This month I am featuring the Cultural Awareness Troop Program Feature for Boy Scouts. The meeting plan for week three suggests a blindfolded tent pitching contest. Since the roundtable guide suggests a disablities awareness theme to go with this program feature, this fits in really well. This could be a jumping off point for a discussion about the difficulty of doing things with a vision impairment.

Tent pitching contests are an inter-patrol activity staple. The concept is simple, but I’ve outlined them below in case you’ve never seen one. To make it a blindfolded tent pitching contest, just add blindfolds. If you want, let one team member keep his vision, but he can only participate by giving verbal instructions to the others. This makes a good communications exercise  also.

Tent-Pitching Contest

Equipment (per team)

• 1 tent, including poles etc. (tents should be identical)
• stakes
• mallets or bowling pins for driving stakes

Instructions

1. Divide the group into teams. A team could be a patrol, or if that is too many people, divide the patrols in half.
2. Each team should start with the tent properly packed.
3. On signal, they unpack their tents and start setting it up.
4. When they are finished setting it up, they call for inspection and scoring.

Scoring: The first patrol finished gets 100 points, the second gets 80 points, and the third gets 60 points. Deduct 5 points for faults, such as incorrectly tied knots, loose guylines, missing stakes, etc. You might find it helpful to have scoresheets ahead of time and let the particpants see them so they know the criteria. The criteria might vary depending on the design of your units tents.

Variation
Do it blindfolded! Or have all of the team members except one blindfolded. The team member who can still see can give verbal instructions to the others only.

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This game is suggested as an interpatrol activity for one of the Boy Scout troop meeting plans in the Public Service troop program feature.

This game would also work as a team building game or ice breaker, since the participants must know the names of the other players. So I think this could also be worked into a Crew program.

Shoot The Gap Game

Materials

• Something to mark goal lines at the opposite ends of the playing area. You can also use natural boundaries, such as trees.

The Game

1. Divide the players into two groups.
2. Explain the boundaries of play.
3. Choose one person to be “The Guardian”. This person guards “The Gap” which is the area between the goal lines.
4. The groups line up behind their goal lines.
5. The Guardian shouts the name of a person on one of the teams. (Be specific – there might be more than one Jim.)
6. Then the person whose name was shouted, shouts the name of someone on the opposite team.
7. As soon as the second name is called, both players whose names were called run into the Gap.
8. They try to get to the opposite goal, without being tagged by the Guardian. When they get there, they become a member of that group.
9. If the Guardian tags someone, then the person who was tagged becomes the new Guardian. The previous Guardian joins the group the tagged person was running toward.
10. Continue playing, making sure everyone gets a chance to participate.

Notes

A suggestion is that once a player has been called, he must step back from the goal line, so that his name is not called. Or you can say that they must do that after being called twice, or whatever rule you want to make up.

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For the Hobbies Troop Program feature, the plans for the Troop outdoor program suggest playing a game called “Crossing the Alligator Pit” as a patrol competition.

This is a very challenging game which combines lashing skills and teamwork. It would also work well  for an interpatrol activity at a meeting focused on pioneering skills.

Here is how you play:

Crossing the Alligator Pit

Equipment (per patrol)

• Some method of marking an area on the ground – string, chalk, etc. depending on the surface
• 3 spars, each about 6 feet long
• 3 sections of rope for lashing, each about 6 feet long
• 4 sections of cord or sturdy string for use as guy lines

Instructions

1. Mark the “alligator pit” on the ground. It should be 20 feet from one side to the other. Make it wide enough so that the patrols can line up along one side with a few feet between each patrol.
2. The patrols start lined up on one side of the pit.
3. Give them a signal to start.
4. The patrols should lash their spars together into a a-frame shape. The program helps suggest a shear lashing at the top and diagonal lashings for the crossbar.
5. Attach the four guy lines near the top lashing.
6. Stand the construction up. One Scout stands on the crossbar. Four additional Scouts use the guy lines to prevent it from tipping over.
7. The Scout on the crossbar then “walks” the structure across the alligator pit, with the four Scouts on the guy lines keeping their lines taut to keep in from tipping over.
8. The first patrol to successfully cross the pit wins.

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Here is another game for a large group of Scouts. This is fun for all age levels – from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts to Venturers. Your older Scouts might try to employ some strategy when playing this game.

This game fits in well with my Classic Outdoor Games theme for this month.

Steal the Bacon

Equipment

• The “bacon” – this can be almost anything – a hat, a frisbee, a neckerchief, etc.
• Some method of keeping score for each team – pencil and paper, rocks, sticks, memory, whatever works

Players

• One umpire
• The rest of the group divided into two teams

Instructions

1. Determine the field of play. It should be roughly rectangular.
2. Determine how many points you will play to – 10, 20, etc depending on how long you want the game to last.
3. The teams line up on the opposite boundaries of the field, facing each other.
4. Each team member is given a different number – 1, 2, 3, etc. So there will be a 1 on each team, a 2 on each team, and so on.
5. The “bacon” is placed in the middle of the field, an equal distance from each team.
6. The umpire calls a number.
7. The member of each team who was assigned that number runs out and tries to grab the bacon and return it to their side of the field without being tagged.
8. If a team member gets the bacon to their side without being tagged, that team scores 2 points.
9. If a team member tags a member of the opposite team while they are stealing the bacon, the tagging team scores 1 point.
10. The first team to reach the determined number of points wins.

Variations

• The umpire can call multiple numbers to have more players on the field at one time.
• Instead of numbers, use animals or characters or something else to make it silly or to fit a theme.
• This can be used as a learning tool. Instead of numbers, use answers to questions. For example, assign each player a city instead of a number. Then if the umpire says “The capitol of Missouri” , the players assigned “Jefferson City” run out. So you can use this to reinforce whatever you covered at your meeting.

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This game makes a fun break in a meeting. It is a favorite with our Venture Crew. Because of the physical contact with the partners, when playing this game with our coed Crew, boys are partners with boys and girls are partners with girls.

If you have an uneven number playing, you will need one group of three. One member of that group will sit out each turn.

Chicken on a Hut Game

Materials
None

Preparation
None

Instructions

1. Scouts should pair up, except for the game leader.
2. The game leader should explain the “moves” below. It helps to have one of the pairs demonstrate.
3. The pairs line up about twenty feet from each other.
4. The leader calls out the name of one of the moves.
5. The pairs must do the move and hold their position. The last pair to complete the move is out.
6. Continue until a winning pair is determined.

Moves

• Chicken on a hut: One member of the pair gets down on all fours. The other sits on his back
• Backpack: One member of the pair jumps on the other’s back. The other holds him there.
• Lover’s Leap: One member of the pair leaps into the other’s arms. The other holds him with one arm under his back and one under his knees.
• Bunk bed: One member of the pair lies on the ground and holds his hands up in the air. The other puts his ankles in the upstreched hands and holds himself up by his hands which are near his partner’s feet. It is difficult to describe this one,but they should look like a bunk bed.

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Those of you who are involved in Boy Scouts might be saying “That’s not one of the methods of Scouting”.  Remember there are different methods Boy Scouts and Venturers. “Group Activities” is one of the methods for Venturers.

Many Venturing Crews are built around a purpose. A Crew chartered to a religious organization might be focused on service projects. A Crew could be organized to learn more about model trains. Whatever the interest of the group, they will need to organize some group activities. This will give the participants real world experience which will help them as they continue to mature.

How can this method be incorporated into a Venturing program:

• Have a regular schedule – how many activities will there be each month?
• Let the members take turns organizing the activities so that they are sharing the work
• If attendance is poor, encourage them to review their plan and try something different if necessary

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One of the things our Crew has been discussing lately is planning a super activity. A super activity is something beyond the normal weekend campout. It is usually an activity which the crew members would not normally get to particpate. Usually it involves a high adventure component. It needs to be planned over a period of months.

With the exception of JD, who is an 11th grader, our crew is comprised of 9th graders. So saying they want to plan a big activity is a big step for them. They have never done anything like this and will need a lot of adult guidance. But I think it will be a great learning experience for them. With today’s helicopter parents, many high school freshmen have never had anything like this level of responsibility.

At our last meeting, the crew decided they want to try to go to the march for life next January in Washington DC. Our crew doubles as our parish youth group, so this is a natural thing for them to request. It will not be a high adventure super activity, but it fits in well with the goals of our chartered organization and they brought it up themselves, rather than me suggesting it to them.

I think this will be a good first super activity for this group. Travel and lodging arrangements will be easier, since we can go with a contingent from our area.  So they can focus their planning efforts on things like

1. finding someone who has gone before to come in and speak about the experience
2. recruiting adult advisers and consultants to help them
3. fundraising
4. working with other parish organisations (run by adults) to try to get additional support or information
5. registering
6. presentations about what to bring and what they want to do during free time in Washington DC

I’m very happy that this was their own idea and that they are very enthusiastic about it. I think that planning this over the next six months will be a great learning experience for them.

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Our troop tries to go camping every month with the exception of November (deer season and Scouting for Food). Their winter plan was for tent camping in December and cabin camping in January and February. We got a scout property cabin for February from the council lottery.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a “scout priced” cabin to be found at the county or state parks for our camping weekend in January.  Nor were a couple of private cabins we use sometimes available. There was one county park cabin available in December though, so the plan was switched to cabin camping in December and tent camping in January. The chosen tent camping location was Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park, since they have a full campground open during the winter season.

We didn’t expect a tremendous turnout for January tent camping, but only 3 youth (2 of them my sons) and my husband signed up. So it had to be cancelled. My husband and I talked about suggesting a day hike to the PLC, but the Committee was concerned about the safety of hiking in January ice, so that was scratched also.

With the weekend only about two weeks away and still no plan for any activity, the PLC was given another idea- a camp-in at our chartered organization.  The troop has never done this before and they didn’t even realize it was an option. The SPL and ASPL  were enthusiastic about the idea, so this is the new plan for this weekend.

And it seems the troop agrees with their youth leaders. We have 12 youth and 2 adults signed up now, which is a very large turnout for a weekend activity for us.

So they are going to arrive on Friday evening and play games in the meeting rooms. Those who want to can work on advancement. After league games clear out, they can go play basketball in the gym. Then back to the meeting rooms to sleep.  In the morning they’ll have a cold breakfast, goof off some more, clean up the meeting room, and go home.

I wouldn’t want to do this too often. A troop needs a strong outdoor program. But I think this is much better than everyone just throwing their hands up and doing nothing. Who knows? It might turn out to be one of those activities that keeps some of the ones who are losing interest coming back for more.

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At our Crew meeting this past Sunday, the focus was on skiing. Our council is having a ski night for Venturers at a local ski resort in January. The original plan had been to have a guest speaker come in and give some skiing tips. He couldn’t make it at the last minute, so our Crew president made a presentation instead.

There is only one ski resort in our area of Missouri and they have to make their own snow.  So it is not surprising that many of the Crew members have not skied before, so the presentation was to give some basics. Our president started off with some tips on how to dress. She talked about how the boots should fit. She had a pair of skis with her so she could show them how to put them on, how to orient them to slow down, etc. She also talked about getting on and off of a ski lift.

It was a good meeting. Hopefully they will be better prepared for the ski adventure next month. The complete meeting agenda is below. We met right after 11AM services at our church, so we started with lunch. We’ve found that the members really like incorporating their Sunday church attendance, lunch, and the meeting.

December Crew Meeting

• Lunch
• Business (planning upcoming events, dues, etc.)
• Chicken on a Hut Game
• Skiing presentation
• Two Hands and a Foot Game
• Cleanup

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Our Venture Crew is having a costume party tonight. JD is responsible for planning the activities. I’ve asked him for a general idea of what will be happening. This is his plan:

The first half hour will be setup. They will decorate the room.

Since the Crew has been recruiting lately, they are going to start with a couple of icebreakers:

• Mingle Game
• Four Facts Game

Then they will move on to some Halloween party games appropriate for teens. Here are a few he is doing:

• Halloween charades – this is just charades with Halloween words or phrases
• Bobbing for Worms - put a gummy worm on a plate and cover with canned whipped cream. The player must get the worm out without using her hands.
• Apple Push – a relay pushing apples along the floor with their noses
• Scary Scene – Divide into teams of about 6 each and give each team a bag with a few random props (banana,  doll,  hat, ruler, etc.) . They must use the props to come up with a frozen pose of a  scary scene.  This is a great photo op.

Next they are going to hold some votes on the costumes. They are going to have various categories:

• Most elaborate
• Scariest
• Most “homemade”
• Funniest
• etc.

Then they will just have some time to socialize. JD asked them to bring snacks, desserts, or drinks based on their last name. They are also going to set up the Wii with a projector and mat for Dance Dance Revolution. I think that’s a pretty good idea. It will give the quieter kids who aren’t comfortable just standing around gabbing something to do. Even if they don’t dance, that game seems to attract kids to gather round and watch.

Finally, they are going to spend the last part of the party cleaning up the meeting space. These are teenagers, so they should definitely be responsible for making sure the meeting room looks as good or better than when they arrived.

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This is an icebreaker in which a group must work together to “untie” themselves from a knot. This is a cooperative rather than competitive game.

This works best with ten or fewer people in the group. If you have more people than that, make multiple groups

It makes a good team building game for Boy Scouts or Venturers.

The Cub Scout core value for the month of September is Cooperation. This is game would also make a fun activity at a Pack meeting. Just make sure each group has two or three older kids or adults who understand how it should work  to help guide this activity if you do it with Cubs.

Human Knot Game

Materials:

None

Directions

1. Have the group stand in the circle.
2. Everyone must reach in with both of their hands and grab somebody else’s hand. They must be holding hands with two different people. This creates the “human knot”.
3. Now, everyone must work together to untie the knot without letting go of any hands. They will need to step over or duck under each other.
4. In the end they will be untied into on large circle or sometimes two small circles.

Notes

Occasionally you get a combination which makes it impossible to completely untie the knot. In this case, the group leader can direct the knot to break at one point, untangle a little, and then reconnect.

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Our Crew has been going for about 10 months now and our officers are still trying to determine what will work for the group. Up until now, our meeting schedule has been pretty irregular. Things have been going pretty smoothly for the group, but it seems like regular meetings would help with planning and growing.

So I discussed some of these thoughts with our Crew president, and she thought that regular meetings would work well also. She discussed some ideas with the whole group and their reaction was positive.

The Crew serves as our parish high school youth group, so they have decided to meet at noon right after the last Mass on the first Sunday of each month for planning, team building activities, and discussion time. They thought it would be fun to have lunch during the meeting.

So we’ll see how this works for them. If they seem to like it, I’m probably going to suggest they try adding another Sunday each month. The flexibility of the Venturing program means we can keep adjusting our program to make it work for the needs of our group.

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Now that summer camping season is over, it is time for my favorite camping season – FALL!  So next  month I am looking forward to camping with our Crew at Fall Fun Rally. Since we have a new Crew, this will be our first time going to this event.

This event has been taking place for over 35 years. This year it has been designated the BSA Centennial Year National Venturing Event.  It will take place at Beaumont Scout Reservation in High Ridge MO on Sept 24 – 26.

Activities include climbing, horseback riding, shooting sports, games, cave tours, contests, blacksmithing demonstrations, historical renactors, police and military displays, and more.

Your Crew can camp at Beaumont. For units which aren’t into camping, the organizers suggest you book some rooms at a local hotel. You can either provide your own meals or purchase meal tickets.

Check out the details at the Fall Fun Rally website.

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Here is a fun game for Cub Scouts. They will have to work together to match their movements, so it teaches them teamwork and coordination.

This is a good “spur of the moment” game, because it doesn’t require any materials or preparations. You could use it to fill in the end of a meeting where they finish the activities sooner than you expected.

You can also use this for Bear Achievement 15: Games, Games, Games.

Caterpillar Race

Materials

• none

Preparation

• none

Instructions

1. Divide the group into two teams.
2. Have the first one in line bend down and place his hands on the ground. At least one hand must be touching the ground at all times during the race.
3. The rest of the players reach down and grab the ankles of the person in front of them.
4. Give them a signal to start.
5. They must move together to come to some pre-determined end point.
6. The first team to have all of its players pass the end point (while still attached) wins.

Notes

There should be some penalty if they detach during the race. You will need to consider the temperment of the group when deciding this. You could have them go pack to the start, pause for five seconds, or do something else to delay them.

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We are a brand new Venturing Crew and have about a dozen members, mostly high school freshmen. One of the goals our youth leadership has is to increase our membership.

Recruiting new Crew members presents some challenges. With the Troop and the Pack, we can go to our parish grade school and do recruitment drives, but the high school students in our parish go to many different area schools. So our Crew leadership has been trying to come up with some different ways to encourage more youth to join.

Since our Crew serves as the high school youth group for our parish, most of our recruitment efforts are through our church. One thing we do is put announcements in the parish bulletin about our meetings and activities.

They also want to recruit heavily from the eighth grade students. So they are thinking about trying to visit the eighth graders in the parish day school and evening religious instruction classes  for those in public school in the fall. The idea is to invite them to come to a few of the meetings or activities which don’t require BSA membership, like a Christmas party or a bowling night.

On a recent campout they painted a couple of large banners to hang in the church’s gathering space on weekends when there is a Crew activity. One of the banners advertises the group as our high school youth group. They are going to have all of the crew members sign this banner. As new members join, they will get to add their names. The second banner promotes the group as a Venturing crew. They are going to write all of the activities we do on this banner, adding as we go. Hopefully that will help prospective members see the kinds of activities we do.

Our president is also going to ask our pastor if she can speak directly to the congregation from the pulpit at Masses some Sunday this fall, possibly on World Youth Day which is celebrated on Oct 24 this year. She wants to get up and tell everyone directly about all of the social and service activities the Crew has been doing. Fortunately our pastor is very supportive of the Scouting programs at our parish, so this can probably be arranged.

I really like that our Crew officers are driving this effort and excited about getting new members. I think the ideas they have come up with so far are very good.

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We played this game at our Webelos den meeting on Thursday. I was doing half of the Traveler activity badge with them. ZM said the game was the best part of the whole meeting.

Our den meeting was in the gym, so for objects for them to collect my den chiefs put out balloons. It was very funny because at first they would get close to one and knock it away.  So the guys giving instructions learned to tell them to be careful and move slowly when they were close.

We are thinking about doing this with our middle school group next week at Vacation Bible School. We will probably be out on the field, so we will use water balloons. Then after they collect them all they can have some fun with the water balloons.

Guide Me Game

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This is a game we played at a Pack meeting about a month ago. The goal is for two Scouts to work together to make a simple lunch. The challenge is that they each have one hand tied behind their back. This forces them to communicate to get the job done. The Scouts at the meeting really had fun with this.

Use this game as an enrichment activity with the Communicating belt loop or with the Webelos Communicator activity badge.

We did this with Cub Scouts, but it would also make a good team building game for Boy Scouts or Venturers.

I Can Do That With One Hand Tied Behind My Back Game

Materials: (for each pair)

• One pair plastic gloves
• One brown paper lunch sack
• 2 pieces of sandwich bread
• about 1 tablespoon of jelly (in a small container or bowl)
• 4 baby carrots in a (in a small container or bowl)
• 2 cookies (in a small container or bowl)
• 3 plastic sandwich bags
• paper plate for making the sandwich
• knife for spreading jelly and cutting sandwic)
• 2 pieces of string to tie one hand of each player behind back

Preparation

Arrange the items required for each pair on a table. Make sure the stations are set far enough apart that they don’t get their things mixed up with another pair.

Instructions

1. Have the Scouts wash their hands.
2. Divide the Scouts into pairs.
3. For one Scout in the pair tie his left hand behind his back. For the other Scout tie the right hand. (For Cub Scouts have the adults do this.)
4. Have them put a plastic glove on their free hand.
5. The pair must make a jelly sandwich and cut it in half.
6. Then they must put the jelly sandwich in a plastic sandwich bag.
7. They should put their carrots in a plastic bag.
8. They should also put their cookies in a plastic bag.
9. Next they should put all three plastic bags in their brown paper lunch bag.

Notes

The two scouts will have to talk to each other to get their lunch made.

When the game is over, let them divide up the food and eat it. They can untie their hands first or they might want to do it with one hand tied behind their back.

Take some time afterwards to talk about what they needed to do to get their lunch put together. There might also be an opportunity to talk about disability awareness here.

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Reinforcing skills is an important part of a Scouting program. If you can use a game to turn it into a fun activity, it can also encourage cooperation and help leadership skills develop.

This is a traditional Scout game which might date back to Baden-Powell himself. It practices Scoutcraft (lashings) as well as cooperation and problem solving.

This can be used with just one group or patrol as a team building activity or with multiple groups as a competition. It would also work well with First Class requirement 7a – Discuss when you should and should not use lashings.  Then demonstrate tying the timber hitch and clove hitch and their use in square, shear, and diagonal lashings by joining two poles or staves together.

Snapper Fishing Game

Materials (for each patrol or group)

• rope or sticks to marks two sides (riverbanks)
• four poles – each four to five feet long
• several (at least three) pieces of rope or cord
• one mousetrap

Instructions

1. Use ropes, sticks, or something similar to mark two “riverbanks” approximately 15 feet apart.
2. The mousetrap should be set on one side of the “river”.
3. On the other side, the patrol should work together to lash the poles together with the pieces of rope or cord.
4. After they have lashed them all together, they should use their long “fishing” pole to snap the mousetrap.

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This is an initiative game for Boy Scouts and Venturers. Its purpose is to get a group to work together to solve a problem. This should build teamwork and cooperation in the group. There is no need to pit teams against each other. Let each group take it’s time figuring out how to work together. Don’t forget to leave time at the end for reflection. Let the team spend a few minutes talking about how they worked together.

Nitro Transport

Materials (for each team/patrol/group):

• a 12 inch square board with 8 6 foot ropes attached (see diagram in the printable  instructions above). Attach the ropes by whatever means you choose. Drilling holes in the board and tying them on works well.
• A small can – like a clean empty vegetable can or orange juice can
• water

Instructions:

1. Prepare the board and ropes before the meeting.
2. Mark a starting point on the ground.
3. Mark an ending point about 25 feet away from the starting point.
4. Fill the can with water (“nitro”) almost to the top.
5. Place the board on the starting point.
6. Place the can of water on top of the board.
7. Have the team pick up the board using only the ropes.
8. They must transport the “nitro” to the ending point without spilling it.
9. The team should keep working together to solve the problem.
10. When time is up, the team should spend a few minutes reflecting on how the exercise went, what worked well, what didn’t work, etc.

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I’ve really been impressed with our Venturing Crew president. She really enjoys doing team building games at the meetings and she is good at leading them. When she first explained this game to the group, I didn’t think it sounded like much, but they have played it several times since then. I think she got it out of the Venturing leader’s manual.

This just goes to show why youth leadership is so important in Boy Scout Troops and Venturing Crews. I don’t think I would have picked this game for the group, but they really enjoy it. The youth leaders  know what is fun and that is what makes a successful program.

Won’t You Smile Game

1. Have everyone sit in a circle.
2. Choose somebody to be It. That person sits in the middle.
3. The person who is It goes and sits in front of one of the others, says, the person’s name and then says “If you love me, won’t you please, please smile.”
4. The person who It spoke to must respond “You know I love you, but I just can’t smile.” If they smile while saying this, they are It. Otherwise, It must try again with another person.

The person who is It can make funny faces or gestures, but both people must stick to the wording.

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