Cub scout challenge ideas

Buckshot

Mod
Mod
Jan 19, 2004
6,471
352
Oxford
I occasionally help out at my sons cub pack.
Next week they're having a challenge night and I've been tasked to come up with two of them :yikes:

It's a sort of team Kryton factor idea, 'get from one end of the room to the other without touching the floor using a matchstick and two drinking straws' sort of thing - well not quite that bad but I'm sure you get the idea.

They have two challenges so far:
The first involves teams of 6 or 8, 3 chairs and a few bits and pieces. The idea is to move the group accross the room without touching the floor.

The other is to move a pot back and forth accross a gap as many times as possible without touching the pot, thier some sticks and string to make up a swinging bi pod type thing.

Does anyone have any other ideas I could use, don't forget these are cubs so nothing too technical but any help would be appreciated

Thanks alot :biggthump

Mark
 

hobbitboy

Forager
Jun 30, 2004
202
0
39
Erm... it's variable
mmm....trying to remember games from my days as a youth leader......mmm....
to be fair they were all fairly bizarre games spawned out of late nights and coffee.....but an oldy but goody is the memory tray.

Get a tray with about 20 items on the cubs have to memorise all the items, work out a score system to be appropriate with the other games....

Glow stick grab - (don't know if you've got the space to do it really but will tell you bout it any way) fantastic game and gets em a bit tired! From ebay you can get tubs of around a 100 glowsticks [different colours] for bout 10quid, hide them around a set area (preferably outside) and the guys have to run round (in their teams) to collect their team colour. First to get em all wins. Even more fun if you miscount the glowsticks :roll: that was a long night!

Will have a think for ya today see what else I can remember.....
 

jamesdevine

Settler
Dec 22, 2003
823
0
49
Skerries, Co. Dublin
The good old Kims Game comes to mind. Show them the items. Then have another task and then asked them to remeber as many items as possible.

Easy things like keys, money, hammer, a cuddle toy etc. gets the memory going and easy to set up and tidy up.

Or maybe a blind folded walk team leader guides his/her team through a small obsticale course. It's allot of fun a good team building excersise.

James
 

Womble

Native
Sep 22, 2003
1,095
2
58
Aldershot, Hampshire, UK
I don't know if this is appropriate to the evening - and is reliant on have access to lots of Bamboo, but how about a bamboo maze?

1) Lay out a straight area with 6-8 chairs at various points on the route.

2) Randomly place Bamboo canes on the floor of the route and between chairs, so that there are multiple routes, and that there is no straight route without having to either go over or under at least 2 or 3 canes.

3) tell the cubs they have to get through the maze without touching or knocking off more than 3 canes.

4) (optional) tell them the have to alternate going over/under canes above ground level.

This then becomes an excercise in carefull movement (pre training for a stalking & tracking buscraft course? :)), and in planning as well!
 

bambodoggy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2004
3,062
51
49
Surrey
www.stumpandgrind.co.uk
I don't know if current HSE legislastion would let you do this but I played it in both cubs and scout, it's not quite a "command task" but it's always been my fav cub/scout game...here goes:

All the cubs on one side of the room and a barrier of upturned chairs dividing the room in half, use as many chairs as you can to make the barricade and make it all higgledy piggledy. Then have one cub (usually start with a 6'er) sitting on a chair on the other side of the wall blindfolded and holding a torch. Put a whistle under the chair.

The lights then go off and the cub pack has to make their way across the barrier as quietly and stealthily as possible, there aim is to be the first one to blow the whistle without being caught.
The blindfolded spotter has to listen for noise and flash the torch on to where he/she hears it, they are only allowed to flash the torch on for three seconds and have to keep it still (no point just sweeping with it or there's no game really). The leaders are the judges and quietly call out the cubs that they see have been caught in the light, that's the end of that game for them.
If nobody makes it the spotter either stays or is swapped out at the leader discretion but usually at least one cub will be sneaky enough to get to the chair and blow the whistle.
If space is a problem then maybe use a leader or venture scout as the spotter and let the pack go in 6's, then the 6 with the most whistle blows wins....that is if winning anything is still allowed in cubs/scout....seems to have been banned in schools nowadays....oh, bit political :?: lol

The same applies to this as Womble says below about the beginnigs of stalking etc.....such a top game, I can't say it enough!

Hope that's of use to you Mate.... :p
 

Womble

Native
Sep 22, 2003
1,095
2
58
Aldershot, Hampshire, UK
bambodoggy said:
The lights then go off and the cub pack has to make their way across the barrier as quietly and stealthily as possible, there aim is to be the first one to blow the whistle without being caught.

Ah Submarines* - Top game!


*Don't ask me why it's called that, I've no idea...
 

hobbitboy

Forager
Jun 30, 2004
202
0
39
Erm... it's variable
ooooh thort of another, mark a circle on the ground bout 2metres wide & place a drinks bottle in the middle (easier if its a lucozade bottle). basically the cubs have to get a polo (it needs the hole) in the bottle without going in the circle. They have the following items to help them on their mission:-
2metres or so of string
Straws
Pegs
Tape
Tinfoil, etc.

Very simple when you know how :lol: Answers on a postcard....
 

Buckshot

Mod
Mod
Jan 19, 2004
6,471
352
Oxford
This is exactly the sort of thing I'm after - great stuff guys.
Keep it coming...

Hobbitboy, go on then how do you do it. PM me if you want :naughty:

Cheers

Mark
 

hobbitboy

Forager
Jun 30, 2004
202
0
39
Erm... it's variable
Another slighly messier game is to suspend donuts about head height (make sure they dangle from seperate strings to stop the darling's head cracking together) and then the teams have to eat all the donuts without using their hands in the fastest possible time.
 

shinobi

Settler
Oct 19, 2004
517
0
52
Eastbourne, Sussex.
www.sussar.org
hobbitboy said:
Another slighly messier game is to suspend donuts about head height (make sure they dangle from seperate strings to stop the darling's head cracking together) and then the teams have to eat all the donuts without using their hands in the fastest possible time.

Oh, by the way. Best not to used barbed hooks either :naughty: :naughty: :naughty:
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
Tie a granny knot in the middle of a 4m length of rope. Give each of the two ends to a 6er to hold. How do they undo the knot without the 6er having to let go of the ends?


Then, once they've got the idea, tie a reef knot in two 3 metre lengths and hand the ends to two 2nders.....make it a race six against six.

Toddy (ex Akela)
 

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