0:00 · 10 min
Gathering: what lives here
Give the Scouts who arrive first something to do, so the meeting starts the moment they walk in.
- Tape six pictures of local animals or plants around the room, numbered one to six.
- Each Scout gets a scrap of paper and writes down the two they have actually seen near home.
- Collect the slips as the opening starts and read three of them out during talk time.
0:10 · 5 min
Opening
Flag ceremony, Scout Oath and Scout Law. The same five minutes every week, run by the Scouts.
- The denner calls the den to order and leads the flag ceremony.
- Say the Scout Oath and the Scout Law together. New Scouts read from a card and nobody makes anything of it.
- One sentence on tonight's adventure, Ready, Set, Grow, and the one thing everybody will get done.
0:15 · 5 min
Talk time
Den business while everyone is still sitting down, and a look at what is coming.
- The two dates parents need: the next den meeting and the next pack event.
- Ask who already did part of Ready, Set, Grow at home, and write the names down so it gets recorded.
- Take one question from the den. Answer it or say when you will.
0:20 · 18 min
Activity 1: Discover where the food we eat comes
Close requirements 1 and 2 of Ready, Set, Grow.
- Put the answers where the den can find them: three stations, a set of cards, or a chart for "Discover where the food we eat comes from".
- Give the den five minutes in pairs to work it out, then bring the answers together on one sheet.
- Go round the circle so every Scout says one answer out loud in their own words.
- Then requirement 2: cover "Plant a small garden outside or in a container" outside while you are already walking, rather than sitting the den back down.
Requirement 1
Requirement 2
0:38 · 17 min
Activity 2: Visit with an individual who can demonstrate
Close requirement 3 of Ready, Set, Grow: Visit with an individual who can demonstrate different ways to garden (outside, greenhouse, container, etc.) and the basic skills needed to garden.
- Walk the route before the meeting and pick the two places you will stop to cover "Visit with an individual who can demonstrate different ways to garden (outside, greenhouse, container, etc.) and the basic skills needed to garden".
- Line the den up in pairs, check that every Scout has the Six Essentials, and set the turnaround time.
- Stop at both spots so every Scout gets a turn, not just the three who are always in front.
- Back at the door, ask each Scout for one thing they noticed, then mark the requirement off.
Requirement 3
0:55 · 5 min
Closing
End on time, and make sure every Scout leaves knowing what they finished.
- Cubmaster's minute: one short thought tied to what the den just did. Sixty seconds, no lecture.
- Read back what got finished tonight, requirement by requirement, so the Scouts hear their own progress.
- Send the den off with the den yell, and catch the parents who need to hear something at pickup.
What to bring
- Tonight's requirement list, printed, with a box to tick per Scout
- A clipboard and pen for sign-offs as they happen
- Snack ingredients, napkins and hand sanitizer
- A field guide or printed identification cards, and two magnifying glasses
- The book or story printed out, one copy per pair
- Seeds, cups and potting soil, plus a tray to carry them home on
Plan this meeting for your own den
This plan does not know your Scouts. DenBuddy does: import your den from Scoutbook
Plus and the planner starts from the requirements each Scout is actually missing,
keeps the block times, and turns the agenda into the record sheet afterwards.
Plan Ready, Set, Grow
Create a free den
Youth protection is built in: Scouts have no accounts, check-in is done by a parent
from a public link, and nothing DenBuddy does writes back to Scoutbook.