Time to Swim requirements (Lion)

0:00 · 10 min

Gathering: what would you do

Give the Scouts who arrive first something to do, so the meeting starts the moment they walk in.

• Write three short what-would-you-do situations on index cards and lay them face down.
• Arriving Scouts turn one over with a partner and agree on a first move.
• Hold the answers until the activity block, then let those pairs go first.

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, Time to Swim, 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 Time to Swim 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 · 12 min

Activity 1: Learn about the swimming safety rules

Close requirements 1 and 2 of Time to Swim.

• Put the answers where the den can find them: three stations, a set of cards, or a chart for "Learn about the swimming safety rules that you need to follow".
• 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: put the den in pairs and have every Scout show you "Demonstrate how to enter the swimming area properly" once, in their own way.

Requirement 1 Requirement 2

0:32 · 12 min

Activity 2: With your Lion adult partner as your buddy

Close requirements 3 and 4 of Time to Swim.

• Read the requirement to the den in plain words: "With your Lion adult partner as your buddy, be active in water depths matching your ability for 20 minutes".
• Work it in pairs or small groups for most of the block while you move between them.
• Bring the den back together and have each Scout tell you what they did.
• Mark requirement 3 off as each Scout finishes rather than trying to remember afterwards.
• Then requirement 4: read "Place your face in the water and blow bubbles" out loud, work it in pairs, and mark it off as each Scout finishes.

Requirement 3 Requirement 4

0:44 · 11 min

Activity 3: Demonstrate how to exit the swimming area properly

Close requirement 5 of Time to Swim: Demonstrate how to exit the swimming area properly.

• Do it once yourself at normal speed, then once slowly while you narrate every step.
• Put the den in pairs so each Scout practices "Demonstrate how to exit the swimming area properly" while their partner watches for the one thing that matters.
• Go round the circle and have every Scout show you once, in their own way.
• Mark it off as each Scout finishes rather than trying to remember at the end.

Requirement 5

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.