Christmas Games

Original Source: Tiger, Quebec City, Canada

Wrap a present - Again, in relay fashion, each team has a table with a box, wrapping paper, ribbon, bow and tape. The amount of supplies will depend on the number of players in each team. The idea is to rush up to the table and wrap the box with a layer of paper. The final few players will add ribbon, add a bow, and perhaps a gift tag. You can make this whole idea more interesting by everyone having to wear oven mitts or thick gloves. Small groups can go twice, and maybe with your larger groups the last person has to done some sort of costume and deliver the parcel.
Imagination runs free.......

Another activity that involves everyone is another off-shoot from musical chairs. A large garbage bag is passed from hand to hand and when the music stops, the person left holding the bag removes an article of clothing or decoration from the bag and "puts it on". Play continues til everyone has something to wear and the bag is empty. Make sure and take a group photo for this one! (WARNING: Head lice alert for those caps and hats included in the bag)

Christmas Angel

Original Source: Jane Maddin, 1st Orleans Pathfinders, Orleans, Ontario, Canada

Ecru or white crochet cotton
A small ribbon rose
15 inches of Pearls on a string.
12 inches of narrow ribbon
a small round stiffened doily

(I used a 6 inch Battenburg lace doily, which I stiffened with fabric stiffener the day before and folded in half, and let dry overnight.)
And a lo-melt glue gun

Make a tassle for the body of the angel with the crochet cotton by wrapping the cotton around one hand. (How to make a tassle - One hundred and twenty five wraps made a nice tassle about 4 inches long, on my hand. Tie a piece of crochet cotton about 6 inches long through the loops [this will also be your hanger, so knot it at the top], fold the loops down and tie a second piece about 6 inches long, around the whole thing about one half an inch below the crochet cotton that you tied first. Cut through all the loops at the bottom of the tassle.)

With your fingers smooth out the strings of your tassle. Decide which will be the front and back. The half inch area at the top is her head! Take one and one half inches of beads off the 15 inches that you had to start - you will make her halo with this!
Fold the ribbon in half. Fold the long string of beads in half. Glue the ribbon and the beads together in the center and glue them on to her chest. Take a few strands from the right and left sides of the tassle to be arms. Cut them shorter so that they are the right length. You might want to tie a small piece of cotton around her 'wrists' but you don't really have to. Glue her hands onto the fold in the ribbon and beads - against her chest and then glue the ribbon flower onto of them.

Take the short piece of beads, shape it into a ring and glue it onto the back of her head to be the halo. Don't glue your hanger into the halo!! You may find it easier to glue one end down, wait for it to dry a bit (only a couple of seconds) and then twist the other end around and glue it down.
Glue the stiffened doily onto her back, again being careful not to catch the hanger in the glue.

The instructions look a little tricky, but really this is a very simple craft!

Pine Cone Christmas Tree centrepiece

Original Source: Ann, gsusa - Illinois crossroads council - Palatine

Trim the pine cone so it stands on end.
Spray with green spray paint and then while wet sprinkle with fine white glitter. Glue a small red skirt around the bottom of your tree (tree skirt) and place a few small wrapped boxes on the bottom.

Parachute Games

Popcorn: Place a number of beanbags on the chute. Shake the chute to make them rise like popcorn.
Poison Snake:Place four to six jump ropes on the chute. By shaking the chute, try to make them hit the players on the other side. Keep track of who gets bitten.
Pompoms: Put the pompoms in the middle. Sprinkle various sized pompoms in the top of the shoot and try to get them into the middle pocket. You could have teams with different colours and count how many they get in.
Shaking the Rug and Making Waves: Shaking rug involves rapid movement either light or heavy. Making waves are large movements to send billow of cloth up and down like waves. Waves can be small, medium or large. Girls can alternate turns to see who can make the best waves.

There are many other games that involve running under the chute that can be played with a girl in a wheelchair if someone helps her. Such as
Merry go Round. Turn the body so that the chute is held with only one hand, walk, hop, jump, skip around holding the chute. It looks like a merry-go-round.
Wave Where one person puts hands up and person next to her follows action. (like the wave at a baseball game)
Cathedral Everyone lowers the chute and then on the count of three raise their arms high once the chute is quite high - everyone takes 3-4 giant steps toward the centre and pulls the chute behind them and sit down with their bottoms on the edge of the chute.
Cat and mouse (although some might find this dangerous - just make sure the cat is crawling on all fours and not running upright) One girl - the mouse - is under the chute, everyone is shaking it - quite close to the ground and another girl (shoes off) crawls on top and tries to hunt and tag the mouse.
We try to let everyone who wants to have a turn 'in the ocean'. Everyone is standing and one or two girls (shoes off) go toward the centre and lie down - then we all make waves - it's a neat sensation.
It is also neat to let one lie in the middle and go for a ride - when everyone is holding with one arm and facing the same direction and walking. (merry go round)
If the chute is a large one...the girls love to run (or in the case of the girl in thee wheelchair - roll) underneath and switch places with others - could number them 1 through 5 around the circle- and then call out a number. (lots of screams for this one)

Beans

Character: Active Indoor Outdoor


Can be played with any number.

The Guider calls out various types of beans and the girls perform the correct action.

Runner Beans - run around
Jumping Beans - jump
Baked Beans - lie out in the sun
Chilli beans - shiver
Frozen Beans - Stand still
broad Beans - Stand with legs as far apart as possible
French Beans - say "Oh La La!"
String Beans - stand still, arms straight up.
Dwarf Beans - squat down
Has Beans - fall on the floor

ZipLock Omelet

Each person writes her name on a quart-size ziploc freezer bag with permanent marker.
Crack 2 eggs (lg or extra-lg) into the bag not more than 2) shake to combine them.
Put out a variety of ingredients such as: cheeses, onion, green pepper, mushrooms, olives, tomato, salsa, etc.

Each person adds prepared ingredients of choice to their bag & shakes. Make sure to get the air out of the bag & zip it up. Place the bags into rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes. You can usually cook 6-8 omelets in a large pot. For more, make another pot of boiling water.

Open the bags & the omelet will roll out easily. Be prepared for everyone to be amazed.

Kid's Bag Bread

Original Source: Debby, 68th Pencarrow Guides


Give child a 1 gallon ziplock bag
In the bag place:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbls. yeast
1 tsp. salt
Seal the bag and gently shake until well mixed. Open and add:
2 tbls. vegetable oil
2 tbls. honey
1 cup warm water

Squeeze out as much air as you possibly can and reseal the bag. Squeeze bag with your hands to mix the contents until smooth. Then open the bag and add:

1 cup white flour
1/2 cup wheat flour

Reseal the bag, being sure to squeeze out all the air you can. Knead about 10 minutes. Child can just knead on a table. Place bag in a warm place and cover with a clean towel. Let dough raise until doubled.
Grease bread pan. When dough is ready, punch down and take out of bag and put dough in the bread pan. Cover with a towel and let rise until just above the top of pan. Bake at 350^ for 30 minutes. Enjoy!!!

You could do it as a patrol and shape into rolls, snails or hedgehogs instead of loaves.

Fizzing Sherbet

Original Source: Anne Elzenaar


(plenty for 6-8 girls)

1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp citric acid
1 tsp tartaric acid
2 Tbsp fruit drink powder

Mix all ingredients together well. Divide up amongst you.

We wrapped it up in wax paper - and providing cut straws would be a nice touch :)

Zip-Lock Ice Cream

Original Source: Dori Byron, Michigan
AgeGroups: Pippins/Brownies/Guides/

I have made this very successfully at an outdoor camp (a visitor brought in the ice) and with my Pippin aged 5+6

Ingredients:

1/2 cup milk (it doesn't matter what kind, whole, 2%, chocolate, etc.
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla (you might try other flavourings)

Method:
1.Add these to a medium size zip lock freezer bag and zip shut.
2.Place that bag in a larger zip lock bag
3.Add ice to fill bag 1/2 way, 6 Tablespoons salt (rock or regular)
4.Zip that one shut and shake, turn, toss, and mix the bag. In about 5-10 minutes you will have cold hands and yummy ice cream.

Warnings:
Don't double this it doesn't seem to work.
Be sure you get all the salt off the small bag before you open it.

Catch the Stick

Each player has a stick. Players form a circle leaving about five paces between each other. Each person holds her stick in front, keeping it upright with one end on the ground.
When the leader calls out "Change" each person lets go of her stick and reaches to catch the stick of the person to her right before it falls to the ground. If the stick falls. the person who should have caught it is out. The game is over when only one person is left.

Now for my variations: Only one stick is used, the girls all have a number and stand in a circle with the person in the middle with a stick. The person in the middle calls a number and that person has to catch the stick the person who called the number then takes her position and her number. If the stick is dropped that person calling the numbers remains in the middle.


Original Source: Wendy Baker, Canada

Mora

"Mora" means finger in Italian. This is an old game which is very popular.

Two players face each other and count in Italian, "Uno, duo, tre" and then shout out numbers between the two (this could be in English). At the same time they throw out any number of fingers on one hand. The player who accurately guesses the total number of fingers is the winner.


Original Source: Wendy Baker, Canada

Italian Kim's Game

Give each small group a copy of the map of Italy. Play Kim's game using this map.

After letting the groups study the maps for a given length of time, have them turn the map over and then ask questions such as:-

Which body of water lies to the south of Italy?
What city is almost in the centre of Italy?
What mountains lie in the north of Italy?
What is the name of island which looks like it is a soccer ball being kicked by Italy?
What colour is the country to the east of Italy on this map? etc.

To check, have the groups look at the map again and then repeat the questions so they can see if they had the correct answers.

The give each girl a piece of paper and a pencil and challenge her to draw the outline of Italy. While all of them probably know it is shaped like a boot, let them see how close they can come to the actual outline.



Original Source: Wendy Baker, Canada

Here We Go Around The World Centres

Original Source: Wendy Baker, Ontario, Canada.
AgeGroups: Pippins/Brownies/Guides


Tune: Here we go 'round the Mulberry Bush"

Chorus

Here we go around the World
Here we go around the World
Here we go around the World
To visit……OUR CHALET.

At OUR CHALET we meet the Swiss;
On mountain heights we climb like this,
We might see a goat, or an Eidelweiss,
All at OUR CHALET

Chorus (change last line to)
To visit PAX LODGE

From PAX LODGE we see the sights
Of London Town and city lights
We meet the English on rainy nights
While we're cosy at PAX LODGE.

Chorus :…..
To visit OUR CABANA

OUR CABANA's in Mexico
And off to a bull fight we all go
Arts and crafts to children we show
When saying at OUR CABANA.

Chorus….
And now we go to SANGAM

India's SANGAM is far away
But we'll see the life of Old Bombay
We'll dance and sing all through the day
When we go to SANGAM.

These are the centres for Girl Scouts or Guides
We think of them with joy and pride
For we have travelled far and wide
All around the World.

(Actions can be added, and the chorus could be danced)

Build The Leaning Tower

Original Source : Shelagh Walsh, Canada

Materials: Toothpicks and lots of miniature marshmallows

The Leaning Tower is one of the three parts which make up the Cathedral of Pisa. it was built over 700 years ago and today it leans over more than four meters.

Give each team a supply of toothpicks and marshmallows and challenge them to build the Leaning Tower of Pisa. See which group can build the tallest, skinniest and the one which leans over the most without actually falling over.

Mexican Police Officer

Original Source : Shelagh Walsh, Canada


One person is the traffic police officer. The players divide into teams.

Each PERSON gets 3 dried beans (if the teams are unequal numbers, you could give each team 9 beans, so 2 people would have 4 & 5 beans, 3 people would have 3 beans each.)

Everyone except the traffic police officer are vehicles, cars, buses, trucks, maybe even helicopters or donkey carts. They mill around being vehicles until the traffic police officer holds up her hand "stop." All vehicles freeze, anyone caught moving has to pay a fine of a bean.

At the end (5 minute time limit?) the team with the most beans wins. After playing this a few times last night, it was decided the traffic police officer would actually yell the Spanish word for "stop" (which is alto) because people might be looking the other way. It is difficult to be a good vehicle & watch the traffic police officer all the time.

We like this, because even if you are lousy at it & lose all your beans, the rest of your team might still have theirs, & you might still win!

Simple, practically free (dried beans are cheap), a Mexican children's game, & lots of fun for all ages.

International Chocolate

Original Source: Anne Saywell, Brown Owl, 2nd Bridport Brownies, Dorset,UK


One of the things I do with international trainings is to put bowls of chocolate from different countries around the room. Everyone then has to go round, sample, and decide which countries it all comes from. This is usually very popular (!) and leads naturally to a discussion about how it could be expanded for the girls - looking up places on an atlas or globe, finding the flag, the Brownie/Guide uniform, etc. etc.

Ask a Guider whether her girls would enjoy this activity and I have never had anyone say "no". (Yet!!)

3 International Games

Original Source: Tiger, Quebec City, Canada, goldtiger@videotron.ca
Character: Active


I Sell Oil (Cyprus)

The players crouch in a circle, facing inwards. One of the players holds a handkerchief in the folds of her skirt (or pocket) and walks behind them saying, "I sell oil, I sell honey, my master is dead, and I need money," or something similar, and bending down, pretending to drop the handkerchief behind one of them. If one of the sitters realises that the handkerchief has actually been dropped behind her, she must jump up, run after the seller, and touch her. If she catches the seller before the seller reaches her empty place, she wins and goes back and crouches in her own place, but if the seller is quick and reaches the empty place before being caught, she squats and the other one sells oil. If she is caught, she carries on selling until she is successful.


Fire On The Mountain (Tanzania)

Play with any number of players and a leader. Players lie on their backs and choose a key word that is their signal to jump quickly to their feet. The leader begins by calling, "Fire on the Mountain!" and all the players shout, "Fire!" but remain on their backs. The leader continues to call, "Fire on the ....", changing the location with each call, and the players shout back "Fire!". At anytime and in any part of the sentence, the leader can call the key word and everyone jumps up. As children in Tanzania play it, the last person up is eliminated and the game continues until one winner is left, but you can simply have the last person up each time replace the leader.

Birds, Giants, Dwarfs (Greece)

The Brownies stand in a circle with one Brownie in the middle. She gives the orders: "Birds"; "Giants"; "Dwarfs"; or "Wicked Witch". When the order is "Birds" the Brownies pretend to fly. They walk tall for "Giants" and creep low for "Dwarfs". When the Brownie in the middle calls "Wicked Witch", all the Brownies run away to a place which has been chosen beforehand. The Brownie in the middle chases them, and the first one to be caught gives the orders next.

These three games are the way they play them in their countries. If you wish to make them more "politically correct" to suit your needs, feel free.

International Shopping

Original Source: Doris Cavallin, Ottawa
AgeGroups: Brownies/Guides
Character: Active International

To play: The players are in patrols, gouped 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.

Mexican Camphat Blanket

AgeGroups: Pippins/Brownies/Guides


We had a Special Spark Day, with an international theme last January. One of the crafts the girls did was to make a Mexican camphat blanket. You know those woven Mexican serape type blankets that are available. Those really colourful ones with the fringes.

Well, here is our camphat rendition.

1. Cut out some pieces of felt, 3 inches, by 5 inches, any old color will do. Fray the ends by just snipping the long ends in about a half inch each.
2. Pre cut a huge batch of very bright colourful yarns to the exact length of your felt blanket strip, minus the frayed edge ends - probably 4 inches long would be good.

Give the girls each a felt 3 x 5 piece of felt with frayed ends. Give each girl a film canister of white glue and a Popsicle stick. Let her choose the colours of wool pieces she'd like to use (give them lots of choice and many bright solid colours)

Let them go wild with the gluing on of the yarn strips. Have them glue the strips very tightly together along the length of the blanket.

Some girls just make a hodge podge of colour, others choose to have coordinated colour coded patterns. Whatever they choose, they are all beautiful when the glue dries.

Supply with a gold pin to pin it to their hats.

International Teams

Lucky for us it's the holidays and I can sneak some extra time on the computer ..... I am trying to come up with International ideas at the moment with August being International Month.

Game: International Teams
Original Source: Te Rama
AgeGroups: Guides/Rangers
Character: International

To get people into teams;

Make up a set of cards with a country and the foods traditional to that country, the number of foods would depend on how many you want in a team.
ie. Mexico, nachos, tacos, tortilla, enchiladas - 5 cards per set.

Pin a card on each persons back and ask them to find their group.

Ideal for parents evening, international evening, or when another unit visits.

Try to have food from each group for supper.