Games!
Games!
Games!
Illustrations by Kasia Serafin/agencyrush.com
Got some space to fill in a unit meeting? Try out these guiding games
These fun games can be used at the start of your meeting, as fillers in your unit meetings, or you could hold a games night! Each game has suggested sections and group sizes, but most can be done to suit any section or size of group. If you have young leaders or young volunteers, ask them to run the game!
Batu seremban ('five stones' - BUH-too say-ram-BUN)
You'll need: 5 throwing bean bags or similar items (e.g. a ball) per group
Suggested for: Rainbows, Brownies
Suitable for: Smaller groups
Collect your bean bags quickly in this traditional Malaysian game!
1. Split into groups of 3 or 4, making sure each group has 5 bean bags. Your group is going to run their own game of Batu seremban!
2. 1 person in each group goes at a time, throwing all 5 bean bags in the air. They have to catch 1 of the bean bags before it touches the ground. This is your tossing bean bag!
3. Toss your bean bag in the air and pick up 1 other bean bag from the ground. Keep going until you’ve collected them all. How many goes does it take you? See if you can do it holding all the bean bags at once or keep them to the side!
4. Next person goes! Which group can make it back to the first person the quickest?
Try it this way: Make it harder by adding an extra bean bag and try and pick up 2 bean bags per turn.
Shoulder to shoulder
No resources needed
Suggested for: Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers
Suitable for: All size groups
Shoulder to shoulder, toe to toe... make it quick!
1. Choose someone to be the caller - this could be an adult, young leader, or someone with a clear voice!
2. Get into pairs and get ready! If you’re the caller, shout out ‘shoulder to shoulder’, and every pair has to touch... shoulder to shoulder! If you say ‘arm to arm’... the pair have to touch arm to arm!
3. Try out as many variations as you can think of. Try different combos such as ‘leg to toe’ or ‘hand to foot’!
Try it this way: For more of a challenge, after announcing a new variation the pair who is slowest to match up is now out. Keep going until you figure out the fastest pair but be careful not to hurt each other when you go super fast!
Pass the hoop
You'll need: 1 hoop
Suggested for: Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers
Suitable for: All size groups
Without breaking apart, can you pass the hula hoop?
1. Everyone, get into a circle and hold hands.
2. Choose 1 person to take a hoop on their arm and close the circle. The hoop must now make its way around the circle without anyone letting go of the hands on either side!
Try it this way: To make it more challenging, add a second different sized hoop going the opposite way. Or have 2 teams race!
Topfschlagen ('hit the pot' - toff-SHLA-gun)
You'll need: A rolled up newspaper or spoon, 2 pots, 2 blindfolds
Suggested for: Rainbows, Brownies
Suitable for: Small groups
You have to be quick and hit the pot in this German game!
Before you start: Double check the floor space you’re using is clear of objects, hazards and dirt. It’s also a good idea to wear your long trousers for this!
1. Split your unit into 2 teams and choose 1 person to go first wearing the blindfold.
2. Once they’re ready, place 2 pots randomly in your space, spread out from each other if you can.
3. Give your blindfolded teammate a rolled-up newspaper or spoon and let them loose on the floor and try and hit or bang against the pot first!
4. The blindfolded person may need to crawl or crouch to find the pot. Quick! Which team can find a pot first? You get a point every time you find the pot first.
5. Keep taking turns with a new person blindfolded and see who can score the most points!
Try it this way: Try out a version of this with teammates giving pointers and directions, and another with silence!
Body parts
No resources needed
Suggested for: Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers
Suitable for: All size groups
Move your body into strange shapes as quickly as you can!
1. Everyone, get into a space! Your leader, another adult or young leader will shout out numbers!
2. When you hear a number, you need to make a group of that size. If they shout 7, quickly get into a group of 7!
3. Once you’re in a group, the caller will shout out an object, animal or thing you need to become. So, if you’re in a group of 5 and the caller says washing machine, all 5 of you need to come together to make the shape of a washing machine!
4. Keep going with different numbers and different objects – what’s the strangest thing you can make together?
Try it this way: To make it more challenging, add the rule that the last group to make their object is out, and they become callers until you get to a winning group!
Poltergeist
No resources needed
Suggested for: Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers
Suitable for: All size groups
Can you figure out what the poltergeist has been up to?
1. A poltergeist is a cheeky ghost who likes to cause mischief and move things! Choose 1 person to be the poltergeist – everyone else step out of the room!
2. The poltergeist has 1 minute to move 1 object in the room to somewhere else. It can’t be hidden away though; everyone must be able to see it without moving things themselves!
3. Then, the poltergeist needs to invite everyone else back into the room.
4. Everyone must look for what the poltergeist got up to. The first person to figure it out becomes the new poltergeist!
Try it this way: Make it more of a challenge by moving more than 1 object and telling the group how many have changed. You could also add an object to the room from elsewhere.
Juggle-ception
You'll need: At least 4 balls (same size), and more if you want to make it harder
Suggested for: Guides, Rangers
Suitable for: All size groups
Get into the juggling rhythm and see how long you can juggle together!
1. Get into a circle.
2. Start with 1 ball and throw it to someone else in the circle.
3. Pass the ball around the circle to different people, never repeating who’s already had it.
4. Make sure you remember who you receive the ball from, and who you pass it to.
5. Practise a few times so that you all know the pattern.
6. When you start to get the pattern, a leader will throw a new ball into the circle, and you’ve got to follow the same pattern!
7. Your leader will keep adding more balls, even if you’re not ready!
8. How many balls can your whole group juggle together?
Try it this way: Make it even trickier by adding different sized balls!
Elephant ball
You'll need: 1 ball (no bigger than a football, not bouncy), 2 or more extra balls (optional)
Suggested for: Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers
Suitable for: All size groups
Keep an eye on the ball in this one!
1. Everyone, get into a circle and face inward.
2. Standing up tall, widen your legs and touch your feet against the people either side of you. There won’t be any gaps in your circle now. The aim of the game is to keep the ball in the circle and stop the ball from going through your legs!
3. Move your arms together and cup your hands, which will be your trunk. Be prepared to guard your legs, but you can’t crouch!
4. 1 person should throw the ball into the circle – don’t let the ball go through your legs or you’re out.
5. If you’re out, help collect the ball and bring it back for those still playing. Or shake things up and be sneaky by adding more balls!
6. When you get to the final 2, try to make a tunnel by using benches or tables and the first person to get the ball through the other person’s legs becomes the elephant ball champion!
Ghosts
No resources needed
Suggested for: Brownies, Guides, Rangers
Suitable for: Large groups
Is there a ghost behind you?
1. Everyone get into a space in the room, standing, and close your eyes.
2. Your leader’s going to pick some of you to be ghosts by tapping you on the shoulder, and they’ll let you know once they’re done. Now, you’ve got to try and stay silent!
3. Once picked, the ghosts open their eyes and need to quietly sneak around the space and stand behind someone for 5 seconds.
4. If they stand there for 5 seconds, you’ve got to tap the person on the shoulder, and they become a ghost too! But if the person the ghost is standing behind notices the ghost behind them, they need to shout, ‘Is that a ghost?’ and if they guess right the ghost is out! If they guess wrong, they are out.
5. Keep trying with different ghosts to start! You can also make the seconds to stand behind someone longer or shorter.
Drie stokkies ('three sticks' - dree stoh-KEES)
You'll need: 3 sticks around 1.5m in length (eg branches/mop/broom handle)
Suggested for: Guides, Rangers
Suitable for: All size groups
In this traditional South African game, see who can jump the furthest!
1. Lay out your 3 sticks next to each other (parallel), about 1 metre spaced out. If you don’t have sticks, you can use cones, string or masking tape.
2. Split into 2 teams, with 1 team on each side facing the sticks.
3. Only 1 person can go at a time, with each team taking turns.
4. Carefully, take a running start and take 1 step between the 1st and 2nd stick, another step between the 2nd and 3rd stick, and then jump as far as you can go! You’re out if any part of you touches a stick while you take your turn. If your sticks are rolling about, get people to hold them down.
5. Figure out where the 1st person’s body part landed closest to stick 3, and then move the stick to there. The sticks will gradually get spaced further and further out, making it a bigger jump!
6. The next person goes from the other team, and you must still only take 1 step between each stick, then jump as far as you can. The stick closest to the landing body part is then moved.
7. The middle stick stays in the same place, while the outer sticks continue to move out... how long can you last, and which team will win?
Balloon hockey
You'll need: 1 balloon (and several spares), sheets of newspaper, 1 chair for each person, area markers (for example, chalk, cones, beanbags or masking tape)
Suggested for: Brownies, Guides, Rangers
Suitable for: Larger groups
No standing up in this balloon moving challenge! If anyone in your group has a latex allergy, swap the balloons for lightweight balls.
1. Grab 3 or 4 sheets of newspaper and roll them into a stick. This is your balloon mover!
2. Set up 2 lines of chairs across the room, facing each other, with some space between them.
3. Use your area markers to create a line or position about 1 metre away from each line of chairs to the side, creating a chair and marker rectangle!
4. A leader will drop a balloon in the middle of the 2 lines, and everyone must use their sticks to waft and move the balloon past the line on their left side.
5. Careful! You can’t stand up; you’ve got to stay seated!
6. Once several goals have been scored, mix it up by asking teams to score a goal by getting the balloon to their right-side line.
Splategories
No resources needed
Suggested for: Brownies, Guides, Rangers
Suitable for: All size groups
Splat but with even more brain power needed!
1. Everyone, get into a circle.
2. Choose someone to be in the middle and become the splategorian. They’ll need to have some category ideas ready to go.
3. They’ll turn around and point their finger at someone in the circle, and say a category, for example: animals...
4. The person being pointed at must duck down. The people on either side need to come up with an answer for the category as quick as they can!
5. The quickest 1 stays in, and the other 1 stays out. They could help the splategorian with category ideas.
6. Keep going until you have 2 left! Stand back-to-back, and the splategorian will keep saying words. When they say ‘splategory’, the 1st person to turn around and shout ‘splat’ wins!
7. Have another go with more categories!
Giant noughts and crosses
You'll need: 9 chairs or area markers to represent the board, something to differentiate between noughts and crosses teams (such as bibs, t-shirts, hats, name tags - 1 per girl)
Suggested for: Brownies, Guides, Rangers
Suitable for: Smaller groups
3 in a row on a big scale...
Before you start: Make your giant game board by arranging 9 chairs or area markers in your space.
1. Split into 2 teams: 1 team is noughts and the other is crosses! Give 1 team something to differentiate themselves from the others.
2. Noughts or crosses can win by getting 3 in a row... either across, down or diagonally.
3. Choose how to go first by playing rock, paper, scissors. 1 person from the winning team needs to choose a chair (or marker)!
4. The next team then decide where to place their next player.
5. When both teams have gone, the next two to go play rock, paper, scissors to decide who goes first! Continue like this until you’ve played the board, or someone wins!
6. If you’ve got a larger group, take turns so that everyone gets a chance to go on the giant game board!
Flippers
You'll need: Pens, paper, area markers such as chalk, masking tape or cones, a timer
Suggested for: Brownies, Guides, Rangers
Suitable for: Smaller groups
Can you sneak across and flip to get your team points?
Before you start: Mark out a halfway point across your space. Using 20 sheets of paper, write the numbers 1-10 clearly, twice over.
1. Split into 2 teams and take your set of numbered papers and spread them equally across one half of your space, face down. Put sheets with higher numbers furthest away from the halfway line.
2. Time to figure out a strategy! You need to protect the papers in your area, as well as capture paper from the other side!
3. Get ready in your areas... then set 3 minutes on the timer! Your goal is to go to the other side and flip over a piece of paper to gain points, and make it back, without being tagged by someone from the other team in their area. If you’re tagged, you’re out!
4. Keep going for 3 minutes or until everyone is out. Count your points from the numbered papers you collected. How many points did each team get?
5. Try again using a different strategy – do you need more people defending the papers?
Try it this way: To make it harder, change the rules so each team is allowed to flip their paper back over.
Squiggles
You'll need: Paper and pens
Suggested for: Rainbows, Brownies
Suitable for: All size groups
What will your squiggle become?
1. Everyone starts with a piece of paper and a pen each.
2. Now, you must draw a squiggle – not too long though!
3. Pass the paper to the person next to you, and once everyone has a new piece of paper with a squiggle, you’ve got to create a drawing using that squiggle!
4. Continue passing papers around the circle, adding to each drawing, until you run out of space.
5. Go for a few more rounds with brand new squiggles and see what art you can come up with!
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