Welcome

Introduction

I. Patch Requirements

7. Draw your body

Draw a life-size outline of your body on butcher paper. Draw in your bones and joints to make a skeleton. Act how your body would look and feel like without any bones. Using straws as bones, glue them over the skeleton drawing and label the large bones. Show it at a group meeting or class.

Supply crayons, straws, glue, butcher paper and tape for displaying pictures on the wall of the troop meeting room. Refer to the "Skeleton" to assist scouts with their drawings.

8. Play "Bone Builders Bingo"

Play "Bone Builders Bingo" with your troop. Make or get from your leader a list of fifty foods (ten from each of the five food groups). Choose five foods from each group and find or draw pictures for each one. Paste the pictures onto the BINGO sheet provided, one picture into each square. When you play as a troop, the leader calls out foods. If you have one of the foods on your sheet, put a marker on that square. The first person to get five in a row in any direction and yells out "BONE BUILDERS", wins.

A list of 60+ foods, at least ten from each of the five food groups, and a sample Bingo game board is provided. Give each scout a list of foods and game board. Scouts who make their own use the five food groups as the heading, instead of "BINGO"; column one is the Milk Group, then the Meat Group, the Vegetable Group, the Fruit Group, and the last is the Bread/Grain Group. If you want the scouts to make the game boards at the meeting, provide them with magazines, crayons, markers, glue, scissors with which to make them. To play, hold up food pictures or words and the scouts put a penny, paper clip, or any other type of marker on each square. Explain that when scouts have give squares marked in a row in any direction they have BINGO.

9. Plant a seed

As a group, plant seeds in a pot of soil and measure growth every 3-4 days. Discuss the plant growth and compare it to your own growth. Under what conditions do you think the plant would grow best? What helps you grow?

Provide any kind of plant, vegetable or flower seeds, pot, soil, and a watering can. Use a chart to record and take notes of the plants growth. Discuss how water, food, and the sun help plants grow and that Vitamin D from sun helps the scouts absorb calcium into their bones so their bones can grow.

10. Talk with your family

Talk to your parents, brothers, sisters, or friends. Ask them about the high-calcium foods they eat and compare their choices to the high-calcium foods you choose. Look at the recommended number of servings of high-calcium foods for their age group on "Bone-Building Foods". Read the "We Will Make an Effort" pledge with your family and friends. See if they will make the pledge - and sign the pledge sheet.

Discuss the "We Will Make an Effort" worksheet with scouts. Have them take the worksheet home to share with family members. The scout should ask if family members and friends will make the pledge. If they will sign the pledge, the scout should be urged to bring back the pledge to share with the troop. The pledge should be brought back home and placed where the family members will see it.

11. Talk with your parents or grandparents

Ask your parents/grandparents or your friend's grandparents what their activities and diet were when they were younger. Did they eat calcium-rich foods? Did they walk a long way to school as children? Do they have good posture now? Have they broken any bones? You can compare this information with other members of your troop.

12. Visit the Library

Check out any book that has pictures of food or eating from the library. Discuss with your troop leader and troop what you have learned about foods. With your troop leader, look at how the different foods fit into the Food Guide Pyramid. Can you identify a food from each food group that you eat everyday?

Point out the food groups on the "Food Group Pyramid Poster". Encourage scouts to eat at least one food from each group at every meal.