GAMES

Career Choices
Sam Houston Area Council

• On an old sheet or a large piece of paper, draw a design similar to that shown.
• Vary the choices as you like and add or delete choices as needed for the Scouts.
• Using bean bags (for the sheet) or pennies (for the paper),
• Have each Scout in turn toss the bean bag or the penny onto the drawing.
• The Scout must pronounce the career and describe what that career does.
• Award points for each correct answer.
• Assign some places with extra value points, such as
  • Engineer – two extra points
  • Teacher – three extra points
  • Volunteer – five extra points
• The winner is the first Scout to reach a designated number of points.

Running Interference
Sam Houston Area Council

Set Up –

• Create a playing area by setting up two 30’ long ropes (or tape or cones) on the ground parallel to each other. They should be a good distance apart.
• Divide the Scouts into three groups of about equal size.
  • Group 1 will be the “senders.”
  • Group 2 will be the “interferers” and
  • Group 3 will be the “receivers.”
• Position the Scouts as follows
  • Group 1 stands outside one of the long ropes
  • Group 2 stands in the middle.
  • Group 3 stands on the outside of the other piece of rope.

To play.

• Cubmaster will give Group 1 a specific message (written on a paper in large writing beforehand)
• Group 1 tries to “send” this message to Group 3.
• Group 2 tries to interfere with the transmission of the message.
• Group 1 may only use verbal clues (i.e., many not write anything down) and may not cross the line.
• Give Group 1 about 20-30 seconds to plan a strategy of sending the message before the game starts.
• Once started, Group 1 has 20 seconds to transmit the saying.
• Group 2 waves hands, yells, anything they can so that the message does not get across.
• After 20 seconds, end the attempts.
• If Group 3 can repeat the message correctly, Groups 1 and 3 win.
• If Group 3 cannot repeat the message exactly, Group 2 wins. Rotate two additional times so every Scout gets to play in each position. This game is VERY loud.

Suggestions for messages –

**Do Your Best

**A Cub Scout Follows Akela

**Obey the Law of the Pack

After the game –

Have Scouts discuss what worked well and what didn’t.

Ask - Isn’t it always true that there is some kind of interference going on whenever we try to communicate with others? This should not stop our attempts.

The Car Mechanic Relay
Sam Houston Area Council

Divide Scouts into teams and place in lines.

Each Scout in line is a “car” and has something “wrong” with it.

The Scouts first in line have a flat tire and can only hop on one leg.

The Scouts second in line can’t go forward and have to go backwards.

The Scouts third in line have broken steering wheels and must travel in a zigzag fashion.

The next Scouts have “rusty transmissions” and have to take three steps forward and two backwards.

The den leader or a parent stands a distance away and is the “mechanic.”

On signal, Scouts must travel with the “car problem” to the adult. Once there, the car is fixed and Scouts race back to their team to tag the next “car.” (Other ideas – windshield wipers are broken so the Scout has to walk with hands in front of his face, waving; other tire is flat, so Scout hops on the other leg; etc…)

The first team to get all their cars fixed wins.

Space Shot

Alice, Golden Empire Council

Each boy gets a “Space Ship” made by stapling or gluing two paper plates together. 

They each add a name and decorate their ship with markers. 

Each boy can describe where his ship would be heading if he grows up to be an Astronaut or Time Traveler. 

Boys take turns throwing their ship out into space and try to go through the circle made by bending a wire hanger into a circle and hanging it from a doorway. 

This could be a team game, with each team scoring a point each time one of their ships makes it through, or they can just have fun!

Balloon Rocket Flight

Alice, Golden Empire Council

There are lots of variations of this idea, but here is one from the American Museum of Natural History – Great fun, so make sure you have plenty of long balloons!

Materials:

Balloons—long, thin type

Clothespin—spring type

Drinking straw

String—at least 5 feet long

Tape—Scotch or masking

Directions

1.     Inflate the balloon, but do not tie it. Instead, use the clothespin to clamp it shut securely.

2.     Release the clothespin. What happened?

3.     Reinflate the balloon and clamp it shut with the clothespin again.

4.     Thread the string through the drinking straw. Tape the long side of the balloon along the length of the straw.

5.     Either tape the ends to two opposite walls or have two people hold the ends. Whichever you do, make sure the string is taut.

6.     Slide the balloon-straw assembly along the string until the clamped end reaches the wall or the end of the string held by a person.

7.     Release the clothespin.

Explanation:
A rocket's movement depends on Newton's Third Law of Motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When a rocket blows out gas at high speed in one direction (action), the rocket is pushed in the opposite direction (reaction). The gas pushes against the rocket and the rocket pushes back just as hard against the gas.

The balloon works the same way as a rocket does. The compressed air (gas) inside the sealed balloon pushes outward in all directions, but as long as the gas can't go anywhere, neither can the balloon. As soon as you release the clothespin, the gas blows out the back at high speed (action). It pushes the balloon away in the opposite direction (reaction).

A space rocket works in basically the same way as a balloon rocket except that a space rocket doesn't expel all the compressed gas at once. It burns fuel to resupply the compressed gas and keep the reaction going over a longer period of time.

Looking Ahead

Alice, Golden Empire Council

Divide into several teams, use family groups, dens, or those seated at the same table.  Give them a list of questions to answer:  Some examples are:

• What one thing do you think will be different in 20 years? 
• What kind of money do you think we will be using? 
• Do you think we will still use wires or cords for electricity?
• Will people still use cell phones and computers, or do you have a different idea? 
• How about houses? 
• How about transportation? 

Have each table or group report on what they decided.

Dress for Success Relay

Oregon Trail Council

Materials:

List of careers that will be called out

Large box filled with two items per career

To play:

Divide boys into two or more teams.

The leader calls out the name of a career; the first boy runs to the box and finds two items for that career.

He puts them on, runs back to his team as fast as he can,

He removes the items and gives them to the next boy.

The leader calls out another career.

The second boy runs to the box, places the items from the first boy into the box, and takes out items for the second career.

The game continues until every boy has run at least once.

What Do I Do Charades

Alice, Golden Empire Council

Prepare a list of different occupations and cut into slips.  One at a time, boys or even parents come up, choose a slip and act out that occupation.  If you divide into teams, it will be even more fun!

Rancher, Teacher or Astronaut?

Alice, Golden Empire Council

Each family, den or individual gets a piece of paper and a pencil.  They must list as many occupations as they can think of in a given time.

Four Corners

Donna, wife of Baloo

Pick four corners or spots and give each spot a name of a career (Engineer, Fire Fighter, Police Officer, Teacher).

Place a sign in each corner with a picture of a person in the career for that corner.  

Gather the kids together and point out the four corners and their names. 

Choose one child to be "It".

"It" stands in the middle of the area or room, covers his eyes, and counts to 20 while the other players run to the corners. 

Keeping his eyes closed, "It" calls out the name of a corner. 

Everyone in that corner is out of the game.

"It" closes his eyes and counts again while the remaining boys all run to a corner again. 

The game continues until only one person is left who then becomes "It" for the next round.

Geometry

Sam Houston Area Council

Materials – Tie several shoestrings together to form a circle. Have several sets of circles.

Direction –

Divide Scouts into teams so each team will have a shoestring circle.

All the Scouts must use both hands to hold the shoestrings.

The team is asked to form an equilateral triangle, or some other simple shape.

However, no Scout may talk during the activity and everyone must continue to hold the shoestrings with both hands.

Once successful, ask the Scouts to form other shapes.

An alternative for the older Scouts would be to ask them to do this activity with their eyes closed.

Passing The Buck
Catalina Council

Equipment:  A glove, a beanbag, a small rubber ball, or any other tossable object.

The Play:

• Have everyone stand in a circle.
• The ‘buck’ is a small object that can be tossed easily from player to player - a glove, a beanbag, a rubber ball.
• Toss the buck to a player in the circle.
• The person catching the buck must begin to tell a story - something made up on the spot.
• The player holding the buck tosses it to another player who must catch it and continue the story.
• The story can take any form just as long as there is an attempt to connect it to the last player’s contribution.
• Players must not break the flow of the story no matter how fast the buck is passed.
• Those who have the buck must speak - if only a few words —and then they can toss it to another.

Paper-Stacking
Catalina Council

Equipment: As much scrap paper as possible

The Play:

• Clear a large, open space in the room.
• Divide the group into two teams or into several small ones.
• Each team gets an equal pile of paper with which to build a tower. No other materials — no staplers, tape, or glue can be used to construct the tower.
• Papers should be folded to reinforce construction.
• The tighter the paper is folded, the stronger it gets but it also gets smaller.
• Loosely folded paper might provide large building elements, but the construction will be more fragile.
• The team that builds the highest tower wins an award.
• Award citations, also, for the cleverest construction techniques and the most architecturally beautiful.

Variation:

• Have the entire group work together to build the world’s largest paper building.

Wrap-Ups
Catalina Council

Equipment:  Fabric scraps, String of yarn

• For this game, collect as many fabric scraps as you can, the more the better.
• Push all the furniture to the corners of the room to create an open space.
• Place the fabric scraps and string in the center of the space.
• Have each person pick a body part to transform using fabric scraps.
• To get started, suggest that they can wrap and stuff fabric to create cone-heads, huge clown feet, great muscular arms, and fat stomachs.
• Fabric might be wrapped around limbs or tied on with string.
• Coats and jackets can be worn over new body shapes to complete the transformation.
• After these creatures have been created, organize a parade through the room.

Living Clay
Catalina Council

Each person selects a partner. One person becomes a blob of clay, and the other becomes the sculptor. The sculptor molds and forms the human clay into any shape possible without hurting the clay. Arms can be turned, legs can be bent, heads can be tipped, and faces can be pushed into strange expressions. The clay may resist any unreasonable positions. When the sculptor is finished, the creation may be put on exhibit. After the exhibit, sculptor and sculpture should switch places.

Variation:

Divide the entire group into smaller groups of five or six. One person in each group is selected as the sculptor and the others become the clay. The sculptor uses all the others, intertwining limbs and bodies, to form a single sculpture using the entire group as clay.

Balloon Hot Potato
Oregon Trail Council

Materials:

• One balloon for each activity message
• paper, pen

Preparation:

• Write messages on paper,
• Slip one message into each balloon, and
• Inflate the balloons.
• Possible messages
  • Recite the Law of the Pack
• Give the Cub Scout handshake to all den members
• Say the Cub Scout Promise

The Play:

• Den members stand in a circle.
• The den chief starts the game by handing a balloon to the first boy.
• Boys pass the balloon around the circle until the den chief or denner says, “Stop.”
• The Cub Scout holding the balloon then pops the balloon by sitting or stomping on it.
• He performs the indicated action.
• Repeat with next balloon.

WHAT AM I?
Great Salt Lake Council

Materials:      None

Formation:     The Cubs sit in a circle.

• One Cub goes outside the room; while he is away the others decide what he should be when he comes back.
• If they decide on a policeman, for example, they call him back and he has to ask each Cub in turn what he has to buy for himself.
• One will say black boots, another a whistle, another a flashlight and so on.
• If the shopper goes right around the pack without guessing what he is, everyone tells him what he is, and then he picks someone else to go out of the room.

BLAST OFF
Great Salt Lake Council

• Cub Scouts sit in chairs scattered around the room.
• Each is given the name of a planet - Venus, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, Earth, etc.
• One boy is picked to be Mission Control. He stands and says “Countdown”... walking around the room, he calls out the names of various planets.
• When a Cub Scout hears the name of his planet, he gets up and walks behind Mission Control.
• When most of the Cub Scouts are out of their seats, Mission Control shouts “Blast Off’.
• At this, all Cub Scouts - those sitting and those following Mission Control - must find new seats.
• The last Cub Scout to find a seat is the new Mission Control.

VISIT TO THE FARM
Great Salt Lake Council

• Players stand in a circle. One person volunteers to be the Farmer and is blindfolded.
• The Farmer spins around slowly in the circle and then points at someone and names any farm animal.
• The person who is pointed out makes the sound of the animal named, and the Farmer tries to identify who made the sound.
• If he is successful, the person named becomes the Farmer, and the old Farmer joins in the circle.
• Players who make farm sounds may disguise their voice any way they want to.