Beaver Scout Games

Welcome to my blog for simple games to play with young groups like Beavers and Cubs. If you are planning a childrens party then this may be a useful source of information for cheap simple and fun ideas.


All people love to play games. At Beavers we play games outside when the weather permits so I have listed games suitable for such occassions. We meet on a Thursday evening so for half of the year we cannot go outside as it's too dark. Therefore we also have loads games for the inside as well.


I have categorisd the games into their most approriate section. However, most games can be adapted for most situations.


If you have any party game ideas then please forward them to me and I will try then out at my Colony and add them to the list.

Most importantly have fun!

Wednesday 21 December 2011

Bowling Elimination

Number Of Players
8+

What You Need
Two cones or posts
Football

How To Play
Players line up and take it in turns to bowl a ball between two posts set out about 20ft away from the bowling line. If the players gets the ball he re-joins the back ready for the next round. If the ball touches the post or goes wide then they are out. After each round the posts get closer. Continue until you a left with a winner.

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Duck , Duck, Goose

Very simple game, nothing required, great for burning off some energy.

Number Of Players
10+

What You Need
Nothing required

How To Play
The children sit in a circle, facing inwards. One child is chosen to be the 'Picker'. The 'Picker' then walks around tapping each player in turn on the head or shoulder, calling each a 'Duck' until finally picking one to be a 'Goose'. When this happens the 'Goose' gets up as quickly as possible and chases and tries to catch the "Picker", while the "Picker" tries to return to and sit where the 'Goose' had been sitting. If the picker gets back to where the 'Goose' was sitting the 'Goose' is now the new picker and the process begins again.

If the 'Goose' catches the picker then give the child a big cheer and choose another 'Picker'

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Minute Monkies

Fantastic game if you need to calm things down a little.

Number Of Players
Any

What You Need
A watch with a second hand or mobile phone etc

How To Play
All the children sit down, crossed legged with their hands on their heads. Explain that after you've said 'Go' the children must count out a minute in their minds and when they think a minute is up put their hand up quietly. The winner is the one who is guesses closest to sixty seconds.

Snow Balls

We play this game at our Christmas Party. This game has two parts, the making of the snow balls and the throwing of them. Great ice breaker (excuse the pun)

Number Of Players
Any group above 8

You Will Need
Several old newspapers cut into single pages. Two ropes or long garden canes

How To Play
Split the group into two equal halves. The two groups are placed at each end of the room. Place the rope or canes in the centre of the room about 8 foot apart. The ropes / canes represent a river bank. The two groups are therefore on opposite banks with a river dividing them.  On your command each group has 5 minutes to make as many snow balls as possible. Then after five minutes you shout 'Snowball fight!'. The two groups then throw the snowballs at each other. Any falling in the 'river' are deemed to have melted and you remove them from the game. Continue until the children are exhausted (unlikely) or all the snowballs have melted.

Noah's Ark

Number of Players
Any even number. Ideally 8+

You Will Need
A bowl, hat or box in which are placed cards with matching animal names on. Same number of cards as players.

How to Play
Best to prepare this game before hand. On each card write down the name of an animal which makes a distinctive noise. Each animal must have a partner so each animal should be written on two cards. Put the cards in your container. Each child then picks out a card and looks at it without anyone else looking at it. The children then impersonate the animal written on the card and try to find their partner. This game is very noisy buy great fun.

Hunt the Thimble

This is a very old classic game, but it still works and is great fun for small children

Number of Players
Any number

You Will Need
A thimble or any other small object

How To Play
All the children except one leave the room. The child left hides the thimble in the room. The others return and 'hunt the thimble'. Whoever finds the thimble has the next turn of hiding the thimble.

Flappy Fish!

Number of Players
2+

You Will Need
A paper fish cut from a piece of paper for each group playing plus either a book, carpet square, newspaper etc for each child playing.

How to Play
Split the children into groups of about 3 or 4. For each group cut a fish shape from an A4 piece of paper. Give each child a book, a newspaper or something to flap to make a wind with. (At Beavers we use carpet squares that the children sit on). Each group stands behing their fish. The object is to 'flap' at the fish without touching it from one end of the room to the other. The winner is the team to reach the other side of the room first.

This game is best on a non carpeted floor.

Round the Circle

Number of Players
Ideally 12+

You Will Need
A Ball

How to Play
Split the children into two equal teams. The first teams line up in a straight line. The second team form a circle with one of the children in the centre of this circle. On your word the game begins.

LINE TEAM: the first child of the lined up team run around the circle team and back to the next person in line and so on until all members of the line team have all run.

CIRCLE TEAM: the child in the circle team throws the ball to one of the other children in the circle and they then throw it back to the centre child. The thrower repeats this and throws the ball to the next child in the circle and so on until the line team have all run round the circle team.

For each successful throw and return the circle team score one point.

The teams then switch roles and repeat the game. The team who scores the most points wins.

Monday 14 November 2011

Wink Murder

Number of Players
Any number, but preferably eight or above

You Will Need
No materials needed


How to Play
The children sit around in a circle. One child is chosen as the 'Dectective' and leaves the room. Whilst out of the room, another child is chosen as the 'Murderer'. The detective returns and stands in the middle of the circle of children. When the detective is not looking the murderer 'winks' at his victim how dramatically dies and falls backwards (the more dramatic the better). The murderer keeps on wink murdering until the detective works out who's done it. Take it in turns for children to be detective and murderer. The winner is the murderer who kills the most vicims!

Where's your partner?

Number Of Players
Any even number from four and above

You Will Need
A piece of paper for each individual player which you will need to write a name on.

Preparation
Best to write the names down before playing this game.

How To Play
You will need to prepare the cards before playing this game. On half of the cards write down one half of a famous partnership. Then on the other half write the other member of the partnership.Mix the cards up and then each child picks a card. Reads it without anyone else seeing it.

The children must then go around the room asking questions and seeking out their partner without saying the partner name they are looking.

For instance, if a child had salt you couldn't say "Where's Pepper". Rather they could say "Does any one here make you sneeze".

The first couple to pair up are the winners. This is quite a good game as an ice breaker if all of the children in the party don't know each other.

Suggested Partners
Tom & Jerry
Salt & Pepper
Ant & Dec
Cheese & Onion
Hide & Seek
Night & Day
Adam & Eve
Jack & Jill

The Hibernation Game

Number of Players
Anything from 10+

Required to play game
Blanket large enough to cover a child

How to Play
Children run around. The leader then shouts 'Hibinate'. The children must curl into a ball with their eyes shut and pretend to be a winter animal hibernating. The leader then covers one of the children then shouts 'Springtime'. All the children, except the child covered by the blanket, 'wake up' and have to guess who is still hibernating.

Please this a few times giving a different child a go at being the sleeping animal.