| Games and competitions SHIPS AND ROCKS Group divided - one half rocks, other ships (swap roles latter) Rocks sit in 2 or more rows holding hands eyes closed, and back to ships. Ships have to get through rocks. If rocks hear ships, lift arms. If 'catch' ship, the ship restarts ZAP Played after dark, without torches but with boundaries! Two girls have flashlights (off) -they are "it". Other girls hide while "its" count to 50. "Its" then walk around in the dark to find girls. If they find someone they ZAP them (by flicking on their flashlight). Once ZAPPED the girl then takes the flashlight (now off) and she becomes "it" and continues to look for other girls. Meanwhile the girl that had been "it" has a chance to hide. From GuidingUK SHIP AND LIFEBOATS A game where some girls are blindfolded and have to hear the others coming PRODUCTS OF THE SEA A card game for small groups. Could be adapted to a wide game, I think. Both from the Guide Zone BOARD GAME – beat Captain Pete to his treasure: There is also an activity booklet on this site, but it's probably too young for guides (I've not looked at it). CANNONBALL BATTLE Get each patrol to make a ballista (instructions from 1st Chelsea Guides). Use wet sponges or water balloons as cannonballs if the weather is dry & warm enough, if not maybe table tennis balls, or balls of screwed up newspaper. Thanks to Charlotte Prosser, GuidingUK for this idea. For lots more ideas for catapults look here. SWORD FIGHT Have a sword fight with bread sticks - the object is to break down your opponent's bread stick, without damaging your own. When one player's bread stick becomes so short that he or she can no longer use it, they surrender the stub and “walk the plank”! (from Child Fun) "Ready, Steady, Build a boat". They would have been in teams with a certain number of materials each and some spares to stock up with. Limit the time and let them know what the requirements are, eg. how long the boat should float for. They must use all of the basic materials!! Use recycled/recyclable materials if possible :- Card, polystyrene chips, paper clips, rubber bands, scraps of string, blue tac, etc. |
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| Sandra's guide pages |
| Pirates - ideas on a theme for guides |
| I was taking my girls on somebody else's camp and was told this was the theme. My first thought was that my girls were going to kill me, it's such a "babyish" theme (and if there's one thing 12 and 13 year olds hate it's being "babyish"! However, I cried for help on the GuidingUK list, and quite a few ideas were put forward which got me thinking maybe it wouldn't be so bad... then I did some research on the net and looked things up in my collection of books. And it turned out it was a pretty good theme after all! |
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| Pirate Facts try some books: Treasure Island (R L Stephenson) Swallows and Amazons (Arthur Ransome) The pirates often determined a ship’s nationality first. Then they raised that country’s flag on the pirate ship so they appeared to be friendly. Now able to draw close to the unsuspecting ship, the pirates hoisted Blackbeard’s flag only at the last moment. (from the National Geographic) |
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| Crafts and quiet activities BANDANAS make tie-dyed pirate bandanas (or headscarfs) which were apparently quite fashionable last year (probably not this year though). You can use cold water dye which costs £1.65 for a sachet (which will dye up to 250g dry weight of fabric) and dye fix which is 49p per sachet - prices from Sew and So (available by mail order). Thanks to Vicky Moss, GuidingUK for this idea. SKULL AND CROSSBONES FLAG Make a pirate flag with Batik! Take an old pillowcase or other piece of cotton material (a flat sheet would be ideal if you have several groups). Cut it to an appropriate size for a flag. Use a pencil to draw the "skull and crossbones" on the material, then fill it in with candlewax, using an old paintbrush. Let the wax dry (this won't take long) then dye the flag using cold water dye. Once the dye has dried (it's probably best to hang the flags up overnight) pick off the wax, and you have your flag! If you want to do it properly, plait some string to hang it by, and attach a toggle from a duffle coat to the top, then hoist it properly up the flagpole! WAVE JARS Take a small glass jar (eg. a baby food jar). Fill about half full with water, add a few drops of blue food colouring - this is the "sea". Fill the jar to the top with cooking oil and screw the lid on tightly. If the jar isn't very watertight you may need to glue on the lid. Shaking the jar makes waves - sort of like those executive toys you used to get, if you remember them! Try turning it over & see how long it takes to settle again. (from Child Fun) WALNUT BOATS Make little pirate boats out of a 1/2 a walnut shell. Insert Plasticine in the bottom then attach a toothpick with a little paper sail. Hold races. (from Child Fun) SHIP IN A BOTTLE Not sure how practical this would be to do with large numbers but there's a ship in a balloon activity on DLTK kids here. TELESCOPE or a kaleidoscope? SHIP IN A SNOWSTORM snowstorm with a ship?? ORIGAMI BOATS On GuidingUK. JEWELLERY Make jewellery or similar to disguise your ill-gotten gains. (thanks to Alice for this idea) For example try the wire photo frame on makingfriends.com (ok so it's a very tenuous link to the theme!) CODES AND SECRET WRITING Try morse code with torches in the dark, or have a go at semaphore (to signal your landing party from the ship!). Find out what the signal flags ship use mean and send a message with them. Try using watermarks on paper as secret message. Instructions on how to make watermarks is in the "Water" Go For It on GuidingUK. Challenge patrols to make up a code and to break one made up by another patrol. OTHER IDEAS Anything with sea shells, make boats (maybe the jet boat in the "Water" Go For It on GuidingUK) or rafts. |
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| Treasure Hunts & other outdoor activities Dig for treasure – in a sand pit or a bowl of jelly or baked beans! You can do this blindfold and then the person has to identify what is buried in the goo! Make waterbombs - there's an origami one on GuidingUK. Water balloon throwing event - how far can you throw it to your partner before it breaks and drenches either you or her?? Survival activities - you just came to this desert island to bury your treasure and now you're stranded. Build a solar still to collect water, try making a fire with no matches.... Communication - how could different pirate ships communicate between each other while at sea? Or how could a ship communicate with the people it had sent to bury treasure on an island? (See codes under "quiet activities") Pioneering - Could you have a go at building rigging with pioneering poles and then letting them climb it? Could they build miniature rafts or sail-powered land yachts with mini-pioneering? Explosives! - ok so pirates would have used real cannons, but there are some ways to do similar things at camp. * Try a ballista battle (see at the top, under "Games") * What about making film canister rockets (as signal flares or cannons)? Note that if you try these, the less water you put in the longer it will take to launch but the higher it will go when it does. You need the film canisters where the lid goes inside the body of it - if you ask a friendly photo development place they'll probably give you more than you can ever use! The alka seltzer tablets cost about 20p each if you buy them in fairly big packets. * Or get hold of a ready made rocket & try it out: Hawkins Bazaar sells various rockets, launched by catapult (catalogue number 01430, costs about £5), jumping on a pressure pad (03312, £15), or bicycle pump (01629, £8) (I've tried the latter and it's really impressive. You need the kit, a fizzy drinks bottle and a bicyle pump, and the rocket goes 40 plus feet in the air! The water from the bottle tends to get the launchers a bit wet but that's part of the fun! And when the bottle comes down to land it's empty so is light and unlikely to cause any damage.) Make a compass by magnetizing a needle, sticking it through a slice of cork and floating the cork in a bowl of water. More detailed instructions on AtoZ Kids Use it for a basic trail or string picture. Treasure hunt - find treasure using a suitably aged map - go to AtoZ Kids or DLTK kids to get an idea how. Navigation - try identifying enough of the stars to find north. Do you know anyone who could show you a sextant? Make a sundial. Water obstacle course - make a string trail through the woods and at one end thread the string through the handle of a mug, or the handle of a full size bucket or a “box of treasure” (full tub of rice?). Patrols have to get the water / treasure from one end of the trail to the other without spilling any. Whoever spills the least wins, you could time them and use the time to break any ties. Lifesaving - have a go at lifesaving or throwing a lifeline so you can rescue your shipmates if they go "man overboard" |
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| Food Pirate ship sandwiches: half rolls, paper sails on cocktail sticks. From Child Fun. Follow a trail to find your tea - at each clue is an item you'll need, eg. a tin of food, a box of matches or a saucepan. Needs plenty of setting up by guiders, and some careful menu planning to make sure none of the food left out will be eaten or attacked by the local wildlife (other than the guides that is!) Please don't do this one for breakfast though - that's a cruel trick to play on anyone, and my guiders did it to me every year when I was a guide, and I haven't forgiven them yet! Treasure tea: As for a wide game, how about something where Guides have to find treasure (tins of food with no labels) and make dinner (they can always trade between themselves). Have done a similar game before and it's good entertainment for leaders! Vicky Moss, GuidingUK. |
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| Songs Pirate ship (click for words and music) Captain Bluebeard had a fish farm (usually sung as Old Macdonald or Captain Birdseye, a corruption of Old Macdonald had a farm) |
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| Oddments Points system: if you want to run a points system at your "pirates" event, how about this one: give the girls a rank - start them all off as kitchen boys and promote them each time they do something good until they become full-grown Cap'ns? Instead of the normal points system, you could ask the girls to try and notice when someone else does something good/tries hard/is kind and then nominate them for a promotion. That way if they are selfish, no-one will get promoted. But by being selfless they would all benefit. (Alice Pinches, via GuidingUK) |