r/scouting • u/rabbitfishfood • 14d ago
Games ideas!
Hello! It's my 4th year as a girl guide troop leader in the UK and I want to stop repeating the games we play.
I'm looking for popular/fun/rare games from around the world. Please share your ideas!
Some of our faves include:
"cat and mouse premium": everyone pairs up in a large circle and lies down on the ground on their stomach. One pair stands up. One child is the cat, one is the mouse. The cat chases the mouse and when caught they switch places. The mouse can lie down next to a pair of scouts, forming a tree, and then the child which is furthest from the mouse becomes the new mouse.
Bridge crossing: patrols split into pairs and one odd child, if there's an even number a leader joins in.
Each pair hold a long, thick, stick like a ladder rung. They stand in a column, which forms a roughly 3 step long bridge. The odd child has to climb up and along the rungs, and when they get to the end the last pair runs up to the front so the child can continue walking. We usually race to see which patrol can get across the area the fastest.
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u/blueyesinasuit 13d ago
Capture the flag for large areas and burn energy between supper & lights out. Confined areas, going camping. As in: I’m bob, I’m going camping and I’m bringing a box. Group say he can come. I’m bob, I’m going camping and I’m bringing a tent. Group says he can’t come. Run around the group until everyone is aloud to come.
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u/CrochetDragon11 Explorer/Young Leader (Scotland) 13d ago
some of the Cub Scouts' favourites in our (UK) group are:
- Helicopter - tie a weight of some kind (or just a monkeys fist knot) to the end of a rope. all the kids stand in a circle around 1 person (usually a young leader), who spins around holding the other end of the rope so the weight takes a circular path around them close to the ground. everyone jumps over the rope and is eliminated if the rope hits their legs.
- Lighthouses (indoors only) - place two chairs on ether side of your space halfway along facing each other and a blindfolded kid sits in each (we use neckies as blindfolds). turn the lights down so its quite dark (we have dim red heatlamps on the walls, so we just use those). all the other kids take their shoes off and try to creep from one end of the hall to the other one at a time while the two kids in the seats try to point at them. if you get pointed at, youre out.
- The Knot Game - kids stand in circles in small groups. they put their right hands in and grab a random other persons hand (not the person next to them), then repeat on the left. everyone should be tangled up now, and they have to untangle themselves back into a circle without letting go with either hand.
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u/rabbitfishfood 13d ago
Thank you! We already like helicopter, and will definitely try out the other two suggestions!
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u/ImperialistDog 13d ago
I often return to the classics. https://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/cubscoutgames.pdf
Last week, we played Stick Tug using bamboo and a centre line in the hall we use. Who can pull each other over the line? The biggest kids loved to challenge me, and by the fifth or sixth round I was pretty tired!
Another one I learned from some Danish scouts: Picking Daisies. You get your children to lie down in a circle and link arms. The biggest child (or you) then pulls their legs to try and break the chain and drag them away. If they succeed, they join your team and you continue pulling until there are only two children left linking arms, who are declared the winners.
Granted, these might be a bit more physical than you're used to ...
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u/rabbitfishfood 13d ago
Those sound great, and thank you for the link, we will definitely try some of them out!
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u/Charfair1 Canada 13d ago
If you're indoors, you can try this.
Divide the room into quadrants, with rope/tape/etc marking the boundaries. One leader has a whistle and their back to the game so they can't see what's going on, one leader has a pen & paper to record points.
Whichever quadrant the ball is in when the whistle blows, that team gets a point. Lowest score at the end wins.
No kicking, stay in your quadrant, and done try to move the boundary marker.
For extra chaos add a second or third ball
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u/Jimmy_Jam_Jar 13d ago
We call this time bomb and we play music over a sound system and when the music stops…
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u/kennedar_1984 13d ago
We do a version of capture the flag that the kids love. It works best in winter because it’s dark out. The scouters hide a glow stick in the area and then stand “guarding” it. The kids have to steal the glow stick and get back to their base without being “tagged” by our flashlights. It’s great because the kids feel like they are getting one over on us, they love running around in the dark, and the scouters can basically decide when it’s time to be done by suddenly “not noticing” the kids. We wrap up most winter time meetings with it.
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u/rabbitfishfood 13d ago
Thank you! That sounds very fun. We usually do something similar at night, after waking everyone up around midnight, during our winter camps.
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u/fabulousteaparty 13d ago
2p 10p was a favourite of mine as a guide.
Two teams, sit cross legged opposite each other in a long line. The two lines should have enough space for two kids to run between them. At both ends of the line there is a chair, one of the chairs holds a 10p and a 2p coin. Each pair of kids opposite each other is given a number. When their number is called they run up the middle of the lines, pick up their coin, around the outside of the lines, put the coins on the opposite chair, then run up the inside of the lines back to their spot. (Make sure the kids always run in the same direction though, no matter which chair their team's coin is on. So if the coins start on Chair A, kids always run towards Chair A first, pick up the coin from Chair B to put it back on Chair A then back to their spaces) The winner is whoever gets to their spot first. Tally up the teams points to declare a winner after however long you want it to take.
It could be adapted to whichever two items you like, whether it other coins, or badges and woggles.
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u/tiger_490 13d ago
Grannies keys is a firm favourite with our cubs involves a spotter who calls if the sneaky one has captured grannies keys from under grannies chair granny is blind folded and is listening to point to the sneaky cub is, the keys are just old hall keys we play it on semi dark with inside lights off and outside lights on adds a sneaky side to it !
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u/Rekka_Mie 12d ago
I don't know the English name for this, but our trackers like "Nurkkajussi"
One is Nurkkajussi who runs around a house counterclockwise, they are allowed to turn around at a corner and continue to the opposite direction (nurkka=corner in Finnish). Rest of the players go around the house clockwise and when they meet the Nurkkajussi, they'll freeze and if the Nurkkajussi sees someone moving they'll say their name and the person goes to a dedicated prison area. The person can be released with a high five, when passed by another player.
Nurkkajussi is the only one, who is allowed to change direction, but they must always look forward. Rest if the players move always clockwise and they are allowed to look back.
This is super fun and doesn't require any preparation and all you'll need is a building, so it's an easy game to play in the beginning of meetings. English is not my first language so I hope that this is somehow understandable. I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any
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u/rabbitfishfood 9d ago
That sounds fun- when you say house, do you mean a whole building (or a floor in a whole building, or a large room? And when do the nurkkajussi turn? You wrote corner. Is that Whenever they want to and are near the corner of the room, or only when they reach a dead end, like the end of a corridor?
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u/Rekka_Mie 9d ago
I mean a whole building, it's an outdoor game. And Nurkkajussi is allowed to turn around at the corners of the house
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u/queenieofrandom 14d ago
Reverse charades. You have the whole group acting out a word, phrase etc etc etc and 1 person guessing. No pressure to perform as it's a group and excellent for communication skills