Circle Games

All these games involve the beavers/cubs/scouts sitting in a circle. In most cases the circle wants to be fairly wide, with the kids evenly spaced and not quite touching each other as they sit cross legged round the perimeter.

Duck Duck Goose

Props: None.

Time: As long as necessary.

Instructions: One beaver is chosen as 'it'. They then walk round the circle tapping other beavers on the shoulder and nominating them as either a “Duck” or a “Goose”. When a beaver is nominated as a Goose then they have to chase the person that tagged them round the circle. The beaver that is 'it' will run round the circle and attempt to take the Goose's place in the circle, if they make it then the Goose becomes 'it'. If not then they carry on with another round.

Comments:

Chinese Whispers

Props: None, although you might want to write some short messages on a piece of paper to get things started.

Time: a couple of minutes per message

Instructions: A classic game. The first beaver whispers the message to the beaver on their left, and so on round the circle (keeping the volume down so only the next beaver hears). When the last beaver (on the right of the first beaver) hears the message they then tell the whole circle what they have just heard. The first beaver then tells the circle what the original message was.

Comments:

Keys

Props: A set of keys

Time: 5 minutes or so.

Instructions: Number the beavers round the circle so that there are 3-4 each with the same number. The leader then calls out a number (making sure to rotate through them all). When their number is called out the beavers jump up and round clockwise round the outside of the circle until they get back to their own space. They then run into the middle and grab the keys before sitting back down in their own space.

Comments: The central object can be anything that will sit still when put down and is easy to grab. Bean bags work as well as a set of keys and may well be safer.

Catch / Don't Catch

Props: A bean bag or small ball

Time: about five minutes per round.

Instructions: The beavers sit in a circle and a leader goes in the middle. Moving round the circle one at a time the leader throws the beanbag to the beaver, first instructing them to 'Catch' or 'Don't Catch' at random. If the beaver does the wrong thing then they are out. (NB, attempting to catch counts as a catch whether or not it is successful).

Comments: The bean bag/ball needs to be thrown gently so that there is a reasonable chance of the beaver catching it. It makes sense to aim off if you don't want them to catch it so that they don't get hit by it!

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