Faith in God by Month (Mar-May)

To help our leaders nourish their boys, I am working to expand my Faith in God ideas and fit them in with upcoming monthly themes. Here are some suggestions for Faith in God requirements that fit in with March, April and May's Cub Scout themes. Following each is an idea for an activity to help the boys fulfill the requirement. (Note: Many of the Faith in God suggestions are things the boys will need to finish on their own or with their family, but you can encourage them, get them started, and give them tools that will help them.) Remember to look for overlaps with requirements from their Cub Scout books.

March: Compassion, Planting Seeds of Kindness

Read and discuss the parable of the good Samaritan. Plan and complete a service project that helps a family member or neighbor. After completing the project, discuss how it helped your faith grow stronger.

“Do a Good Turn Daily.” Boys this age love role play. Why not role play the scripture story with your den, then give them suggestions for ways to serve their families and neighbors. A fun display for pack meeting could be a poster of all of the service your den did that month, maybe written on wolf-shaped paper cut-outs or something.

Learn about and practice good manners and courtesy.

This is a chance to be silly. Play a game that involves role-playing a bunch of bad manners in a given scenario, then have the boys turn it around and replace all the bad manners with good manners.

Write a letter to a teacher, your parents, or your grandparents telling them what you appreciate and respect about them. (square knot requirement)

This could be used this month or next month, and it should fulfill a writing requirement.

April: Faith, Cub Scouts Give Thanks

Give a Family Home Evening Lesson on Joseph Smith's First Vision. Discuss how Heavenly Father answers our sincere prayers. (square knot requirement)

One of our wolf leaders used to give the boys mini flannel figures they could use to teach their families. You can find the download and instructions here (she reduced them 50% to save resources; you could also use card stock instead of flannel and call them "puppets").

Read a recent conference address by the prophet. Decide what you can do to follow the prophet and do it.

We are thankful to have a living prophet and April is a great time to remember that. To help the boys find ways they can follow the prophet, print out recent statements by the prophet and cut them into strips. Fold the strips and put them in a can, jar, bag or box. Have the boys take turns pulling them out and reading them.

Learn to sing “Choose the Right.” Explain what agency is and what it means to be responsible for your choices. Discuss how making good choices has helped you develop greater faith.

Agency is definitely something to be thankful for. The primary theme this year is “Choose the Right” so chances are the boys are singing this in primary already, so a discussion on choices and agency should be all they need to pass this one off (if they haven't already).

May: Health and Fitness, Cub Cafe

Read D&C 89. Discuss how Heavenly Father blesses us when we faithfully live the Word of Wisdom. Help plan and conduct an activity to teach the Word of Wisdom to others.

Here is an idea for a lesson on the Word of Wisdom that would be perfect to use with Cub Scouts. And here is a printout you could give the boys to use to teach their families about the Word of Wisdom in a Family Home Evening. It is based on the old “MyPyramid” printouts. The latest is “MyPlate” which would also fit well into a Word of Wisdom lesson.

Plan, prepare and serve a nutritious meal.

I believe each level of Cub Scouts has a requirement that fits with this. Obviously it's something the boys need to do at home, but you can help them plan a meal using “MyPlate” as a guide to show them how to balance things out. Have them fold a paper into quarters, then unfold it. Have them label the sections: Protein, Grain, Fruit, Vegetable. Have them think of at least one thing they can make/serve for each category and write or draw it in. If they want to add a dessert and/or dairy (they probably will) just have them add it on the back of the paper. Putting it on the back is a reminder that it's optional, while the other groups are essential.

Plan a physical fitness program for yourself that may include learning to play a sport or game. Participate in the program for one month.

How perfect is this? Come up with a plan together as a den and challenge everyone to follow it for the month of May. You may want to work on one of the sports belt loops together. (I am a fan of badminton myself.)

Learn about and practice good nutrition, good health, and good grooming, including modest dress.

If you're spending the month working on health and nutrition, you've got the first half of this one covered already. Why not throw in a lesson about how the way we dress affects our actions? That is another way we treat our body as a temple. You might have one of the dads come as a guest speaker/teacher to talk a little about dressing appropriately to pass the sacrament or to teach the boys how to tie a tie.