Fun games to play with your unit

Most units have games that girls enjoy playing the most. Here are some games that girls love playing.

Shark and Seaweed

What to prepare

• Mark out 2 medium sized safe zones (large enough for half the unit to stand in), one on each side of the room.

How to play

• Pick 1 person to be the shark. That person stands in the middle of the room ready to catch the fish (everyone else). The rest of the unit are all standing in one of the safe zones.
• When you say ‘go’, the girls run across the sea to the other safe zone. The shark has to try and catch them. If they’re caught, they stand still where they are and become seaweed.
• People who are seaweed can also catch fish, however they’re not allowed to move off the spot where they’ve been caught.
• Continue playing until you’re left with 1 fish – they then become the shark in the next round.
• If girls stay too long in the safe zone, do a countdown starting from 5. If they haven’t left by then they become seaweed.

Hedgehogs

What you need

• A blanket or a coat

How to play

• Girls run around the room.
• When you shout ‘hedgehog’, they curl up in a ball on the floor with their eyes closed.
• Cover one of them up with a blanket, and the other girls need to guess who’s under the blanket.
• Once the girls have guessed the girl, she uncovers herself and says ‘it’s me’.

Backbreaker (also known as fuzzy grape or monkey ball)

What you need

• A football

How to play

• Girls stand in a circle with their legs spread wide.
• The aim is to roll or throw (gently) a football between the legs of another girl who bends over to defend herself (hence backbreaker!).
• If the ball goes between her legs she is out and sits down where she is.
• If a girl rolls or throws the ball and it hits someone who is out then the thrower is also out.
• Keep playing until everyone is out.

Chinese hockey or duster hockey

What you need

• A duster or beanbag.
• 2 sticks made out of tightly rolled newspaper that is taped up.
• 2 chairs, one at each end of the room.

How to play

• Divide the unit into 2 equal teams.
• Number each team from 1 to how ever many you’ve got in the team.
• Both teams sit crossed legged on either side of the room but numbers are in opposite ends, so number 1 on one team is at the far end to number 1 on the other team.
• Place the sticks and duster or bean bag in the centre.
• The chairs are goals.
• Call a number, those 2 girls jump up, grab a stick and try and get the duster or beanbag into the opposites teams goal.
• Keep going until everyone has a go. The winning team is the one with the most goals.

Tadpoles

What you need

• A beanbag

How to play

• In a circle around the room, girls are divided into groups of 3.
• 2 (mummy frog and daddy frog) form an archway with the 3^rd (tadpole) crouched under the archway.
• The beanbag is placed in the middle of the circle.
• The leader calls out either mummy frog, daddy frog or tadpole.
• The girls in that position then race around the circle and back through their own arch (the tadpole will have to stand up to form the other half if mummy or daddy are running) and tries to grab the bean bag.
• The person who gets the beanbag earns a point for their team.

The name game

What you need

• Plenty of beanbags or rolled up socks

How to play

• Girls and adults stand in a circle.
• The leader calls out a girl’s name and throws the beanbag for her to catch.
• The girl then calls out another person’s name and throws the beanbag to her. Girls aren’t allowed to throw to the person next to her or to a girl or adult that has already had the beanbag thrown to her.
• Keep going until everyone has had a go. The last person throws the beanbag back to the leader.
• Repeat again with everyone throwing the beanbag to the same person they threw to before.
• When girls have got the hang of the game, add more beanbags.

Drama splat

What you need

• No equipment

How to play

• This is like normal splat with a twist.
• Girls stand in circle with one person in the middle.
• The person in the middle spins round and points at a person and says ‘cat splat’ Any animal, object or action can be used instead of cat.
• The person that is being pointed at and ducks down.
• The person either side of her has to act out the action, so for example, they have to act like a cat in this example.
• The girl in the middle chooses who acted the best and the other person is out and sits down on the floor.
• The person in the middle keeps going 'splatting' people until everyone is out.