We were happy to see new members at our Ed & Prep night. It goes to show that our recruiting must be going a long way. Seeing new faces really gives us a rewarding feeling of accomplishment.
Once again we started with member of the week. This week our shining star was Leia Brennen-White! We were very happy to present pictures and fun facts about her on the projector screen. We then informed the kids that today’s preparations will include an introduction to bluebird box building. They were excited to hear that information. After the formalities we hopped out of our seats and ran to the gym for a fun activity.
As our opening game we played “Electricity”. The goal of the game was to grab a ball that was placed behind a facilitator that would be flipping a coin. If the coin landed on heads a runner that was at the end of the line would run to the retrieve the ball. Although the challenge of the game involved two teams that consisted of a blindfolded leader who would communicate to the runner at the end of the line by sending a series of hand squeezes down the line of people holding hands. It was a very exciting game and it really got our members excited. After the game we moved back into the meeting room to have a lesson about common local birds.
We had the members try to match pictures of common New Hampshire birds to their proper names. It was interesting to see how challenging the game was since these birds are commonly seen all year long in the Manchester area. We gave them a few hints and guided them to correctly label each bird. It was a moderate success, but still very fun. We then moved on to building bluebird boxes! This was a chance for our members some light experience with hand tools and safety precautions. Each box was successfully built, yet they each had their own unique features. Everyone was satisfied of their success and we were confident that these boxes will make wonderful homes for bluebirds and their families.
After talking a bit more about blue birds, and their habitats we had a closing activity and handed out the required paperwork for Saturday’s event at Prescott farms! The members were happy to know that the Saturday event would involve hands-on tool handling and a possibility to see many of the common birds we talked about. We concluded the day with a game of “Bob the Weasel”. Just a precaution, “Bob the Weasel” may give your members nightmares.
