Scouts : Programme Ideas

Ideas for Troop Meetings

String Burning
Place a number of bamboo poles in the ground and stretch a piece of sisal about 60 cms above the
ground. Patrols are invited to light fires and burn through the sisal as quickly as possible.

Make a rope ladder
Practice lowering a person from a sandpit, tree, wall or window

Water transfer
Mark out a ?River? about three metres across. In the middle, place two billies, without handles, one containing water, one
without. Supply Patrols with light spars and sisal. The problem - working from the sides of the ?river?, pour water from one billy to the other and back without spilling a drop

Star cans
Create training aids by punching holes in the bottom of tin cans to represent the different constellations. These can be used by pointing the tin can at the light so that light shines through the holes.

Make a beam
Using one sheet of thin card, sticky tape and a 250 gram weight make a beam, with a span as wide as possible that will support the weight at its mid point. Support a drinking glass on a bridge made from a 5 euro note ( you require a crisp new 5 euro note)
Use one tabloid newspaper to build a bridge that will span one metre and hold the largest load possible.
You have 25 minutes. Supply patrols with newspaper, paperclips, staples, glue, objects of varying weights.

Have a bash
This activity is a series of activities perhaps run in base fashion, Patrols spending a short time at each base before moving to the next.

Physical dexterity
# Stand on one leg blindfolded for one minute without moving from a given spot marked out with chalk on the ground.
# Hold a Scout stave or other light spar horizontally with both hands in front of you. Swing it back and forward six times and jump over it without leaving hold.
# Balance a Scout stave or light spar on the tip of one finger for one minute.
# Skip 30 forward and 30 backwards without stopping.
# Do 15 press-ups, clapping your hands on the rise.

Scoutcraft
#Demonstrate the fireman?s lift and the four-hand lift.
#Put a knee bandage on your own knee using your neckerchief.
#Estimate the height of a given feature in the locality (tower, spire, tree, flagstaff, and telegraph pole)
# Set a map using a Silva compass
# Be able to secure a rope to a pole using the Highwayman?s hitch

General proficiency
# Change the wheel on a car
# The lights have fused. How would you deal with this situation?
# Demonstrate how to sharpen a knife using an oilstone.
# Be able to direct a stranger from one point of your town to another not less than 1 kilometre away.
# Demonstrate the proper use of three garden tools

Arts and crafts
# Make a whistle from a piece of sycamore twig
# From memory draw the outline of the tallest building in your locality
# Make two decorative knots
# With your fingernail, tap out the rhythm of any two well – known songs on a table.

Sharpen it
Make sure all of your Scouts know the rules of knife and axe and are able to handle a knife properly and sharpen it when required.

Camp lighting
Devise a lighting system for your tents on camp. Practice wiring methods so that this system can be set up quickly on camp

Compass practice
Place a coin on the ground between your feet and set your compass for 40 degrees. Walk this bearing for 20 paces. Add 120 degrees to the compass bearing, making it 160 degrees and follow this bearing for 20 paces. Again
add 120 degrees to your bearing, making it 280 degrees and walk this bearing for 20 paces. When you stop the coin should be at your feet. Set up a clock-face
orienteering course in a football pitch to enable your Patrols to improve their compass skills Invite patrols to design an orienteering course. Provide Patrols with orienteering maps of a given location. Patrols design a course of 10 points. The course designs are then passed over to other Patrols who must complete
them.

Are you awake in the dark
Patrols are given five minutes to collect in the dark (i.e., with lights out, etc.) something round, something square, a blue object, a yellow object, something weighing approximately a Kilo., and something with a hole in it. (Other
varieties for other evenings).
The swamp
Your Patrol has come upon a swamp containing deadly snakes that can reach up to 1 metre above the surface of the swamp. Cross the swamp. Patrols are given the necessary equipment to make a set of stilts

First aid
Set up a number of first aid incidents and run them as bases, Patrols changing every 10-15 minutes. Incidents might include:-
Road accident, Fall from a truck, Accident to a mechanic, burns of various kinds, axe injuries, boy caught up a tree, child who has fallen from a tree and is caught in branches

The gym
Invite patrols to make a gym for the troop using odds and ends – ropes, pulleys, logs and tin cans

Smells
For a laugh hold a smell-making contest. Each Patrol is given a stove and a collection of food scraps- bacon – rind, onion, apple, mint, coffee, black treacle,
anything that smells when heated. The object of the exercise is to fill the room with as many appetizing smells as possible

Lightweight
Have Patrols put together a rucksack for a lightweight camp, cutting weight to the bare minimum

Sawdust cooker
Patrols are asked to construct a sawdust cooker using a bean tin and some sawdust. Patrol test efficiency of stove by boiling a pint of water in a billy.

Games
Two handed carry. The Patrols line up in file order. The Patrol Leader and Assistant Patrol Leader use the two handed carry and transport each Scout in
the Patrol in turn to the far end of the play area. When all of the Patrol has been transported the third and fourth Scouts carry the Patrol in turn back to their starting point.

Sedan chair
Equipment 2 staves, 1 chair, ropes Each Patrol has to build a Sedan chair and the Troop then has a Sedan chair race

Staves 2
Equipment A stave for each member of the Troop. Troop stands in a circle and each holds a stave by the top by press the palm of the hand on the top of the stave. Each Scout should be about a meter apart. On the command the Scouts change position by moving clockwise or anti clockwise. As they move they leave the stave standing. The object is to catch the stave in the same way, using the palm of the hand, before it falls. A Scout that allows the stave to fall is out.
However, the space left in the circle is not filled so as the game progresses the gaps get bigger so adding to the difficulty. Winner is last Scout holding a stave.

Find it
A football is placed in the middle of the hall, and one Scout from each Patrol is blindfolded, each starting from different positions but all an equal distant from the ball, crawls forward to find the ball. His aim is then to return to his Patrol with it. Each Scout must crawl on his stomach the whole time, unless the Scooter prefers them to be on all fours. If a Scout finds the ball, the others can try to take it from him by any means possible until the ball reaches a base. A struggle may result. Should the ball be returned to the wrong base, the owner of that base wins. Some prefer this game to be played in dead silence, while others allow
Patrols to shout advice and directions to their representative.

Over and under
The Patrols line up in file order. The Patrol Leader runs to the front of the play area, and touches a marker, returns to the front of the Patrol and crawls between the legs of the Scouts, through the Patrol, touches a marker behind the Patrol and returns to his place over the backs of the Patrol. When he is in place, number two sets off over the back of the Patrol Leader, runs to the marker in front, back and under the legs of the Patrol, over the backs of the Patrol and back
into his place. This is continued until the whole Patrol has had a turn.

Elephants
Equipment: 4 staves, 4 lashings per Patrol The staves are lashed together to
form a 50cm square with the ends protruding to form tusks (the end of the staves which are forming the tusks should be covered by lashing a coat or other soft buffer to the ends of the staves). A rider sits on the elephant thus formed and the rest of the Patrol carry the elephant into battle, charging other Patrols until their rider is unseated or touches the ground

Rustler
Select one Scout from each Patrol to be a ? Rustler ? and send him to another Patrol. Using two ropes they have one minute to tie him up, being careful not to tie any of the rope above his shoulders. The first ? Rustler ? to free himself
earns his Patrol a point.

Scouts : Programme Ideas

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Ideas for Troop Meetings