Fun and easy games to play with your unit

Most units have games that girls enjoy playing the most.

Here are some simple and fun games that girls love playing, without needing special equipment or materials.

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, but 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. The other girls need to guess who’s under the blanket.
• Once the girls have guessed who is is, 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 the name backbreaker!).
• If the ball goes between her legs, she's out and must sit down where she is.
• If a girl rolls or throws the ball and it hits someone who's 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's 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 however many you’ve got in the team.
• Both teams sit cross-legged on either side of the room, but with numbers at 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 people (mummy frog and daddy frog) form an arch with their arms, with the 3^rd (tadpole) crouched under the arch.
• 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 the name of an animal, object or action, followed by the word 'splat' - for example, ‘cat splat’!
• The person that is being pointed at ducks down.
• The person on either side of her has to act out the action, so in this example, they have to act like a cat.
• The girl in the middle chooses who acted the best. The other person is out and must sit down on the floor.
• The person in the middle keeps going, 'splatting' people until everyone is out.