Games - some equipment needed

These games need some equipment and are possibly more suited for indoors.

Click the game title to expand the details, or expand all /collapse all.

• Can you find the ring
  • Equipment - a ring of some kind and a long rope or long piece of thick string.
  • You can use this game to start the meeting as by a Leader letting the rope out you can add girls all the time.
  • You choose a Brownie to be the one looking for the ring; the rest of the unit stand in a circle holding the rope and pass the ring around without the Brownie in the middle spotting who has the ring. If Brownies make believe they have it makes it more difficult. You can sing "Can you find the ring, Can you find the ring, It’s going round from hand to hand, Can you find the ring". At this point the Brownie in the middle guesses who has the ring. Make sure if you use your wedding ring you keep an eye on it when finishing the game!
• Land Sea Shore
  • Equipment - a long piece of rope large enough for all the girls to kneel in front of the rope in a circle.
  • When you call "land" they have to put their hands between their knees and the rope; when you call "shore" they must put their hands on the rope; and when you call "sea" they put their hands in the middle. This is a good one to test their honesty. and a Pack Leader can watch for those that do it wrong and then, as they are out, they can help. You can speed the calling up depending on how good your Brownies are at the game.
• Indoor Hockey
  • Equipment - two spoons (or two rolls of newspaper) and a bean bag, and a chair each end of the hall for the goal posts
  • With two lines of Brownies sitting on the floor facing each other, number the girls 1-12 (or as many as you have) one side and 12 to1 the other side. You call out a number and the Brownies that have this number try and get the beanbag under the chair front to back.
  • This is a very noisy game, and I suggest you don’t play it on a first night with new Brownies as the Brownies shout enthusiastically for their team member.
• Paper balance
  • Equipment - a piece of newspaper for each girl
  • Music or a whistle. The Brownies have a sheet of paper each and when the whistle blows they have to stand on the paper. You then tell them to fold the newspaper in half and play it again. You keep blowing the whistle and folding the paper until the girls cannot balance on the paper. If their feet touch the floor they are out. The Brownies that fold their paper carefully will be in the game longer.
• Sent a letter to my love
  • Equipment - hankie or a small piece of material
  • Circle of Brownies, and one Brownie goes round saying/singing " I sent a letter to my love and on the way I dropped it." She drops the hankie behind someone and they must chase her round the circle. The idea is that the one who dropped the hankie takes the place of Brownie who chases her place.
• Tunnel Ball or Overhead ball
  • In Sixes pass the ball over heads to the Brownies behind, the back one then runs to front and repeat.
    You can do the same thing between legs, hence tunnel ball.
• Team game with each Brownie a number eg 1-6
  • Call out things with a numerical significance, like milking stool (3), number of Leaders in the Pack (?). leaves on a trefoil (3), 2 plus 2 (4), etc. You will think of loads for this.
• Squiggles
  • Equipment - paper and pencil for each girl
  • Give the girls small pieces of paper and a pencil – get them to draw a circle or snake or question mark, or any shape you can think of, and ask them to turn it into a picture. Walk round and pick the best one.
  • Variation on this one
  • Give all the girls a piece of paper with a number of boxes drawn on; give them 5 minutes to turn each box into a item, eg case, train house etc. When they have finished you can get them to count how many boxes they have altered to an item. You then can praise them for lots of ideas, and then when planning your meeting you can say, you had lots of ideas for the boxes, let,s have lots of ideas for next term
• Noughts and Crosses
  • Equipment - 9 chairs laid out in rows of 3 wide and 3 deep
  • Divide the girls into two teams by what uniform they are wearing, or give one team hats, ribbons etc. They have to play noughts and crosses using themselves.
• Playdough words
• Playdough for each Six
• The Brownies come up and you give them a word (have 4 lists). The Brownie then goes back and without talking makes the playdough into a word. When the Six guess it the next one comes up.
• Chocolate Game
• Equipment - a pair of gloves, a hat, scarf, and a large bar of chocolate (Galaxy is best as it has smaller squares), keep it cold. Two dice and two cups, knife and fork
• The Brownies sit in a circle and take it in turns to throw a dice. If they throw a six they run into the middle, put on the gloves, hat and scarf, and cut a square of chocolate (make the rule only one square each)
• Story telling
• Have a bag of various objects and get each girl to add a sentence to a story using the object that they pull out of the bag. Make sure a Young Leader is with the shy or new Brownies to help them.
• Policeman, Detectives, Traffic Warden
• Equipment - you need to make lots of cards like number plates, with car numbers written, one number on each card. You spread these around the hall.
• The Brownies sit in their Sixes and each girl is either a Policeman, Detective or a Traffic Warden. You then make up a story; the traffic warden was walking down Reigate High Street and he noticed a car parked on a double yellow line. The number of the car was ABC123. As soon as you have given the number out the Traffic wardens from each Six have to find that number. The Six keep the number and at the end of the game you count up which Six found the most cards. This needs preparation but is a good game to make the Brownies listen to a story.
• Musical Tap
• Equipment- 1 short stick (or wooden spoon)
• Brownies stand spaced out in a circle. Give the stick to one of the Brownies - start some music. The Brownie with the stick taps it on the floor in time with the music, saying "One Two Three, pass to me". She then passes the stick to the next Brownie who does the same and it goes round the circle. When the music stops the Brownie with the stick is out and sits on the floor so that the gap widens. The last Brownie in wins
• Fastest way to move a ball
• Make a big circle and pass two balls around, one going one way and one going the other. Time how long this takes. You can do it twice and see if they can beat the first time. Then ask the girls how you can speed this up; let them say and try and do it. Gentle lead them into thinking about breaking down into Sixes or small groups and then time how long this takes. The quickest way would be a small Six – all put hand in the middle and one person touches the ball around the hands. This shows them that working in small groups can work well.

 

Denise Kinrade
March 2008