Gelf 201 Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Hi all, Im after some inspiration for an upcoming task. I am a helper/leader at boys youth group near me for boys from age 11-19 years, every year we go on an end of year camp and the last few years I have been tasked to make an "activity" for the last day. Over the last three years we have made Soap Box Derby style karts, golf ball flinging trebuchets and last year I made potato cannons for them to use (with alot of supervision). All of the things are made in my garage before we go and then we try and get them to make it up and use it during the activity (the potato cannons were made only by me for safety reasons) I need to think of something to make with/for them this year. I have about 6 months to sort it but I dont want to leave it to the last minute like I have done before. I am a carpenter in my day job and can do basic electrics, two of the other leaders are engineers (marine and aerospace) if I should need help so we should be able to do most things. We have a field about 600 feet square to work within and there is mains power available if we need it. Does anyone have any ideas/experiences/memories of things we could do with about 10-15 boys? cheers Gelf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Vimes 0 Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Cup the tops off baked bean tins and tape them together to form a tube. Fill a mess tin with lighter fluid. Put a tennis ball/apple/rock in the tube and hold it over the lighter fluid. Aim well and light the fluid. Listen to the sound of the other team getting hit with apples. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callsign-kid 1,617 Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 (edited) Its quite a simple one but pushball is fantastic fun if you hire one. The rules are a lot like football but obviously you can use your hands. You can have variations on the rules. So you could have a no hands rule. Used to love playing this. It was popular with ages 8 through to 63! It is a bit 'dangerous' too especially with mixed ages because you can go running into one side and have a small person run into the other and the laws of physics provide the comedy. You can have competitions to see who can stand on top of it the longest and all sorts. Also wide games are great. Although they tend to work best in fading light or darkness. They don't cost anything to set up either. Three of my favourite variations are, smugglers, capture the flag and lantern. I find that if there is woodland and general places to hide it works better than a plain field. Capture the flag is quite simple. Two teams on opposing ends of the field. Each team has a flag (a dish rag will do) which is at the back of their half. They cannot touch their own flag or in any way move it. The winning team is the team that gets their opponents flag into their own half first. However when in the oppositions half if they catch you (a bit like the simple game 'it') then if you have the flag you have to drop it where you are and walk to the 'sin bin' and stay there for however long a leader decides, usually a minute or two. If you don't have the flag you still have to go to the sin bin. You'll find the more athletic kids will run straight in and try and run straight out with it. The more resourceful ones can come up with some quite interesting tactics. Decide in their teams who is defending and who is attacking for example. Allow the attackers to go off. Then hide as close as possible to the flag. The opposing attackers believe they are getting in resistance free. They get close to the flag then the trap is sprung. This maximises the time the defenders have to catch the attackers. Very simple, basically cost free and great fun. Lantern is a variation on the above. However instead of moving the flag attackers must turn on a lantern of some kind. Defenders are not allowed within 15 metres of it unless lit. which ever team's lantern has been lit the longest, loses. Smugglers is a bit different and has a bit of a policing theme to it. Again the tactics you can come up with are quite interesting. You have four teams, or whatever if practicable. We used to play this with cutlery. So again basically free. You have teams, knives, spoons, forks and police (or customs). Each team has a base and one member must be at that base. Teams have to swap their items. All swaps must take place in a team base and all swaps must be one for one. Now the police have to catch the swapping teams when they're out of their base. If you're caught with contraband on you, you must give it up. The team with the most cutlery at the end of a set period, usually 15 minutes, wins. Now you could put all your eggs in one basket, have your fastest runner run to a base swap all the cutlery and come back to your base. Of course the problem is, they may not have enough cutlery to swap with you, or you may lose all your cutlery ruling you out. Its a risky tactic. You can distract the police by walking along and as soon as you see one of them, leg it, but a bit too slowly, let them catch you, you have nothing on you. Meanwhile your team mate is taking a slightly more sneaky route and is not seen by them. Edited December 17, 2011 by Callsign-sled1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medic1 0 Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 what about water rockets? thats always fairly easy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gelf 201 Posted December 17, 2011 Author Share Posted December 17, 2011 Cup the tops off baked bean tins and tape them together to form a tube. Fill a mess tin with lighter fluid. Put a tennis ball/apple/rock in the tube and hold it over the lighter fluid. Aim well and light the fluid. Listen to the sound of the other team getting hit with apples. Not sure the parents would be too happy about this, We only just got away with letting them fire a potato cannon last year!! Its quite a simple one but pushball is fantastic fun if you hire one. The rules are a lot like football but obviously you can use your hands. You can have variations on the rules. So you could have a no hands rule. Used to love playing this. It was popular with ages 8 through to 63! It is a bit 'dangerous' too especially with mixed ages because you can go running into one side and have a small person run into the other and the laws of physics provide the comedy. You can have competitions to see who can stand on top of it the longest and all sorts. Also wide games are great. Although they tend to work best in fading light or darkness. They don't cost anything to set up either. Three of my favourite variations are, smugglers, capture the flag and lantern. I find that if there is woodland and general places to hide it works better than a plain field. Capture the flag is quite simple. Two teams on opposing ends of the field. Each team has a flag (a dish rag will do) which is at the back of their half. They cannot touch their own flag or in any way move it. The winning team is the team that gets their opponents flag into their own half first. However when in the oppositions half if they catch you (a bit like the simple game 'it') then if you have the flag you have to drop it where you are and walk to the 'sin bin' and stay there for however long a leader decides, usually a minute or two. If you don't have the flag you still have to go to the sin bin. You'll find the more athletic kids will run straight in and try and run straight out with it. The more resourceful ones can come up with some quite interesting tactics. Decide in their teams who is defending and who is attacking for example. Allow the attackers to go off. Then hide as close as possible to the flag. The opposing attackers believe they are getting in resistance free. They get close to the flag then the trap is sprung. This maximises the time the defenders have to catch the attackers. Very simple, basically cost free and great fun. Lantern is a variation on the above. However instead of moving the flag attackers must turn on a lantern of some kind. Defenders are not allowed within 15 metres of it unless lit. which ever team's lantern has been lit the longest, loses. Smugglers is a bit different and has a bit of a policing theme to it. Again the tactics you can come up with are quite interesting. You have four teams, or whatever if practicable. We used to play this with cutlery. So again basically free. You have teams, knives, spoons, forks and police (or customs). Each team has a base and one member must be at that base. Teams have to swap their items. All swaps must take place in a team base and all swaps must be one for one. Now the police have to catch the swapping teams when they're out of their base. If you're caught with contraband on you, you must give it up. The team with the most cutlery at the end of a set period, usually 15 minutes, wins. Now you could put all your eggs in one basket, have your fastest runner run to a base swap all the cutlery and come back to your base. Of course the problem is, they may not have enough cutlery to swap with you, or you may lose all your cutlery ruling you out. Its a risky tactic. You can distract the police by walking along and as soon as you see one of them, leg it, but a bit too slowly, let them catch you, you have nothing on you. Meanwhile your team mate is taking a slightly more sneaky route and is not seen by them. Thanks for the info, We usually play wide games at dusk two days before, but im sure we could include some of your suggestions into that. what about water rockets? thats always fairly easy? What are water rockets please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callsign-kid 1,617 Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 What are water rockets please? Basically an upturned water bottle or similar (2 litre plastic bottle thing) filled with water and then pressurised with a bicycle pump. Of course sooner or later as the pressure is increased the thing goes skyward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killicksparker 0 Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 What are water rockets please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrative Account 7 Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 What time of year will the camp be? I'm guessing the weather will also play a large part in any activities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gelf 201 Posted December 19, 2011 Author Share Posted December 19, 2011 What time of year will the camp be? I'm guessing the weather will also play a large part in any activities. It will be in May, most likely the first bank holiday, so should be ok weather. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKguy 28 Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 how about rugby? always fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gelf 201 Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 how about rugby? always fun We have played touch rugby, but the trouble is boys cheat, and not everyone is intrested so you just have two small teams of boys who never admit to a tackle, and then it just ends up being full contact and thats not good with 18 year olds and 11 year olds together! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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