MISCELLANEOUS GAMES #3

QUICK DRAW
Equipment: 2 water pistols, a plastic drink bottle with a wide mouth, and a tennis ball. (Or a nerf ball) Age: 5 and up Number of children: Can be done in two teams or individually, with two people playing at once and the rest of the kids cheering. Category: Outdoor Balance the ball on the top of the bottle. Have the first two contestants stand facing each other with the bottle in between (have the bottle on a stool, rock or fence to make it high enough for every one to stand up!), and about 5 paces away from the bottle.(This will depend on the pressure in your water pistol, and the weight of the ball and the mouth of the bottle, I recommend that you give this a try and set up your distances before hand!) I recommend those supersoaker water guns because each turn will take a little longer to do, as the kids can pump them up first, then fire. Some one counts, ready, aim, fire! and the two contestants shoot the ball off of the bottle. Scoring: The team who shoots the ball off, wins a point. Highest points win the contest.

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WATER RELAY
Equipment: 2 buckets or basins per team, a baggie per team (a fork-optional) Age: 5 and up Number of kids: Teams of 4-6 girls Category: Outdoor One basin (each of them filled with the same amount of water) per team is placed at the back of the team and the other basin (empty and with a mark on it on the same spot in each one - if the basins are not all the same shape, then mark the level of four cups of water in each with a marker, or tape) is placed a certain distance away from the team (about 20 feet). The girl at the back of the team has the teams baggie. She fills the baggie with water, and hands it over the top of the girl in front of her, who turns and hands it through her legs to the next person who hands it over the next person who hands it under to the next. (Make sense? I hope). The person at the other end of the team runs up to the empty basin and dumps the contents of her baggie in there. Then she runs to the back of her team and fills the baggie and the game continues. The first team to each the mark, wins the relay. (Variations: Do this with only one hand, including emptying and filling the baggies! Make holes in all the baggies with the optional fork, and then everyone gets a little wet as the bag goes over and under, then do the holey baggie with one hand too.)

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SPONGE RELAY
Equipment: 2 basins per team, and a sponge per team Number: teams of 4-6 Ages: 5 and up Category: Outdoors A full basin is placed in front of the team and the empty one is positioned 20 paces away. One at a time the girls soak their sponge in the full basin and run up to the empty one and squeeze it out. Then they run back and hand (toss) the sponge to the next person in line. You can do this until the water level in the far basin reaches a certain point, or until the closest basin is empty, or until everyone on the team has had a turn, and then measure the water in the far basins to see who has moved the most water over. (Variation: Do this one handed.)

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CINDERELLA
Divide players into relay teams. Within each team, the girl has a partner. One of the pair puts one of her shoes at the end of the room. On Go, Cinderella (the shoeless) sits on the end of a broom, and her partner, prince charming, pulls the broom to the end of the room, with her on it, and finds her shoe in the pile, puts it on her foot, and pulls her back. The next pair in the team then goes. The girls get a kick out of this game!

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DON'T THROW YOUR GARBAGE IN YOUR NEIGHBOUR'S YARD
oAges: 5-12 years
oCategory: Noisy and a large space.
oEquipment: Hula hoops (or rope set out in circles on the ground) One for each team. And bean bags, 6 per hole hoop.
oNumber: teams of 5 or 6 children.
oSource: The 4th Girl Guides of Wandering Hills District, Calgary Area taught me this one.
Put a hula hoop or loop of rope in each corner of your play area. Put equal numbers of bean bags in each hula hoop. Divide the kids into teams of 5 or 6, each team stands by 'their' hula hoop. This is their yard! Yell Go! Each group has to empty their hula hoop by carrying the bean bags one per trip to another team's yard. The bean bags have to be put into the other team's yard - tossing is acceptable if the bean bag lands in the hoop, if not they have to retrieve it and put it in. Watch out for the other team members so that you do not bump into each other. Count the number of bean bags in each hoop at the end of the game (10 minutes) and the team with the fewest bean bags (the least garbage) wins. This is a super game and if you don't feel that throwing your garbage into another team's yard is politically correct, rename everything. I can't think of a different name at this point of typing, but that shouldn't be a problem. (As I was typing the rules I thought that perhaps ecology minded guiders shouldn't be encouraging this litter-bug behaviour! Perhaps just Get Rid of the Bean Bags would be better!)

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BALLOON RELAY GAME
We put 4 chairs at one end of the hall and 4 lines of parents and girls at other end of hall. One of the Guiders had brought balloons blown up. The first girl or parent had to run up get a balloon and sit on the balloon on the chair until it busted, then they ran back until the whole group finished. Another time we had them run up blow up the balloon, then sit on until they busted it. We had great time laughing. As at Guide ages and parents, we all come in all shapes and sizes and to see the balloon fly from behind a small girl every time she sat on it (of course we helped with the busting, she did not know it), then to see a large person sit on the balloon it bust right away. Great time, all in fun.

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BALL BETWEEN THE FEET
CATEGORY: Indoor / Outdoor EQUIPMENT: 1 tennis ball per team o2 chairs (or some other marker) per team NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: Any number but even teams HOW TO PLAY: Each team lines up behind a chair. The other chair is placed some distance away. On a given signal the first member of each team takes the ball and places it between her feet. She jumps, with the ball between her feet, from the first chair, around the far chair and back to her team. Then the next person on the team does the same. BUT if the ball is dropped / lost between the first chair and the second chair the girl must return to the first chair and start again. If the ball is dropped between the second chair and the first chair i.e. on the way back, the girl must return to the second chair. Winning team - first to finish VARIATIONS: The same rules can be applied to the following games: BOOK ON THE HEAD - use 1 book per team. All books should be the same or very similar. BEANBAG ON THE FOOT - place beanbag on foot and keep it there while walking. BALLOON BETWEEN THE KNEES - have some spare balloons, just in case!

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INTERNATIONAL SHOPPING
To play: The players are in patrols, grouped in various parts of the room. The game leader has a list of items that could be bought in a store. One person from each patrol, the "shopper" comes to the leader. All are given the same items (whisper so the rest can't hear). They return to their patrol, which is the "shop", and act out what they want to buy, because the "shopkeepers" don't understand English. The first patrol to guess correctly wins, and new "shoppers" go to the game leader. Try these items: umbrella, pound of butter, jar of honey, wedding ring, bikini, ballet shoes, pencil sharpeners, bicycle pump, automobile tire, nosedrops.

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ALPHABETICAL NAME LINE-UP
Get yourselves into a line alphabetically by first name without speaking. For an extra challenge, if you know each other well: use middle names!

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ICE FLOE or SNOW SHOES (Canada)
The idea is to race across the floor without touching said floor. Each person (or team) is given 2 pieces of newspaper (or substitute -like the plastic placemats). You put one down, step on it, put the second one down, move to it, pick up the first one, move it up front, step onto it, move the second one in front of the first, step forward onto it, etc. thus progressing across the floor. If you are playing in teams, all of the team has to get onto one ice flow so that the other ice flow can be moved ahead.... Does this make sense? So you have to be on an ice flow at all times, but you have to progress, so you need to move the ice flows ahead, one step at a time. With newspapers, rambunctious players are apt to tear the papers, so speed isn't the only factor.

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BEADED CONVERSATIONS
Make sure everyone gets a package of beads ( different colour for each person). Give everyone a 6 inch piece of thin thread with a Heart bead in middle. Divide group into two rows and have them sit facing each other with feet touching. Then have each person carry on a conversation with the person facing you. Tell about yourself. Where you are from, birthdate, favourite colour etc. Then exchange bead with that person thread it onto you have traded all your colour beads (or have one left), and move down line to your right to next person and do the same thing until you have exchanged all your beads. Tie and wear your new bracelet

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BIRTHDAY LINE-UP
Ask the group to line up on order of birthdays, starting with January on one end and ending with December at the other. Again, do this without speaking.

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LABEL ACTIVITY One game that we used to do in Pathfinders was the Label activity. Parents and girls are divided into small groups and given a topic to discuss. However, each person wears a label on their forehead (not knowing what it says) like: ignore me, praise me, treat me like I'm stupid, agree with me.....etc. After a while, have people guess their labels and talk about labels in life. It works well with parents too!

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KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOUR
This game helps the players learn each other's names and at the same time have some fun. It's a good 'ice-breaker' for the first night at camp. One player is designated to be IT. He takes his place in the centre of the players, sitting in a circle in the dark. IT suddenly flashes his flashlight on one of the players and asks "Who are your next door neighbours?" And then he flashes the light on the nearby neighbours. If the player who was asked the question, can't name both neighbours correctly, he becomes IT. If he does name them correctly, IT asks him "How is So and So?", naming either of the players. If the reply is "OK", the players remain seated, but if the answer is "Not so good", all players must change seats. While everyone is shifting IT tries to get a seat. If he succeeds the one without a spot then becomes IT. Note: Until everyone is sure of the names, IT must give them time to learn the names of their neighbours before they shift.

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THE NAME GAME
Come prepared with pennies in your pocket. Sit the girls in a ring. Ask them to keep count of how many names you get wrong. Each Guider gets a turn! Walk around the outside of the ring. Stop at each girl put your hand on her head and say something like: You are dressed in Brown....You have short blond hair.... Your name is????..... (Well, if you don't know use any name.) Ask the girl if you guess right. If not girls count that as one wrong. Move on to next girl until you visit all the girls. Have the pennies at the end. Ask for how many you got wrong, and deposit same amount of pennies in to a sock hanging up somewhere. Tell the girls that In Feb. you will send all the pennies to the WFF. Don't forget each Guider gets a go. For some reason there is lots of giggling and this game became our most request. Of course we got better at it each week and by Feb. we get all their names. The WFF was richer by £10.00. Interesting though the girls started by them selves to bring in pennies for our name game sock.

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SOCK NAME GAME
Equipment: sock pairs (at least one per person-fun if more!) Ages: have to be able to throw catch You form a circle and the leader throws one person a pair of socks (rolled up tight in a ball) That person (1) must ask the name of a person (2) she doesn't know then before she tosses the socks to person 2, must shout out person 2's name. Person 2 then has to ask the name of someone she doesn't know, call out that person 3's name, and toss the socks to her....etc. until everyone has caught the socks. RULE: You must always toss the socks to the same person - but only after you shout out their name. Now here's the game... Meanwhile the leader tosses in more and more and more socks. Socks are flying everywhere names are being shouted all at once (sometimes a person may have 4-5 pair and then it's "Susan, Susan, Susan, Susan (pelt, pelt, pelt, pelt) Leaders were running after socks they missed catching...bedlam and laughter abound. The leader then will start to remove pairs of socks one by one and it 'calms down a bit' and you again get to hear all the names as the last sock tosses around. It's crazy - but like I said - it worked for me!