Joeys - 1st Ballan Scout Group

Hop into Cuboree is a one-day experience for Joeys to visit Cuboree, witness the adventure and challenges the Cubs get up to during Cuboree and engage in some fun activities all at the same time.

Hop into Cuboree was an amazing experience for our Joeys. From the moment they arrived and assembled at the Norman Johnson Campfire Circle for opening parade they were happy to there and keen to discover, explore and participate in everything on offer. Throughout the day our Joeys enjoyed jumping, throwing, spinning, crawling and climbing with their favourite activities being rockclimbing, throwing leaves and untangling themselves from the incredible rope maze.

Our Joeys also managed to catch up with our 1st Ballan Cubs and talk about all the adventures they were enjoying at Cuboree. It was an awesome day with our Joeys buzzing with excitement all day long.

A tour of a Police Station is always great fun and when our Joeys visited the Ballan Police Station, they were not disappointed.

Throughout the night our Joeys toured and explored the entire Police Station, there was not one part of the Police Station that wasn't discovered. They also had the freedom to ask questions and they asked great questions throughout the tour as they learnt more about what it is like to be a Police Officer.

Highlights of the tour included exploring the police vehicle where the Joeys got to test the siren and the flashing lights, wearing the Police Officers jacket, getting fingerprinted by the Police Officer and exploring the jail cell.

THANK YOU, Leading Senior Constable for a wonderful tour of your fantastic Police Station.

What do you get when you combine ... colour, mess, sticky stuff, a variety of ingredients, water and Joeys?

You get an awesome science experiment that makes a lot of mess resulting in a lot of laughter and fun.

Joeys love hands on programs, and they all thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to make lots and lots of slime together as they talked, laughed and shared all while using the colours of the rainbow to make amazing quantities of slime. However, our little scientists didn't just stop with the colours of the rainbow, to add extra awesomeness to their Slime, they also add glitter, glitter and even more glitter making their Slime sparkle for all to see.

Blue, orange, green, yellow ... the colour didn't matter for our Joey scientists it was about the sparkle and they all proudly showed everyone their amazing slime and what it could do and how far it could stretch.

Joeys love their mums, dads, grandmas and grandpas and any time they get to play, spend time together and have fun together is always a positive experience for our Joeys. So inviting them to a Joey night not only made for a very special Joey Program, it also created a lot of fun, laughter and teamwork between the Joeys and the adults.

During the night they all participated in a quiz. While this quiz was designed to test everyone's general knowledge, it became a very competitive experience with many of the adults doing their best to outdo each other while the Joeys also supported the competitiveness by answering many of the questions themselves.

But in the true spirit of Joeys, through the competitiveness everyone shared and cared about each other and to ensure everything was done in the essence of fun.

Thank you EVERYONE.

LEGO is always a hit with any member of the Scout Association, but especially Joeys.

So when our Joeys were given the opportunity to use their imagination, be creative and build with LEGO they came together, socialised and shared while building some amazing creations.

Some of the creations where tall, small, colourful, mobile, static and outrageously imaginative but what was even more impressive than the creations, was the way the Joeys worked together as a team to build their ultimate Joey creation, while also supportive and helpful towards each other when building individual creations. It truly was a rewarding experience for all the Joeys and a major step forward in their Scouting Journey.

Well done, Joeys.

We are Joeys and it is our Program that we implement each night. It is our voice and on behalf of each other we speak for each other to create a Program that is fun, educational and helps our develop throughout our Scouting Journey.

While guided by our leaders we create our Unit Code as well as plan for the next term and how that might look ...

Free Night .... Toy Night
Rainbow/Unicorn Night .... Water Night
Rubbish Night .... Craft Night
Sports Night .... Bike Night

It's hard work organising our logistics, so we always make sure that there is time for some fun, laughter, challenge and games whenever we are planning our Unit Code & Program.

A visit to the CFA is always fun.

An opportunity to learn, question, play, touch and drive.

Our visit to the CFA was all that and a whole lot more. We were given the freedom to explore and discover everything that is CFA and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We asked lots of important questions and learnt lots of interesting things about the CFA and being a volunteer.

However, the best part of the night was the opportunity to hold the hose and spray the water, discover all of the equipment in the trucks and we even got to climb up onto the truck and learn all about how to drive the truck and the safety equipment the CFA use to protect themselves and us during a fire.

To recycle is to support the environment, support your community, find new ways to use old things and be creative.

What better way to be creative than to build castles out of recycled material.

So after working with mum, dad, grandma, grandpa, our neighbours and friends we all brought our boxes and cardboard into the hall ready to be creative. But first we had to plan. Looking at all the available material we knew that we were going to make a big castle with windows, turrets, draw bridges, tunnels and lots and lots of hidey holes. With the designs secured in our heads we were ready to build. Working together we created an amazing castle for all to see, discover and explore offering everyone the opportunity to simply admire and be proud of our creation ...

Château de Joey.

Teamwork is an important skill to have throughout life and it is an essential component of being a Scout. There are many ways to develop and comprehend the concept of teamwork but the best way to learn is through play ... and that is exactly what we do at Joeys.

An essential aspect of teamwork is to listen. Listen to instructions, ideas, each other and be respectful to everyone so everyone gets to share their thoughts. After listening to our leaders who challenged us to participate in activities we worked together to create a plan to solve the challenge and as we learnt together to support each other we created a variety of solutions to each challenge.

It was great fun and as we learnt together our teamwork got better and we solved more and more challenges by being creative and thrifty essential elements of success throughout a Scouting Journey.

Volcanoes are very hot and explode lots of lava everywhere.

Understanding how volcanos work and the impact it has on Earth and the surrounding environment is very complex. So, it was great that we were able to spend time with our leaders getting to understand and learn as much as we can about volcanoes, how they are created, why they explode and what happens when they do erupt.

Using a variety of equipment we were able to safely build a mountain which became our Joey volcano and platform from which we could learn. We were then safely instructed on how to use a variety of chemicals that would create an eruption for everyone to see ...

And when it did erupt ... our Scout Hall nearly exploded as a result of our volcanic eruption ...

It was AWESOME.

Cars go fast ... and racing cars go even faster.

So to help us learn the science of motion we brought cars into Joeys and had fun learning. As we raced each other and each car around the hall we also learnt more about how motion works. It was great fun and we all had lots of questions to ask throughout the night.

We investigated which car was:-

The fastest .... The slowest .... The biggest .... The smallest

The most colourful .... The heaviest .... The lightest

It was a great night of fun, discovery and learning.

It's not easy for Joeys to tie knots. There are lots of instructions, many different colours, plenty of twists and turns and things can go wrong.

So when we sat down to learn some new knots ... things did go wrong, things did get confusing and things did get messy.

But thanks to the patience of our leaders and our persistence and eagerness to learn we eventually learnt how to tie:-

Our shoelaces
A reef knot
A clove hitch

It was fun, and when it wasn't, or it was confusing we simply tied up our leaders and had a good laugh before refocusing and once again working on tying knots.

In the future we will learn more knots & lashing as we continue our Scouting Journey.

With an open invitation to the Cubs, it was time to have some fun, spend some money and eats lots of lollies. So, plans were put in place, tables booked, and budgets set and off we went to Ballan's very own lolly shop .... Sweet 'n' Sassy ... and it was awesome.

After exploring the streets of Ballan with our parents and working up an appetite, we climbed the stairs to the second level of the shop and discovered ... LOLLY BAGS. We all very quickly looked into the bags to discover what we had been given and eventually someone asked .... "Can we please eat our lollies?" the answer came back .... "Yes."

Suddenly lollies, wrappers and bags went everywhere and the noise level in the room was reduced, as everyone had gobs full of lollies ... YUM, YUM!!! While eating our lollies we also got to choose an ice cream which we all enjoyed and then simply relaxed upstairs talking, eating and discovering everything that is ... LOLLIES!!!

A fun night had by all.

Finally it was time for the Joeys to get Out & About and discover the Moorabool & Lal Lal Falls. It is a wonderful little bushwalk that offers great views of the surrounding area.

Walking through the grassy fields with a Cub, a Scout, 2 Venturers & a Rover in search of the Falls we were suddenly one Joey down ... laying down on the wet grass!!! As we continued to walk through the grass, we could hear the noise of the Lal Lal Creek tumbling 34m over the edge of the gorge to create the Lal Lal Falls. Along with the sound, the volume of water was impressive causing the creek below to swell. As the walk continued, we enjoyed views of the Lal Lal Reservoir before finding and following Moorabool River West Branch to our final destination ... the Moorabool Falls.

Falling 27m into the Moorabool River West Branch, the falls looked and sounded awesome providing the perfect halfway point, before we followed the same track back to finish our awesome bushwalk.

Arriving at the Ballan Netball Courts the Joeys were ready to learn, ready to ride and ready to demonstrate their bike riding skills.

Working together they went through the safety check of their bikes and then began to bike. Demonstrating safe bike riding skills the Joeys turned left, right and safely stopped as they went through a series bike riding activities.

Ready to go, the Joeys eagerly rode away from the Netball Courts and began exploring the streets of Ballan. Safely walking across each intersection the Joeys also rotated the lead and the leading within the group. It was a wonderful experience for all the Joeys and they all implemented very safe bike riding skills. With the support of a Scout and a parent they were able to fully explore the streets of Ballan discovering little turns, uphills, downhills and footpaths lined with tree.

It was a wonderfully pleasant ride enjoyed by all.

Joeys are always looking for more ... more fun, more badges, more nature, more friendship, more adventure, more challenge, more activities, more skills, more laughter and more Scouting memories.

So when it was time to go to Kangaree our Joeys jumped up and said YES PLEASE!!! However, this was a Kangaree with a difference. This was the first ever 2 night Kangaree where our Joeys along with hundreds of Joeys from across the State of Victoria became Joey Scout Pioneers. After enduring the long bus ride to Lardner Park in Gippsland our Joeys jumped off the bus ready to go ... and go they did ... the didn't stop for three days. With a huge variety of activities available our Joeys were keen to try everything. Jumping, rolling, climbing, throwing, stacking, driving, pushing, pulling, crawling, walking, eating ... everything was on offer. Throughout Kangaree our Joeys did everything and worked really well as a team as they supported, shared and cared for each other making sure everyone experienced everything Kangaree had to offer.

Joeys are always keen to explore nature and Scouting offers them a pathway into understanding, accepting and immersing themselves in nature. Through the unique opportunities Scouting offers, Joeys are able to grow, develop and learn through nature play.

With Caledonia Park and the Werribee River on our door step, how could the Joeys not go and explore. However, this was not just another bash through the bush, this was an immersion experience that helped our Joeys understand the natural world around them. Along the banks of the Werribee River the Joeys explored the grasslands getting to understand their unique texture, scent and strength. Within the Werribee River our Joeys learnt about river flow, rocks and macroinvertebrates. While Calendonia Park offered them mini beasts, seeds and shelter. Then at the end of the walk their learning was consolidated through journals. A magnificent day that provided a fun educational experience.

While the Joey Section is the Foundation of the Scouting Organisation and their focus is about introducing Joeys to the Global Scouting Association, it's all about doing it in a fun, interactive and enjoyable way.

Therefore, when it comes to challenging Joeys and getting them to extend their comfort zones through experience, opportunity, adventure and laughter their are a variety of ways this can be achieved. It can be demonstrated and followed, directed and guided, lead and instructed or presented as a shared experience that is inclusive and receptive to all.

So when you bring together a mob of Joeys, a very excitable leader, flour, a pressurised can full of cream and a bowl of spaghetti that has been mixed with food dye ......