Scout Skill Relay Games for learning the Scout Oath, Law, Motto Slogan
and Outdoor Code
(or just about anything)
When I was a Webelos and Boy Scout, back in the 1970s we did a lot of what were called "Scout Skill Relays".
The Basic pattern was consistent across them all
At one end was a line of scouts, usually by Den or patrol, but sometimes by rank or age (to make handicapping easier)
At the other end was an adult with slips of laminated paper, and a laminated board.(and often a cheat Sheet)
One at a time, scouts ran down to the adult, picked one piece of paper and either
- Put the paper on the board in the right order,
- Or Practiced the skill (tieing knots etc)
CubScout Ideas has a similar game for earning BOBCAT, if you want to go see that.
You can use these for all levels of scout skills, from Learning Bobcat, to Mastering the Oath and law as webelos to knot tieing, map symbols and first aid for boy scouts,
For now lets talk about the first one.
On the board is "The Scout Law"
So lets imagine one of the games in Detail
On the floor are the following piece of paper (1 per comma)
A Scout is,
Trustworthy,
Loyal,
Helpful,
Friendly
Courteous,
Kind,
Obedient ,
Cheerful ,
Thrifty,
Brave,
Clean,
and Reverent.
All face up
But they are all mixed up in a random order
The scouts run down and pick the next one and add it to the top of the board in correct order.
The Adult tells them if it,s right, or wrong
If wrong they have to take it back off the board and put it with the random ones, if it's correct they leave it...
either way, they run back, tag the next scout in line, and return to the end of the line.
The first line to get all the piece onto the board correctly, wins the relay.
We had a point system for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place, and the points were accumulated for the Lead Patrol that got to be in front on hikes parades, etc... and got a special ribbon to go on the patrol or den flag.
I thought it would be really nice to play these games, but my Den/Patrol meets outside, so the pieces of paper would blow around...
So I printed them all out on magnets, and the magnetic dry erase board instead of a large piece of paper for the "board".
The Scout Law magnet is at the top, so everyone knows what we are working on.
the rest are at the bottom
Boys pick the next one of the bottom and add it up under the ones there already
Everything else is the same
I've got 2 sets, so I can divide my Den/Patrol in half and they can play against each other ( always swap the team around after each race, at the Cub Scout Level, make sure to swap the best players around so each side gets roughly the same number of wins.
To make it easier for the cub scout level, we will have a 2nd adult, back with the boys who has a cheat sheet and can help the boys in line practice the Oath and law, etc...
Just to make it easy, here are my quick and dirty word docs, all you have to do is print them out on the special magnet paper, cut them out and find something magnetic to play on..
with my boy we did it on the front of the fridge, just for fun/practice.
Boy Scout Oath, Law, Motto, Slogan, and Outdoor code 2 pages
and
Here is one for the learning the points of the compass
Here is one for learning all the knots they will use as boy scouts, and are supposed to have learned as cub scouts, plus some extra ones for later, like Blind folded and one handed to keep the game fun.
Just so you can print them yourself,
Here are the sheets you use if you have an inkjet printer: 5 for $9
Here are the sheets you use if you have a Laser Printer 10 for $28
I'll try to make more, like basic knots, first aid, skills, and such and add them here later
Please realize these are just done quickly with word doing all the formatting, so the boxes are not all the same size... but it's good enough.
If you want to make your own and like me that kind of thing bothers, you , get the magnetic business card sheets, and get a business card template and work from there... it's all pre cut, and they will all be the same size. I was trying to get the most games out of the least sheets.
