Beaver Scouts : Programme Ideas

Scooter Fun

Over the Christmas period many young people received Micro Scooters as presents. These Scooters offer many hours of enjoyment to young people and an opportunity for us in our programme.

Most young people are content with just ?scooting? around the footpaths of their housing estates and before long the more inventive will start to learn new tricks and introduce such items as small ramps and obstacle courses. Your own Beavers will have their own ideas and no doubt will be able to show the other members of the Colony some scooter tricks and these skills should be harnessed to enhance your programme.

Safety scoot5
In America and some European countries it is necessary for Scooter riders to wear helmets and protective
gear. In Ireland this is not the case therefore you have two types of scooter riders those who?s parents insist on the wearing of protective gear and those who don?t. For the implementation of the ideas outlined below we would recommend that every Beaver wear protective gear. An awareness of safety should be a concern of Beaver Leaders which can be impressed on the minds of the Beavers at your meetings whether it is the ?Safe Cross Code? or the wearing of protective gear while cycling or scooter riding.

Location
Micro scooters need smooth surfaces to travel along. If you have a large meeting hall you may wish to use it for this activity. An idea location is a large paved area such as the car park of the local shopping centre or the school yard. Permission will have to be sought in each case.

Scooter Rodeo
Scooter Rodeo is essentially an obstacle course consisting of a number of items each requiring a different skill or combination of skills to overcome. It is usually run in two ways - a time trail around the course, best time wins, or a point system - points awarded for each obstacle overcome. The rodeo can be run as an individual basis Beaver against Beaver or as an inter lodge competition. If you are introducing a ramp into your course it should be very small - about 100 cm or height of a brick on its flat. The size of the wheels on micro scooters are not really designed to take high impact landings and the control skills necessary to land a scooter correctly need to be learnt. A roll up and roll down ramp is therefore better than a lift off ramp.

Can Drop
Set up a number of empty cans or plastic containers in a row. Give each contestant as many small stones as there are tins in a row. As the contestant cruises down the line of containers he/she aims to get a stone in each containers as it passes it. This can also be made into a team relay event.

The spiral
A large spiral track about 30cm wide is drawn in chalk on the ground, or could be laid out using a coil of rope. The Beavers are allowed a set distant in which they can ?scoot? to build up a momentum. Then they must put both feet on the scooter and steer the scooter to the centre of the spiral without putting a foot down in the spiral area.

Steady and Slow
The object of this ?race? is to see who can ride the slowest. Lay out a course from 15 - 30 metres long with lanes about 30cm wide. On the signal each rider is allowed one push and starts along the trail until the power runs out after that is really a balancing act. Last person to put the foot down is winner or the person who is nearest the back of the track.

Paper delivery
Each Beaver is given a roll up paper and the have to deliver it ?doorstep style? as they do in the USA from a distance as they cruise by. The doorstep can be a series of marked out squares on the play area. The ?delivery? has to be done from a distance so set up a throw line from which the shot has to be taken. Try this feat with both the left and right hand.

Shoe Scramble
A show is collected from each Beaver and placed in a pile in the play area. Each Lodge line up in relay fashion and a Beaver sets out to the pile finds his/ her show puts in on and returns to the Lodge where the next Beavers goes to the pile. First Lodge finished, with properly tied laces is the winner.

Scooter polo
This is simply a game of football on Scooters. Keep it simple 3 or 4 minutes a half and no more than 6 on a team. Lodge against lodge. You can introduce rules and appropriate - two touches and then shoot, blocking and defensive play rules.

Limbo
It is possible to lower the handles on micro scooters which allows the beavers take part in the limbo challenge. A number of poles are set up along a course under which they must travel. Poles can be set at different heights with the lowest height at the end of the course. The poles should be set up similar to the high jump pole in that it will fall at the slightest touch and will fall with the participant so that it will
not cause injury.

To discover everything you need to know about Scooters get your hands on a copy of ?Scooter Mania by Jeremy Case Penguin Books ISBN 0-14 - 131155-X

Beaver Scouts : Programme Ideas

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Scooter Fun