Friday, May 3, 2013

Cub Scout Neckerchief Slide Holder

Each month we make a neckerchief slide with the Cub Scouts. Part of this is because it’s fun, part because it helps them get started on a collection (which is one of the requirements they need to complete to get their Wolf badge).

In reviewing the steps to achieving their collection requirement, we realized the boys need a way to display their collection.

I’ve seen some pegboards used to display neckerchief slides, but that’s a bit more time and materials than we have available. We have a budget, and not a lot of time. So we came up with this idea: a dowel on a base to stack the slides on.

I used some 1x4s from my stash and purchased two 4’ lengths of dowel. Since 1x4s are actually 3.5” wide, I measured and cut eight 3.5”square pieces of wood. I also cut the dowels into 12” lengths.


After finishing the cuts, I measured and marked the center of each square and drilled a pilot hole. I also drilled pilot holes in each dowel, though that was a bit trickier.


I put a dab of wood glue at the end of each dowel and screwed 2” screws through the squares and into the dowels.


But I couldn’t stop there J

I dug through my stash of washi tape and found some yellow and blue- the Cub Scout colors. I used my label maker and made a label for each of the boys.




Little Miss Sunshine participates in all our activities, so I made one for her too, but I decorated hers with pink tape, at her request.


And I decorated mine in more of the blue and yellow tape.




Quick, inexpensive, and pretty easy. Hopefully the boys will be able to keep track of their slides and have a way to display their handiwork.

7 comments:

  1. Fantastic! What diameter dowel did you use?

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    1. Sorry it's taken me so long- I didn't see your comment till just now. I think they're 1/2" or 3/4" dowels. They just need to be small enough to fit through the center of the slides and thick enough not to break easily, so I'd base the dowel width on the size of your slides. Hope this helps!

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  2. Where do you get the ideas for the slides?

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  3. Where do you get the ideas for the slides?

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  4. Where do you get the ideas for the slides?

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  5. Love these! Would also love to know where you find ideas!

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    1. Thanks Jan and Linda! The ideas come from a variety of places: Google, my imagination, and slides my mom made when she was a Cub Scout den leader years ago. I've also adapted ideas I found online to use the materials I could find locally/hand on hand.

      If you have a specific theme in mind, try googling that theme plus "cub scout slide". I find that looking at the image results is the quickest way to find inspiration pics. If you don't have a specific theme in mind, just try googling "cub scout slide" and checking out the image results.

      I will admit that simpler is better if you're having the boys make them themselves. I found that the Wolves just didn't always have the dexterity and coordination to make the slides themselves and we ended up having to help them a lot. Good luck and have fun!

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