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Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens Activity

This activity teaches Cub Scouts about the rights and responsibilities of citizens for the Building a Better World Arrow of Light adventure.

Cub Scout Good Citizen Activity

One of the purposes of Cub Scouts is to learn citizenship. And to learn about that, you need to know the rights and responsibilities of citizens.

I want my boys to grow up to be good citizens, and I'm not sure they can learn that without understanding a citizen's rights and duties.

One of the adventures that's part of the Arrow of Light requirements, Building a Better World, will teach this to the Scouts.

Arrow of Light Adventure Building a Better World 2: Learn about and describe your rights and duties as a citizen, and explain what it means to be loyal to your country.

You can make this requirement a bit more fun for the Scouts by making a “Good Citizen” Scout to show the rights and duties!

good citizen scout cropped

I used a roll of white 24″ wide art paper that I had. 

I sketched an outline of a Scout onto the paper with pencil so that I could erase as needed. I then went over the image with a black Sharpie

drawing-good-citizen-scout

I drew the face on with markers.  As you can see, I'm not an artist!  🙂

I colored the cap and taped it on the head.

You can download a copy of the cap at the bottom of this post.

At this point, you can use your Good Citizen Scout as is or you can cut them out

If you decide to cut it out and you have access to a large laminator, you can laminate them to make it a bit more sturdy.

I hung my Scout on the wall with painters tape.  

During your meeting, give the Scouts several blank sticky notes of two different colors.

Ask them to write the rights of a good citizen on one color note and duties of a citizen on the other color. 

You may need to prompt them, so here is a list to start the conversation:

Rights of a Citizen

  • Freedom to express yourself
  • Freedom to worship as you wish
  • Right to a prompt, fair trial by jury
  • Right to vote in elections for public officials
  • Right to apply for federal employment requiring U.S. citizenship
  • Right to run for elected office
  • Freedom to pursue “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”
webelos-rights-and-responsibilities

Duties of a Citizen

  • Support and defend the Constitution
  • Stay informed of the issues affecting your community
  • Participate in the democratic process
  • Respect and obey federal, state, and local laws
  • Respect the rights, beliefs, and opinions of others
  • Participate in your local community
  • Pay income and other taxes honestly, and on time, to federal, state, and local authorities
  • Serve on a jury when called upon
  • Defend the country if the need should arise

Have the Scouts stick their notes to the Good Citizen Scout.  You could even have them give an example of a time when they demonstrated the trait they wrote.

What other ways will you use your Good Citizen Scout?

webelos arrow of light rights and responsibilities of citizens activity

Yours in Scouting,
Sherry

P.S. This Jeopardy game is perfect for the Building a Better World adventure.

Good Citizen Activity for Cub Scouts

Jeopardy Game for Building a Better World Adventure ~ Cub Scout Ideas

Friday 5th of February 2021

[…] Good Citizen Scout activity would be a great way to do this […]

Top 10 Arrow of Light Ceremonies for Cub Scouts ~ Cub Scout Ideas

Monday 10th of February 2020

[…] Good luck as you enter Scouts BSA. Keep advancing, and remember that a good Scout makes a good citizen. […]

Tyson Flint

Sunday 29th of December 2019

The link to the scout hat no longer works.

This link appears to be the same hat: https://clipground.com/pic/getsecond

You will find a clip art GIF file there called cub-scout-clip-art-black-and-white-2.gif

Thanks again for the idea for the Webelos citizenship game!

Tyson Flint

Sunday 29th of December 2019

Let me try a direct link to that scout hat instead, as I'm not sure the first link earlier is just for the hat. https://clipground.com/images/cub-scout-clip-art-black-and-white-2.gif

Nikki

Wednesday 8th of March 2017

Thank you so much for posting this! We are new to the scouting world and this helps tremendously. I tried to enter my email in the subscribe box and it keeps telling me my email is in invalid. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Thank you so much again!

Diane Graham

Thursday 16th of February 2017

We are doing this adventure and this is great. Plus I'm new at this and need all the help for my Webelos den/