Cub Detectives

Cub Detectives

This pack meeting starts with a mystery and sends the cubs on a hunt for clues. In our pack weusually have a guessing jar with candy. Each cub and sibling can guess the number of candies in thejar on a sheet and at the end of the meeting the winner is announced. For this pack meeting the guessing jar will go missing. This is the mystery.

Prep:

• Guessing jar and signup sheet.
• Create a detective badge for each boy. This can be simple, like a folded piece of black poster board with the grid below and a gold official looking sticker attached (check your local police station for stickers).
• Print out the hat receipt below and write on it, “One hat, size 7 ½, paid in full”.
• Collect hats. All hats have a sticker with a size in them. Only one hat has the size 7 ½ marked in it and the corner of a page of a book attached to it
• Collect books. One book has a corner of a page clipped out (placed in hat). Make the corner big enough to include a little text. On the page with the missing corner circle the letters "n", "e", "c", "k", "t", "i", "e".
• Collect neckties and create a list of rooms of the building you are in (school or church) in very small print on one or more pieces of paper. The list or lists are attached to the neckties. Collect a few magnifying glasses to read the small print.
• Make a puzzle that has a clue relating to the flag pole in very small print. E.g. if you  have a Quality Unit Award ribbon for 2003 on your flag pole it might say “Quality Unit Award 2003”. Cut this puzzle into pieces to be taped to the doors of the rooms attached to neckties. You can scramble the letters to make this more difficult.
• Get a phony credit card (like one sent with a credit card application) and create a phony credit card receipt by taking a piece of paper, placing the credit card beneath it and running a crayon over it. On the receipt write “I used this credit card for supplies”. Sign the credit card with the name of someone whose picture is hanging in the room where the pack meeting occurs. If there are no pictures, get one of Baden Powell and hang it up.
• Collect newspapers. Tear a picture out of one newspaper and write the page number from the newspaper on it (like B6). One that page of the newspaper write “The culprit is wearing a bow tie”.

Setup before pack meeting

• Place the guessing jar with sheets on the table before the meeting starts.
• Tape pieces of the puzzle to the doors of the room
• Tape the torn out newspaper picture to the back of the picture of the person in the room

Just prior to the activity

• After the awards, tell the boys that tonight they will be learning about being detectives. A good theme for this meeting is "courteous" so tell them that that is the hallmark of a good detective. Send the boys out with an assistant or den leader to be instructed on detective work. This leader has them practice asking for evidence, e.g. introducing themselves as a detective, showing their badge and politely asking to see a book someone is holding. Cubs should practice this with each other.
• While the cubs are out, tell the audience they will participate in a mystery. Pass out the hats, ties, books and newspapers. Audience members getting items containing clues should be told this and that they will be asked by the cubs to inspect them. Also tell them that the cubs will be asking to examine (but not take) their credit cards if they are willing.
• Ask who in the audience would like to be the culprit. Give this person the guessing jar to hide in their coat or somewhere and give them the bow tie to wear.
• Tape the phony credit card receipt to the flag pole.
• Give the phony credit card to an audience member.
• Place the hat receipt under the guessing jar sheet.
• Invite the boys back in.

The Activity

·       Tell the cubs you will now award the guessing jar. Ask a scout to retrieve it. When he finds it missing tell the boys we have a mystery to solve and call them all to be detective. Have them raise their right hands and repeat after you. Use the Scout Oath with modifications about being good detectives. Then hand out the badges.

·         Send one or two boys to look for clues around where the guessing jar used to be.

·         When they bring back the hat receipt, tell them we need to find the hat for this receipt. Explain that they must ask audience members if they can examine their hats. They may not grab the hat and must explain they are detectives investigating a crime and must show their badges. Hopefully there will be enough audience members so that each boy gets to ask one for their hat.

·         When someone finds the hat with size 7 1/2 ask them what the other piece of paper is. When they figure out it is from a book audience members with books should start reading them. The cubs must ask to examine audience members books.

·         When they find the book have them smell the book and look at the drawing on the page of a neck tie. They must then examine neck ties from the audience until the tie or ties with clues are found.

·         Remove the papers from the neck ties and have a few boys examine them to find the room numbers. Send out boys in pairs or threes to retrieve clues from the specified rooms.

·         When they return have a few boys assemble the puzzle.  If needed supply them with magnifying glasses. Write the results on the chalkboard (“Quality Unit Award 2003”). Let the boys unscramble this if needed.

·         When they have done so have a few boys examine the flag pole until they find the phony credit card receipt.

·         Have the boys ask the audience to examine their credit cards.

·         When they find the fake credit card, have a boy examine it for clues. When they see the name let them notice about the picture.

·         Have one or two boys examine the picture.

·         When they have found the newspaper piece, have them examine it and find the page number. At this point audience members with newspapers should get them out to read them. Have all boys ask audience members to examine their newspapers.

·         When they have found the newspaper have one or two boys turn to the designated page.

·         The person with the bow tie should have their hand on their chin to hide the bow tie. Have the boys find this person and ask him/her about the guessing jar. Have this person return it to one of the boys with the statement, “Since it said guessing jar, I guessed it was mine”.

·         With the guessing jar found, you can award it to whoever guessed closest.