say and the equipment to use. The Derbyshire Scout Archaeology team has five sandboxes with hidden finds such as pottery shards, buttons and coins, a set of trowels, and an immense amount of resources, so I had everything I needed to run the session. So when I went out on Tuesday night, I had everything waiting in the Scout Hut for me to use as I had dropped them off the previous night.
The session went well. The first step is to spell archaeology – it’s an 11-letter word, so for 6-year-olds it’s very long! Then, I talked them through what archaeology is, and next, set them up drawing things they thought were archaeology. After a guide to the different tools used by archaeologists, I split them into three groups and ran a carousel of jigsaws, Lego, and a go at ‘digging’ in the boxes. It wasn’t too hard; all I needed help with was running two of the three simultaneous activities, keeping the Beavers listening, and with the timings. I was impressed with how well I handled it, and I would love to do more in future! I’m planning a second session so that my Beavers can complete their badge, and apparently I might be top of the list for the people Morgause is thinking of passing the badge on to!
