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Delicious dreys

Celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day and make a tasty chocolate squirrels nest treat.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Mixing bowls
  • Wooden spoons
  • Spoons
  • Microwave
  • See recipe for ingredients
  • Oven gloves
  • Cupcake cases
  • Cupcake tray (optional)
  • First aid kit for burns
  • Fire blanket or fire extinguisher

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.
  • You could do this activity for Squirrel Appreciation Day on 21 January and get your paws on a fun badge from Scout Store. 

Planning this activity

  • The chocolate nests may take a while to set, so you might want to plan this activity into a longer session.
  • Check if anyone in your group has any allergies or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as required.
  • You might want to split into smaller groups for this activity, so you can make sure everyone has the chance to be fully involved.
  • Enjoy finding some fun facts about squirrels (both the animal and the section!) to share with the group. We’ve shared some on this page, too.
  • Take a look at meal safety advice for four and five year olds to prevent choking.

Story time

  1. Everyone should sit in a circle or in a comfortable place they can hear the story from.
  2. Someone can read Our Island Adventure, which follows the adventures of a group of squirrels. You could also read another story involving our furry friends.
  3. After reading the story, everyone should take some time to reflect as a group.

All about squirrels

  1. Talk about our what happened. What can people remember from the story?
  2. How did the story make you feel?
  3. Did anyone have a favourite part?
  4. Did anyone expect anything else to happen instead?
  5. Tell everyone you're going to make a delicious recipe that looks like a Squirrels’ nest.

Get ready to cook

  1. Depending on the size of the group, divide everyone into smaller groups. You could let them guess what they think’s needed to make this recipe.
  2. Everyone should wash their hands and get ready to make their nests.
  3. Talk about what everyone needs to do before they start making their chocolate nests. It’s important to encourage young people to communicate what steps are involved in the recipe, as well as what to do next, this helps them develop critical thinking skills.
  4. When everyone is ready, make the recipe together.

Make your chocolate nests

Ingredients:

  • 200g of milk chocolate
  • 85g of shredded wheat
  • Edible decorations, such as sprinkles (optional)

Prep time: 10-20 minutes

Cook time: 5 mins

Cooling/setting time:  1 – 2 hours

Serves: Makes 12

  1. Make sure you’ve washed your hands well!
  2. Put the shredded wheat in a mixing bowl, then crush it into small pieces using your hands.
  3. Break up the chocolate into pieces and put it into a separate heatproof bowl.
  4. With an adult’s help or supervision, melt the chocolate, using a stove/hob or microwave. Remember to use oven gloves, as the bowl may get very hot.
  5. With an adult’s help or supervision, carefully pour the melted chocolate over the shredded wheat.
  6. Stir the chocolate in well, until it all the shredded wheat is covered in chocolate.
  7. With an adult’s help or supervision, spoon the mixture into your cupcake cases. You’ll probably find this easier if the cases are in a cupcake tray / bun tray/ muffin tray You could try to make them ball-shaped, so they look like a squirrel’s nest!
  8. You could decorate your nests. You could use edible sprinkles. Take a look at meal safety advice for four and five year olds to prevent choking.
  9. Pop your nests in the fridge until they’re set. You could play a game while you wait for the nests to set.

Tuck in

  1. Once the chocolate nests have set, everyone can enjoy the delicious recipe!
  2. As you enjoy the food, you could learn a bit more about squirrels. Why not share some facts and ask everyone if they think it is True or False?
  • In the UK, we have two types of squirrel. There are grey squirrels and red squirrels.
  • Red squirrels are endangered, which means there isn’t a lot of them left in the wild. The number of them is going down and they’re very rare to see. They’re endangered because grey squirrels carry a disease that makes red squirrels unwell and they’ve passed it on to red squirrels. Woodlands are also being cut down, which is where red squirrels live, so they lose their homes. We all need to try and help look after them.
  • One of the places that red squirrels live is Brownsea Island in Dorset. This’s also where the first ever Scout camp was!
  • Squirrels are omnivores, which means they eat both plants and meat. Their favourite foods are seeds, nuts (such as acorns) and fruits.
  • Did you know a squirrel’s front teeth never stop growing? This helps with all that gnawing and chewing.
  • Squirrels bury nuts in the ground, so they can have them to eat during the winter. They’re good at finding them. They can even sniff them out when the ground is covered in snow!
  • Squirrels accidentally plant trees! If they don’t find nuts they’ve buried, they’ll eventually grow into trees!
  • Squirrels mostly live high up in the trees.
  • Squirrels can jump far. They can jump up to ten times their body length!
  • Does anyone know what a Squirrel’s nest is called? They’re called Dreys. They look like a messy ball of twigs and leaves, about the size of a football. Has anyone heard of this word before? In Scouts, Squirrel groups are called Dreys. Their top award has an acorn on it, too!

Reflection

This activity was an opportunity to develop critical thinking skills, as well as finding out all about the animals that the newest Scout section is named after!

Gather everyone together and ask a little about Squirrels.

  • Have you seen a squirrel?
  • What do they look like? What colour are they?
  • Where do you think they live or sleep?
  • Have you seen squirrels jumping through frees? How far can you jump?
  • What do you think squirrels eat? Is it different to other animals like cats, dogs, horses?
  • Do you know what a carnivore is? It’s an animal that eats meat. Do you think squirrels are carnivores?
  • Do you know what the top award in Squirrels is called? What can you spot on the badge? It’s the Chief Scout’s Acorn Award and has a small picture of an acorn on.

While preparing or making your recipe:

  • Do you help adults with cooking at home? What’s your favourite recipe?
  • Has anyone made these before?
  • How did you share the tasks in your group?
  • How did you decide to design your nests?
  • Do you think this recipe is hard or easy to make?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Cooking

Teach young people how to use cooking equipment safely. Supervise them appropriately throughout. Make sure it’s safe to use and follow manufacturers’ guidelines for use.

Fires and stoves

Make sure anyone using fires and stoves is doing so safely. Check that the equipment and area are suitable and have plenty of ventilation. Follow the gas safety guidance. Have a safe way to extinguish the fire in an emergency.

Food

Remember to check for allergies, eating problems, fasting or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. Make sure you’ve suitable areas for storing and preparing food and avoid cross contamination of different foods. Take a look at our guidance on food safety and hygiene.

If you have more time, you can ask the young people to find the ingredients in the style of a treasure hunt.

 

Check if anyone has any allergies or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. You could use a gluten free alternative to shredded wheat if you can find it, such as gluten free cereals. You could replace chocolate with dairy-free chocolate, too.

If young people may struggle to understand or follow the instructions, you could try to use visual images and instructions, so that the young people can understand the next steps.

If anyone may struggle with different elements of these activities, you could pair young people up and let them help each other. People could also work in groups and share the tasks out. For example, if someone may struggle with the pouring, they could do the mixing instead.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Squirrels Super Chef Activity Badge
Squirrels Go Wild Activity Badge

You can tweak the recipe or let people experiment as they make their own. You can’t go too wrong with chocolate nests! You could try adding some golden syrup and melted butter.

Go on adventure to see if you can find a real squirrel’s nest or spot any clues as to where one might be! You can find some ideas in We’re going on a Squirrel Search.