PRE-OPENING

Backward Treasure Hunt
York Adams Area Council

Set up a kind of scavenger/treasure hunt area with different “prizes” at each clued location (e.g., a piece of candy in a can at each clue point).  Then make up clues for how to get to each location, but write them out backwards so that they have to decipher them.  Give the boys the clues as they arrive and send them on the hunt.  At the beginning of the meeting see how each one made out in his search for the hidden treasures.

Scrambled Proverbs
York Adams Area Council

Write out these phrases on a large poster or white board or written out on sheets of paper.  As the boys arrive, have them try to figure out what each one is supposed to be.  After the Den Meeting Opening, go over them and ask the boys what each one means.

Mixed Up Phrases:

1. of feather flock together a birds
2. barrel spoils the whole apple rotten one
3. don’t try again if first succeed at try you
4. you don’t come cross to it a bridge until
5. laugh laughs you with and the world
6. nine saves time in a stitch
7. away the doctor keeps a day an apple
8. the worm catches the bird early
9. moss gathers no stone a rolling
10. a dull jack makes all play and boy work no

The Real Sayings:

1. Birds of a feather flock together.
2. One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel.
3. If at first you don’t succeed try try again.
4. Don’t cross a bridge until you come to it.
5. Laugh and the world laughs with you.
6. A stitch in time saves nine.
7. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
8. The bird early catches the worm.
9. A rolling stone gathers no moss.
10. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Unscramble the Message
York Adams Area Council

Have the boys work on unscrambling messages that you prepare or you can use the following list of odrws (words!) and have the boys figure them out:

“What’s The Word?” Bee
York Adams Area Council

(Editor’s Note:  If you prepare well enough in advance, the boys in the den that has to prepare the pre-opening activity can work on this and run it themselves.  There are electives in the Wolf Book for making a game.  Check for other electives that might be satisfied.) 

This game supports “join the game as you arrive” players.  Create a stack of flashcards with words that are written in “mirror image” of how they normally appear (like the word “AMBULANCE” on the front of ambulances).  (An easy way to create these cards is to print off a list of words in large print, have someone make transparencies of them and then have copies of the transparencies made “backwards.”  As people arrive, they’re assigned to one of the two teams playing.  Have the players line up in a “math bee” fashion (pairs of players next to each other) and the flashcard presenter sitting opposite the players.  As the flashcard is presented, the two “front line” players try to figure out the word.  The player who guesses correctly gets a team point and those players go to the back of the line.  Make sure the words aren’t too big for the boys (even frontward!). 

Unscramble Your Own Mess
NE-CS-54
York Adams Area Council

This was an activity we did in Wood Badge Training many moons ago.  Have a group of about 5 to 8 people form a circle with all players facing in.  Have each player hold hands with two other players (never holding both hands of one other player).  Once the group is “connected,” have it unscramble the mess without letting go of one another’s hands.  You can add one more “director player” to the activity to walk around and give directions to the tangled group on how to get untangled.  As people arrive at the meeting, have them form up into new groups and have each group try the activity.

Crossroads of America

Set up the room with balloons and streamers to celebrate summer and the anniversary of our great country.

Name Tags

Make name tags out of shapes of a flag.