Malaysia, 23/03/07

Game: Escape amongst the Trees

Place a chair in the centre of the circle. Beaver Scouts form large circle with hands just touching. ‘Forester’ sits on the chair in centre guarding his ‘trees’. Leader walks round the ‘trees’, when he touches a ‘tree’ the ‘tree’ runs round clockwise and back to his place whilst trying to avoid capture by the ‘Forester’.

Game: Trailing Tendrils

The Beaver Scouts run around the room as if they are seeds blowing in the wind

At random points, 2 or 3 leaders or Beaver Scouts stand rooted to the stop with arms outstretched and moving from side-to-side, like tendrils of a plant.

They are plants and they are anchored to an area – either a square marked on the floor or a hoop that they must not step outside

Any Beaver Scouts they touch are ‘stuck’ to them and they join hands with the ‘plant’ to make the tendrils longer

The winner is the last Beaver Scout to stay unstuck

Activity – Sailing Origami boats

Might be a little difficult and wet indoors - but if you can fill a child’s paddling pool you can have some fun

Game: Tide Turn

The beavers stand in a circle. The leader goes round the circle giving each beaver a name of a fish that is found in the South China sea i.e. Black marlin, Barramundi, Grouper, SailFish – the repeat.

 When the name is called, each beaver with that name runs out of his/her space, clockwise, round the circle. The leader then calls ‘Tide Turn’ and the beavers have to change direction and go the other way round. You can make the ‘Tide Turn’ as often as you like with each set of beavers. When the leader calls ‘Tide Out’ the beavers continue running in the same direction and back to their own space.

Bull’s-Eye

Many years ago a young man travelling through the countryside noticed that on many of the barns was a large bull’s-eye painted on it with an arrow squarely in the centre of the target. He thought he would like to meet the great archer, and asked around until he found out the name of the man, who lived in a nearby village.

He introduced himself, and asked the archer for a demonstration of his great skills. “Sure,” said the archer, and they walked to the outskirts of town to a barn. He carried his bow and a quiver of arrows and several buckets of paint and some brushes. He selected a barn site, and carefully took aim at the barn, and hit it squarely in the middle. Then he walked up to the arrow, and carefully painted the bull’s-eye around the arrow. He then proudly stood back and admired his work. The moral of the story is to not be misled by things as they sometimes appear. Often, things are not as they seem.

Blackpool Illuminations, 09/03/07

Colour pictures

Let the Beavers colour some pictures of things in the Illuminations

Game: Put up the lights

Have washing lines stretched between chairs (one per lodge) + (say) 20 card light bulbs per lodge

The Beavers have to peg to the line card ‘light bulbs’ - first to finish wins

Craft:

Colony Lights

Let the Beavers cut shapes out of dark card and then cover the holes with coloured cellophane. Shine a torch at the back of the pictures and see how the light changes colour.

Game:

Repair the illuminations

Start by explaining that the wind has blown down the lights - the Beavers have to run to the centre of the room and collect pictures of things they would need to repair the lights (have pages taken out of catalogues showing hammers, screw drivers, light bulbs etc) - give them say 2 minutes. Then they have to say why they selected those items.

Pearls of Wisdom—Quotes from Baden-Powell

“When you want a thing done, ‘Don’t do it yourself’ is a good motto for Scoutmasters.”