Tiger Cub Scouts Requirements to Highlight in November Meetings

As you move into November with Tiger Cub Scouts, there are so many amazing activities that you can plan for your Tiger den. This all begins with looking at the holidays and special events as you plan your November Tiger Cub Scouts meetings. Hopefully, your den has made great progress on Bobcat rank and possibly Tiger rank too! If you have, we also include some information on planning a Bobcat celebration for your scouts.

While, November is getting a little big colder, this is a great time to get outside and enjoy the fall changes with your first graders. November is also a time to reflect on the past and our family, so we have incorporated the elective adventures Tiger Tales and Family Stories.

For those dens just getting started, that’s okay. We have done for you plans for your first and second Tiger Scout meetings. Tiger meetings and Tiger outings help you to outline your Tiger Scout year, as well as a done for you Tiger Cub Scout Camping Trip to earn Tiger rank.

November Special Events

November is a special month for a variety of reasons, Thanksgiving is just one of them. November is known as aviation history month, child safety protection month, Native American heritage month, and even peanut butter lovers month. Child safety protection is the prefect time to ask your families to finish up their youth protection, while Native American heritage month fits well with Tiger Tales,

The first Saturday afternoon is Pumpkin Destruction Day. This could be an amazing community service project for your scouts.

There are a few other days in November that could be of interest for your Tiger Cub Scouts. November 11th is Veteran’s Day and World Origami Day. November 13th is World Kindness Day and November 17th is Take a Hike Day. You could pair these days with community service and possibly even plan an outdoor hike with your scouts.

Don’t forget about Black Friday. This is an amazing time to buy scouting gear, camping equipment, and any special materials that you need for scouting.

November Special Activities

With the excitement of October wearing down, November brings in the colder weather and the memories of the past and family. November is a special time to plan a family hike to see all the beautiful fall colors and enjoy the crisp fall air.

As Tiger Cub Scouts focuses on working as a team, you could also plan a few family games or games using turkeys. We love the turkey waddle race where the scouts need to keep their knees touching as they run/waddle to the other side of the room.

If you missed the mummy wrap game, you could try the turkey wrap game. Just purchase brown crepe paper instead of toilet paper. Another favorite is shake your tail feathers, where you fill a tissue box with feathers and belt to your back. Other favorites always include pie eating contests, using your breath to keep a feather in the air, and feather races with turkey basters.

Our scouts always enjoy a few art projects too. A nature collage is a wonderful way to end an afternoon hike. We’ve always had fun with gratitude turkeys or wreaths where the scouts write all the things they are thankful for this year. For the turkeys, we love to write on the feathers and for the wreaths, we write on the leaves or other decorations. Last, we love to make bird feeders in November for any birds that are sticking around or still migrating south.

Most of these activities can be tied into one of the adventures or done just for fun. Below we will explore Tiger Scout specific adventures that work well for the month of November.

Planning a Bobcat Rank Celebration

Hopefully your Tiger Cub Scouts have made progress towards their Bobcat rank. If not, be sure to check out some helpful activities and ideas for earning Bobcat rank.

One of the most helpful ways to plan a Bobcat celebration for your newest scouts is to reach out to a local Boy Scout Unit. Many times the older boys would love to help lead your celebration and will even bring some added joy to your event.

You can host an elaborate celebration with Native American dress and challenges for your Bobcats or try the more simple blue and gold face paint. Either way, it is important to ask the parents of your newest Bobcat rank recipients to join in the celebration and invite the older scouts too. For a few different types of celebrations, ussscouting.

Tiger Tales Adventure Requirements

Tiger Tales is a Tiger Adventure that ties in well during the month of November. This elective adventure explores tall tales, games from the past, folk songs and exploring local landmarks. If your pack plans a Native American Bobcat rank celebration, you can tie learning more about Native Americans to your meetings too!

1. With your den, create a tall tale
2. Share with your den a tall tale you created on your own
3. Read a tall tale
4. Share with your den a piece of art your created based on a scene in the tall tale
5. Play a game from the past
6. Sign two folk songs
7. Visit a local historical museum or landmark

Tiger Tales Agenda

Paring the Tiger Tales adventure with a trip to a local historical museum or landmark brings this adventure to life for your Tiger Cub Scouts. Depending on the museum or landmark you choose, you may also be able to host a short meeting before or after your trip.

We usually open our meeting by reading a few Tall Tales with our Tiger Cub Scouts. They love these exaggerated stories from the past. The tigers especially enjoy the crazy antics and ideas from the tall tales, A few of our favorites include: Pecos Bill, John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, and Paul Bunyan. If you are looking for a Native American tales to share, you could try Hiawatha and Crazy Horse. You could also try a collect of tall tales.

Feel free to tie in requirement 4 and ask your scouts to make a piece of art from one of the tall tales you read. This can be as simple as drawing a picture or more elaborate creations of a scene from the tall tale using props and 3 dimensions. The experience with the tall tales and art materials is much more important than the finished product.

After sharing a few tall tales with your scouts, take a few minutes to write your own tall tale. Your scouts could do this together as a den, in small groups or partners, or each scout could write their own with their adult partner. Many of the scouts may wish to make up their own characters or use characters from their families, but you could also create a tall tale about all the adventures your den will partake in this scouting year.

After sharing the tall tales, it can be quite fun to introduce a few folk songs to your scouts. We love This Land is Your Land, Home on the Range, On Top of Old Smokey, Yankee Doodle, Ole King Cole, John Henry, She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountains, I’ve Been Working on the Railroad, and Froggie Went a Courtin’. Down by the Bay is one of our all time favorites that we can change in so many different ways.

Finally, we like to end this adventure with explore games from the past, especially with Thanksgiving upon us. Our scouts have loved playing jacks, marbles, pick up sticks, checkers, horseshoes, and ball in a cup games. These are fun because they are games from our past and can also help meet Tiger-iffic part 2 or 6, depending on the game your den plays.

Tiger Tales Crafts

For Tiger Tales, our scouts loved making a ball in a cup game. These were super simple to make and so much fun for the scouts to work on eye hand coordination. All you will need is plastic or paper cups, some string or yarn, and buttons or balls. Plus you will want something to poke a hole in the bottom of the cup. The ball in the cup game can count as one of the games that the scouts play by themselves for Tiger-iffic part 1.

1. Poke a hole in the bottom of the cups. 1 cup per scout
2. Tie a button or ball to one end of the string. 1 per scout
3. Thread the string through the hole in the cup.
4. Tie a button or ball to the other end of the string. If using a ball, wrap the string around the ball in multiple directions to hold the ball steady inside before tying.
5. Then the scouts try to swing the ball and have the ball go inside the cup.

Another of our favorite crafts are Tall Tale puppets. Simply use a paper bag to create a special puppet. The scouts can draw or cut out shapes to make their puppet. If you choose to make a puppet, this can count as part 3 for Tiger Theater. If you use shapes and drawing to create the puppets, you could also pair this with Stories in Shapes parts 3 and 4.

1. Turn a paper bag upside down. 1 per scout
2. Draw or cut out a circle for the face. The bottom of the bag is the face of their character above the mouth.
3. The side of the paper bag becomes the chin and the body of their character.
4. Then put your hand inside the paper bag and make your puppet talk.

Tiger Family Stories Adventure Requirements

We loved planning Family Stories in November because we could tie in Thanksgiving and our special traditions coming up for the holidays no matter what each family celebrates. It is also such a fun time to learn more about the ancestry of your scouts and enjoy some wonderful food too.

1. Share family history, traditions and culture. Bring an object or story to share with your den.
2. Make a family crest.
3. Visit a public library to find out information about the heritage of your family.
4. Interview one of your grandparents and share with your den.
5. Make a family tree.
6. Share with your den how you got your name or what your name means.
7. Share your favorite snack or dessert that reflects your culture with your den.
8. Learn where some members of your family came from and share with your den.

Family Stories Agenda

At the meeting before Family Stories adventure, assign your Tiger Cub Scouts a little work to do at home with their families. We asked each scout to interview a grandparent or family elder to learn more about their family history, traditions and culture. We also asked the scouts to talk with their parents about this as well to get a more full picture.

Ask each scout to come to your meeting ready to share a story or bring in an item to share with the den. We also asked each scout to bring in a food from their culture for a potluck dinner. The potluck dinner was so fun and all the families enjoyed trying new foods and having time to talk and play together. With the potluck dinner, ask the families to bring in a copy of the recipe. This helps so each scout knows the name of the food and the ingredients used. If a family enjoys a particular food, they can always snap a photo of the recipe too.

We made two different maps to display for our potluck dinner. We had a world map and a United States map. As the families arrived, we set up the potluck dinner and asked each family to place a pin or sticker on the map to show where each of our scouts family comes from around the world.

While dinner was being set up, you could ask each family to work to create a crest or family tree, maybe even both depending on time. With this meeting agenda, you really only need one or the other to meet the Family Stories adventure requirements.

After everyone makes a plate and sits down together for the potluck dinner, ask the scouts to take turns sharing their family stories or items. They could also share about the special foods they brought, their family crest, or family tree. This is a great time to share stories and other family adventures with their den.

Family Stories Crafts

After making a personal shield and a den shield, we knew our scouts would love making a family crest. We used the outline of a shield and let the families decorate their own crest. You can encourage your families to include special traditions, family history, location and even languages spoken on their family crest.

Another craft we enjoyed was creating a picture family tree. We asked each family to bring in a picture of each member of their family, which can include just the family living in their home or extended family too. We left the choice up to each individual family. Print out a tree and let each family create their own family tree together using the pictures and markers.

November Service Projects for Tiger Cub Scouts

Our den tries to offer one service project a month as service is such a big part of scouting. Multiple adventures require service projects too and offering a few always helps those busy families.

Pumpkin Destruction Smash

Organize a day for the community to come together to compost their old pumpkins. You can work with the local waste management or a farm to donate the smashed pumpkins to be turned into fertilizer for crops.

Military Care Packages

With Veteran’s Day in November, this is a great time to create a few military care packages to send to active military personnel or your local VFW. We usually try to include some non-perishable food items and personal hygiene items too. Ask each scout or family to create a thank you card to send as well. Adding in some non-perishable leftover Halloween candy can be a great option too!

Halloween Candy Donations

Organize a Halloween candy donation drive. Just locate a place that could use extra candy and begin collecting. We have had lots of luck with the local VFW, senior centers, services for kids in foster care, and services for children with disabilities. Ask the scouts to bring their extra candy to a pack meeting and then drop off the candy afterwards. This helps local families to get candy out of the home but also helps these fabulous organizations.

Book Banks and Donations

November can be a great time to have a book drive too! With the winter break approaching, kids of all ages will need books to read. Gather up used books from around the home and donate these to a local book bank. If there is no local book bank, maybe partner with a food bank to give out some free books to their customers. When parents come in for their weekly food allotments, they can grab a few books too. Homeless shelters are another amazing avenue for donating books as well.

Food Banks and Homeless Shelters

November is a time when lots of organizations for the homeless need assistances. So many of these organizations like to cook and serve a Thanksgiving meal for those less fortunate. While tiger scouts may be less able to help with the cooking, they can create cards and decorations for the tables, help greet the customers and even bus the tables to keep them clean as people finish their meals.

Tiger Cub Scouts November Outings

We try to plan at least one den outing with our Tiger Cub Scouts each month. In November, you can try hiking, pair a library trip with Family Stories or a historical landmark trip with Tiger Tales. For outings, we often ask our scouts to wear their Class B uniform. This is usually a pack or den t-shirt or other comfortable clothing. However, sometimes you may wish for your scouts to wear their Class A uniform. It is your choice as the leader which uniform your scouts wear.

Hiking

November 17th is a take a hike day. This can be a wonderful time to plan a special family hike to enjoy the sights of the fall. With your younger scouts, try to keep the hikes shorter, about 1 – 2 miles long. Work with your hikes to ensure that each scout carries their own hiking pack and essentials of scouting.

Library Trip

Planning a library trip pairs nicely with the Families Story adventure. Your scouts can learn more about their culture and heritage. While at the library, the scouts could research their name. In addition, they could attend a library story time as part 5 of Tiger Theater.

Military Museum or Base

With the arrival of Veteran’s Day, your scouts may enjoy learning more about their country’s military. Many times you can set up a tour or visit the branch’s museum. This can be a great time to include donations for care packages or make thank you cards for service men and women.

Historical Museum or Landmark

Visiting a historical museum or landmark pairs well with the Tiger Tales adventure. Most towns have a historical society, this is a great group to begin your search for a local landmark to visit. Many times the historical society may even have a guide to accompany your group to share the history of the landmark. If this interests your scouts, you can include more research with a trip to their local library.

We’d Love to Connect with You!

We hope you found our Tiger November meeting plans as much fun as our scouts and the best part, the troop was excited to tackle additional Tiger elective adventures! Our scouts enjoyed working on a community service project for service men and women so much that we planned a trip to the local naval base.

Leave a comment below and let us know if you’ve earned your Tiger Tales and Family Stories requirements. What worked well for you? What would you have tried differently? Did your scouts love the adventures as much as ours? If you are looking for more Cub Scout leader tips, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter below.

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.