Bear Den Meeting Plan – What Makes America Special

Bear Achievement 3 – What Makes America Special – helps promote citizenship and an appreciation of history. This is a very easy achievement to cover in a den meeting. And I always like the achievements which cover flag etiquette. I think our Scouts should know how to handle our flag. It is good to go over it every year with them.

This meeting plan calls for you to actually do an outdoor flag raising and lowering. If you don’t have access to a flagpole at your meeting place, you can substitute Requirement 3f – Be a member of the color guard in a flag ceremony for your den or pack.

As an added enrichment for this achievement, consider going to a historic house. This is an especially good time of year to do this. During the holidays, many historic houses are decorated and give tours. Call and tell them you have a Scout group coming. Some of the houses in our area prefer to set up a tour outside of their normal schedule for groups of children.

Printable copy of Den Meeting Plan for Bear Achievement 3 (What Makes America Special) – includes timeline

Bear Den Meeting Plan – What Makes America Special

Preparation

• Try to find a meeting place with a flagpole. Arrange to obtain the flag for the pole beforehand

Your will need to gather these materials beforehand:

• Printouts for the meeting
• A very large sheet of paper or poster board
• Markers, crayons, or – if you really want to have fun – paint for the poster
• Dropcloth if you are using paint

Gathering Activity

• State Capitals Bingo

Opening

• Review Raising and Lowering the US Flag
• Have an outdoor flag raising ceremony

Activities

• Do the Character Connection for Citizenship
• Draw or paint a poster of what is special about America. (Display this at your next Pack meeting)
• Go outside and play an active game (See the games page for ideas)

Closing

• Hand out recognitions
• Announcements for upcoming pack and den events
• Lower the flag you raised earlier