20 Minute Scout Story

Thought I'd post the story I read to the Wolf den yesterday. I needed something that would draw their attention to how their behavior was the week before towards each other. They just were not nice....I know, they are boys...but yelling at each other is a bit much. I didn't want a "lecture", but a story where we could discuss the actions of the characters. And then hit them with questions afterwards about which character they were in the story last week and how they could have handled the situations better.

Later that night Marcus told me it was a good story. I'm not sure I'd call it that. I don't plan to submit it, so I'm posting it here.

No title for this one....just the "20 Minute Scout Story"

Boys scuttle into the room. Flashes of blue and gold race to positions like soldiers ready for duty. Salutes go up and the "Promise" is sung in unison.

The Wolf Den Meeting has begun.

"What were they going to do today," thought James to himself.

Pete poked James in the ribs and pointed at the long bamboo poles laying on the ground.

"Today we're going to be working in teams. Each team will build a fort," said the Akela, "You'll be given materials to build the fort. And then you can use the paper and glue to make designs for the outside."

"Yes!" cried the Scouts.

Teams were divided up. James and Pete were on the same team with David and Bobby.

"We need to build the frame first," said Bobby.

"I want to do that," volunteered James.

"I want to make the designs," yelled out Pete."

"Well," said Bobby, "Why don't I help James. And David, you help Pete. Ok?"

"OK," said David.

James and Bobby used all the rope to tie the poles into a frame. But, they still needed just a bit more.

James yelled at the group next to them, "Can we have your rope?"

The shook their heads.

"Come on guys, you should share with us. You have so much," whined James.

They still shook their head.

"Akela! They won't share!" yelled James.

"Well James, how about asking if there is extra rope that you all could use instead of yelling at everyone," answered Akela.

James slumped, "Sorry. Is there any extra that we could use?"

Akela handed him more rope.

"Thank you!" James said grinning.

"Hey, who took our glue," shouted Pete.

"Look that group has two bottles," said David.

"Hey!" yelled Pete, "Did you take our bottle of glue?"

"Um, sort of. Bobby said we could use it," said the boy as he quickly handed it to Pete.

"Bobby, you can't give the glue away. We need it to glue on the designs. Jeez - think man!" said Pete.

Bobby looked up at Pete and said, "Well, I thought that we could share some and you were not using it yet."

"But we would have used it fairly soon....duh, like NOW."

The forts were all finished. Each looking different, yet set up together one might think it was a campsite on the school playground. The Akela took pictures and gave each Scout a ribbon and a prize. Pete was proud of his design, but why did he have a bad feeling in his gut?

This is where I stopped and asked them questions to think about. If I wasn't making it into a thinking lesson for the boys I might have ended it like this:

Pete looked over at Bobby. He knew what was wrong. He shuffled his feet over to Bobby.

"Um, Bobby. Sorry for not talking to you in a nice way. Can we still be friends?"

"Pete, it's ok. We're still friends."

Then Bobby smacked Pete on the arm and yelled, "Tag your it!"

The game was on.