How to Build a Campfire Planning Book
Who hath smelt
woodsmoke at twilight?
Who hath heard the birch log burning?
Who is quick to read the noises of the night?
Let him follow with the others.
For the young men's feet are turning,
To the camps of proved desire and known delight.
-- Rudyard Kipling
Scouting, including Cub Scouting, is an outdoor oriented
program. Whenever you get the chance, take your Scouts outdoors for
hikes and campouts. One very important part of the outdoor program
is the Campfire. It takes planning to put together a memorable
Campfire. Its not just the flickering flames, but the heat and light
generated by skits, songs, readings, stories, and roasted marshmallows.
After being involved in and planning many campfires over the years,
I have learned some secrets to achieving Campfire magic: Gather close
around the campfire, involve more people than just your unit, mix
the impromptu with the well planned, mix the new with the old favorites,
laugh, sing and be silly! |
Are
you looking for other campfire planning resources? Visit the MacScouter's
Bookstore.
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So,
starting at this point, you can plan a Campfire with all sorts of wonderful
stuff. If you have any Campfire material that you do not see here, please
send it to me, and I'll include it here.
The Campfire
Planning Book
Every
time I bring one of my Campfire Planning binders to a training session,
Roundtable or Powwow, its gets lots of attention. People want to borrow
it to make copies. I got the message -- I need to provide instructions on
how you can build your own Campfire Planning book. So follow the instructions
below, and you will have exactly the same book I have, with lots of skits,
songs, stories, openings and closings, to create magic campfires.
Start with a two inch 3-ring binder, preferably the type with the clear plastic covers that you can slip a title page into, and front and back inside pockets. You can get this at any stationary or business supply store for about $5. While you are there get some tab dividers -- 10 should do -- and a 3-ring pencil pocket. Label the dividers as follows, in this order:
Put the dividers in the binder, along with the pencil pocket -- put
a couple pens or pencils in the pocket.
Now, rather than going to a whole bunch of pages, as listed above,
to get the sections for this book one piece at a time, download one of
the files below, unstuff it, and print all the sections at one time. If
you are on a PC and do not know about unstuffing, go to the Aladdin
Systems site and check out Stuffit Expander for Windows --
it is a free utility.
When you have unstuffed
the archive, you will have a directory of several files.
When you open the files and print them, it will be obvious which documents
go in which section of the binder. Just in case, though, follow this map:
Print the file BndrCovr, which is the cover page to slip in the binder
cover sheet. Print maybe 10 or 20 copies of ProgPlan, two-sided, and put
that in the planning section.
Now, for those inside pockets. Get a copy of "Creative Campfires",
'The Cub Scout Songbook", or "The Boy Scout Songbook", and anything else
you can think of and find to add to your resources.
When all is said and done, you might want to add to your binder some
of the following:
Well, that's it. I hope this helps you plan some really great campfire
programs.
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