Running den meetings can require extensive planning, from knowing all about rank advancement to finding speakers or planning outings. Luckily, den activities can be an easy way to help fill the time before or after the main lesson for the week! In this article, I’ll go over some great activity suggestions for Cub Scouts of all ages, from Tiger to Webelos.
PS. This article is a guest post collaboration between Cub Scouting volunteer Jaci H and Cole 🙂
A few of the den activities are part of elective adventures, giving the Scouts a chance to have fun while earning new belt loops. Others are designed to let Cub Scouts burn off energy before the den meeting begins. You can use these activities, or have them inspire you to design a few of your own!
Den Meeting Activities for Tiger Cub Scouts
It can be hard to keep the youngest Cub Scouts engaged, but thankfully, plenty of electives can either be done in one meeting or spread out to help fill the time. Let’s look at the Safe and Smart elective (4:43), which asks Scouts to demonstrate “Stop, Drop, and Roll” and make a fire escape map of their house. These activities are engaging and earn a new belt loop!
A fun craft activity that can easily be done after the program for the week is making picture frames. Just bring some craft sticks, pom-poms, glitter, and paint. Make squares with the craft sticks and decorate the outside, and voilà, a fun take-home craft!
A great activity for Scouts of any age, but especially Tigers, is the simple paper airplane. The website 10paperairplanes includes multiple designs the Scouts can experiment with! Have them design an airplane and compete to see how far they can fly, and explain the concepts of aerodynamics at the same time!
Helpful Link: The NASA website has some great educational materials for young kids, like this article about aerodynamics. It may not be rocket science…but it’s still pretty fun to learn!
Cub Scout Pack 110 went so far as to create a paper airplane tournament. Keep this activity in your back pocket for a rainy day that requires a backup plan! It’s always good to have a few “Plan B” activities in case the weather doesn’t work out or a speaker suddenly can’t make it.
Den Meeting Activities for Wolf Cub Scouts
A fun indoor activity perfect for this age is playing miniature golf. Hold on, it’s easier than it sounds! Break the Scouts into teams, and give each team a wooden dowel, a toilet paper roll, and a paper plate. Then, follow these steps:
- Have the Scouts assemble a golf club by taping the dowel and toilet paper roll together.
- Have them place the upside-down paper plate, with a hole cut into it, as the golf hole.
- Set up obstacles on the way to the hole (these can be chairs, books, or even shoes!).
- Each member takes a shot, passes the club to the next Scout, and then the teams compare scores at the end to see who won!
It’s great to have activities prepared for when the Scouts arrive at the meeting location. The Big Man In The Woods YouTube channel has some great ideas for gathering activities that you can use for your den! This video (5:01) includes activities that range from passing a ball between the legs in a circle to a simple spot-the-difference activity.
These gathering activities can be used for any age group, but I find they are especially effective for Wolf Scouts. They are at that age where it’s good to burn off energy before trying to sit down and engage with a lesson! The peg game, where you set up anything from wooden pegs to cones and have Scouts try to hop on one foot between them — or, if you’re brave, carry an egg — is a lot of fun.
Den Meeting Activities for Bear Cub Scouts
Every Cub Scout rank includes electives that you can make into fun meeting activities while working towards a new belt loop! One of my favorites for Bear Scouts is the Forensics Elective Adventure, which lets them learn what it’s like to be a CSI. This video (5:28) by the Atlanta Area Council does a great job of going over the adventure!
One of the requirements is making fingerprints of all the Scouts, which can be easily done with an ink pad — or, as the video explains, pencil and paper. I still have trouble identifying all the different parts of a fingerprint, but it’s always fun to have Scouts learn about them! As with all of these activities, it’s also cheap and doesn’t require a lot of prep work ahead of time.
Inside or outside, relay races are always fun! This video (11:03) from the PhysEdGames YouTube channel may be a bit long, but it includes 10 different relay ideas. While the activities are designed for a gym class, they can be scaled down to work with a Bear Scout den.
Den activities like the relay races are great for getting Scouts to burn off energy before listening to a speaker. They could also be done afterward when Scouts have been sitting and paying attention all meeting. Thankfully, none of these races requires a lot of cleanup! 😉
Den Meeting Activities for Webelos Cub Scouts
Webelos are the oldest Cub Scouts, so they can handle activities that are a little more demanding — including this fun outside activity, the sack race! It’s a classic for field day activities and can be used as a fun activity to start the meeting before coming inside for a rank-required activity. This video (1:45) goes over the basics of running a sack race.
As you can tell from the video, it doesn’t take much for a sack race — only some sacks and a way to mark the start and finish line. I suggest using some rope, which can then be used for other activities. If you want to increase the difficulty, add cones and have the Scouts go around them!
Scouting Tip: Most field day activities are great for den meetings, but I advise against Red Rover or Tug-of-War, as it’s too easy for Scouts to hurt themselves!
The video (2:08) demonstrating All Aboard was done with a Scouts BSA patrol, but it also works with Webelos Scouts. I suggest this one for the older Scouts as it requires coordination and teamwork, along with a little dexterity and strength! All you need for this activity is a wooden board and a group of Scouts 🙂
Depending on the size of your den, you might need a larger board, or even two, and split the Scouts into teams. I suggest timing the teams and making it a small competition. Break down what each team did afterward and talk about the most efficient way to get everyone on the board!
Activities Can Be Fun and Educational!
This is just a small sampling of activities you can use at a den meeting. I’ve previously talked about fun indoor and outdoor games in case you’d like more ideas! Large dens or small dens, inside or outside, it’s important to plan fun activities for each meeting.
Looking for more tips? We also have a comprehensive guide on how to plan a great den meeting!
A few that I suggested are elective adventures that progress towards belt loops, but it’s okay to plan activities just for fun! Even the simplest activity can be a learning opportunity for the Scouts. I hope this has inspired you on how to bring fun and games to your next den meeting!