Gathering Activities are not just pre-meeting activities. They are gap fillers. They are needed to occupy time until everyone is present, and you can start the next activity together. Gathering activities can be done with one or more Beavers, and are important in several places in your program.

1. as pre-meeting activity — bring Beavers together before the opening ceremony
2. as a gap activity — to fill a gap between activities when one or more Beavers have finished the activity (for example, craft), while others have not
3. as a way of getting attention, gathering, and organizing Beavers — avoid activities which scatter and excite them
4. as a post-meeting activity — waiting for the Beavers to be picked up after the meeting or at camp (it happens)

Here's a suggested list of ideas (nothing specific):"

• play quiet game
• play a board game
• play dominoes
• sing songs
• tell stories — Beavers and leaders
• colour
• connect-the-dots
• word searches
• build playing card houses or structures
• challenge them with mazes
• form words — with old Scrabble or Boggle pieces
• make a paper airplanes or a helicopter
• face painting that goes with the theme, such as clowns, pirates, or cavemen
• play concentration using decks of playing cards

Don't limit yourself to these traditional activities. If you have something that fits in with a theme, then go for it.

For example, this past January our theme was Beavers in Space. We kicked off the very first meeting of the year by having the Beavers, as they came in, fill in their Astronaut Registration Form. It was immediately followed with a "medical". While a Beaver was going through the "medical" the others were doing the more "traditional" gathering activities.