For children, playing is an essential need !
By playing, children discover themself because they set up new relationships between people and things.
Playing is mobilizing your bodily, imaginative, creative energy … Playing is inventing and provoking surprise … Playing is facing difficulties and facing failure … Play is finding the paths of respect and tolerance … Playing is growing.
Here are some ides of games conducted by the scouts :
Place : Big room or outdoor and open field
Players : Minimum 8 , starting from 6 years old
Equipment : None
Time : At least 10 minutes
Goal of the game : Move among a circle of players. By the time a number is said, try not to be inside the circle or you’ll be prisoner.
Start rules : Half of the players form a circle. The other half is outside the circle, far enough from the circle in order not to hear what they say.
Proceeding of the game :
Players forming the circle chose a number between 1 and 12. Then they start counting loudly rising theirs arms
An other number is chosen. The game continue like that until only one player remain free. He becomes the winner.
Place : Outdoor field (beach, plains…)
Players : Starting from 10 years old
Equipment : 4 scarfs
Time : At least 10 minutes
Goal of the game : Two players try to make the other lose his balance, both standing on one foot.
Start rules : Trace with scarfs two start lines separated of several meters. Players are divided in two teams that place on these lines.
Proceeding of the game :
Both teams go on the signal, on one foot, in direction of the opposite line. When two players meet each of them try to make the other loses his balance : they use their shoulders to do it, keeping their arms behind their back. The one that put two feet on the ground is immobilized and is a prisoner.
The winner team is the one that has more player than the other in the opposite camp.
Place : Flat ground without obstacles
Players : Minimum 10, starting from 6 years old
Equipment : Strings for lines
Time : At least 10 minutes
Goal of the game : Race by teams of 2, one walking forward, the other backward.
Start rules : Trace a start line and an end line separated of 10 or 15 meters according to the age of the players. At the beginning players make duo, pairing with a partner that has approximatively the same size and weight. They put themselves back to back and intertwine their arms.
Proceeding of the game : The duos go to the end line. Once they pass it they return to the start line, switching their position. The one who was walking backward walks forward.
Place : Middle room or outdoor with open field
Players : Starting from 6 years old
Equipment : One chair per player
Time : At least 15 minutes
Goal of the game : Two players are in competition to sit on the same chair let empty by a previous player.
Start rules : The group sit in circle on chairs. A player “A” is chosen to go in the center of the circle.
Proceeding of the game :
The player “B”, the one that is directly on the right of the player “A”, need to hit with his hand the center of the player’s A chair and scream the name of the player “C” (who is anybody else in the circle, look picture above)
The competitor “C” runs as fast as possible to sit the empty chair that has been hit
Player “A”, in the center, must to hurry to sit on the chair released by player “C” before that the player “D” (sit on the left of this chair) hit the chair and screams the name of someone. If player “A” don’t managed it, he stays in the center and try again in the next turn.
Place : Middle room or outdoor and open field
Players : Undetermined number, starting from 9 years old
Equipment : A small ball and a bigger one
Time : At least 10 minutes
Goal of the game : The players pass themselves a first ball, then an other one that must try to catch up the first one.
Start rules : The players are sat. One of them receives the little ball.
Proceeding of the game :
At the signa,l given by the animator, the players throw themselves the ball, the little ball represents the impala
The animator after a few time, introduces the second ball that represents the lion. The players pass themselves the lion in the same direction that the impala, the goal being that the lion catch up the impala
If the ball touch the ground, the animator decides who fault it is and the player is eliminated.