Selecting A Theme

• Choosing a theme can help narrow the focus of your meetings each week, allowing you to really drive home important concepts you wish to demonstrate. Appropriate themes could revolve around a specific badge your scouts are working towards earning, highlight important core values like honesty or resourcefulness, or focus on an upcoming holiday or event. There are a variety of options, so make a selection that will be easily incorporated into your weekly activities and will be of both educational and personal value to the scouts.
  
  

Weekly Activities

• Build your weekly activities around the selected theme; this should help scouts explore important concepts in an entertaining and interactive manner. Plan a balanced mix of activities to suit a variety of tastes and interests. For instance, plan an activity to express creativity each week with a craft project, skits, storytelling or journal-writing exercises. For the scientists in the bunch, plan out some experiments or some field exploration. Other ideas could include games and sports, singing songs or taking a special trip. The key is to tie the activities to your overall theme to help the scouts master various concepts and values.
  
  

Planning Healthy Snacks

• Keep your scouts energized and satisfied during meetings by planning some healthy snack options. You could make this a part of your weekly activities schedule by spending some time going over cooking techniques interactively, taking a trip to the grocery store for some shopping lessons, or by having the scouts come up with their own healthy menus. Avoid foods that are high in processed sugars, salt and unhealthy fats. Instead, stick to items based in foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy and protein. For instance, fruit skewers and trail mix could satisfy a sweet tooth without sending them into sugar shock.
  
  

Planning Relevant Ceremonies

• Opening and closing ceremonies are an important part of scout meetings as they help to focus your group from start to finish. Ceremonies are similar to ice breakers or warm-up exercises, so plan a brief, interactive exercise that can be tied in with the material you plan to cover in the meeting. Consider the theme and concepts you have to focus on during the meeting, and then decide what kind of tone you want to convey during these ceremonies; the tone could be silly, serious or both, depending on what you think will help the scouts prepare for and reflect on the learning material.