Your guide to school holiday activities

Looking for fun and adventure during the school holidays? You’ve come to the right place. 

Whether you’re a parent, carer or volunteer, here’s a list of fun and low-cost activities you can do during the school holidays. 

Complete interest badges  

Support your child to explore a new interest, build their independence and earn badges from home. 

Interest badges are designed so they can be done at home or outside of unit meetings. From blogging and dancing to campaigning and craftivism, girls can pick badges that interest them using our badge finder. 

They inspire girls to build on their independence, try activities they've never thought of before or dive deeper into a passion they love. 

Girls can complete them individually outside of their unit and in whatever way they choose. It could be over a weekend, a whole week, on holiday or in just a few hours. 

Read more about how your child can earn badges at home. 

Check out these adventures at home  

Being an adventurer is a state of mind – it’s being brave and determined, supporting others and finding fun in everything we do. And it doesn’t need to stop when we're indoors or at home! 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we created a series of ‘adventures at home’ activities that means you and your family can get involved in Girlguiding from anywhere. They're still available here for you to follow along video tutorials, join fun challenges or play virtual games. 

Browse our activities for adventures at home. 

Go out in nature 

If you have time to go out in nature for half term, do it! We know girls care about the environment. We surveyed over 2,000 girls last year as part of our Girls’ Attitudes Survey and here’s what we found: 

• 76% of girls aged 7-10 believe that global warming is a very serious problem. 
• 70% of girls aged 11-16 think the government isn’t doing enough action to tackle the climate crisis. 
• 84% of girls aged 17-21 are worried about the effects of climate change. 

To reconnect with nature, you could go camping, exploring or litter-picking around your local area. You could even couple it with our interest badges about the environment: 

• Rainbows – recycling. 
• Brownies – zero waste. 
• Guides – upcycling and conscious consumer. 

Visit our adventure map to find outdoor adventures near you. Volunteers use this to plan Girlguiding trips for girls, but you can use it to research your own family breaks too. 

Have a holiday at home 

Not everyone can afford to go away from home during the holidays. 

Instead, try bringing travel into your home! You and your family can create your own holiday atmosphere from the comfort of your own space. It could be having a campfire in the garden if you have one, building sandcastles or having a spa night in your bathroom. 

Another great way to “travel” at home is by cooking food from a different country. We worked in collaboration with the Black Curriculum to launch 4 new activities for all girls that celebrate African and Caribbean culture. Our activity for Guides called Make a meal of it and encourages girls aged 10-14 to explore African and Caribbean cuisines and make a Kachumbari recipe. 

Other fun things to do 

1. Embrace the dark and go for a walk at nightfall, go stargazing or night wildlife spotting. You can download stargazing apps, print maps of the night sky or visit a local science center.  
2. Build a den at home or outdoors! Fill it with fairy lights, your favourite snacks and watch a movie. 
3. Do some volunteering for your local area. Inspire girls to ‘do good’ and donate their old toys or clothes. Or donate food to a local foodbank. You could even try your hand at volunteering for a local event. 

Check out more fun activities for kids. 

We designed these activities for girls to do with their unit but you could try the recipe at home too. Or look online to recreate your favourite holiday recipe!