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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing at Scouts. Read more

Discover what this means

That’s a rap

Follow in the footsteps of The Black Eyed Peas and Bananarama as we come up with some fruit and veg-themed hits.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Pens or pencils
  • A4 paper
  • Device to play music

Before you begin

  • Make sure you have enough Leaders, adult volunteers or Young Leaders, as everyone will be working in groups on the internet for this activity, so each group will need to be closely supervised. Check that your meeting place has a secure internet connection in the space where you’ll run the activity.
  • Have those who own smartphones bring them along to this session to use, if they’re comfortable doing this.

Run the rap

  1. Everyone should split into small groups. Have each group open an internet browser on their device and search for some genres of music.
  1. Explain to the groups that they’ll be coming up with a song about some fruit and vegetables. Each group should choose one fruit or vegetable and come up with song lyrics that show why it’s great to eat as part of a healthy lifestyle.
  1. Once the groups have chosen a fruit or vegetable, they should use the internet to research nutritional information about it. Remind everyone to keep an eye out for food facts featuring fun things: silly sounds, cool carbs, powerful protein, and so on. Someone in each group should write down all the benefits they can find for their fruit or vegetables, so they can be turned into song lyrics.
  2. Give everyone time to come up with their song lyrics. This should comprise no more than three verses, though may include a chorus, and last no more than three minutes. Groups should run through their song before they perform it to check the length.
  1. Each person in each group should play a part in the performance of the song. If they’re doing a rap song, everyone could rap together, or some could sing while others drop a beat or dance.
  2. Groups should finish any preparations and get ready to perform their song. Decide who’ll go first and have everyone gather to watch.
  3. After each performance, the person leading the activity should have the audience name three benefits of the fruit or vegetable mentioned in the song they just heard. Continue in this way until all of the songs have been performed.

Reflection

Writing a song out of nutritional benefits would be a challenge even to experienced songwriters, but to perform it as well took confidence and charisma. How did each group work together and use everybody’s talents to get across their healthy message? Why’s a song useful for sharing this healthy eating information? Answer: it’s catchy, and when people remember the performance, they’ll remember the information.

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.

Online safety

Supervise young people when they’re online and give them advice about staying safe. Take a look at our online safety or bullying guidance. The NSPCC offers more advice and guidance, too. If you want to know more about specific social networks and games, Childnet has information and safety tips for apps. You can also report anything that’s worried you online to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command. As always, if you’ve got concerns about a young person’s welfare, including their online experiences, follow the Yellow Card to make a report.

Music and films

Make sure music and films are age appropriate for the youngest person present.

Phones and cameras

Make sure parents and carers are aware and have given consent for photography.

To make this easier, you could get some lyrics to a popular song and have groups try and substitute them for their fruit or vegetable benefits.

Make sure everyone has a role in producing or performing each song, whether that’s writing the lyrics, playing the beat, accompanying on an instrument or creating an album cover.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Musician Stage 3
Musician Stage 4

If the songs went down well, have everyone rehearse again soon for another performance for friends and family. The more people that hear the healthy messages, the better!

Young people may choose what fruit or vegetable they champion, what genre of music they’re inspired by and comprise their own songs.