Scout Games Backpack

Here’s a great idea from The Trainers Corner blog: A Scout games backpack is filled with games and various items for quick game ideas. As you can see from the picture, which has some of the contents of my backpack, there’s a lot of things that can be turned into games.

Among the contents are balls, balloons, note cards, spoons, sticks, ropes, game tokens, dice, and a really old cell phone (which I love – and it always gets a laugh). So now even if I don’t have time to research a game, I have one at hand. We can do a spoon and ping pong ball relay. We can do a game where you pass the balloon along without using your hands. We have bean bags that we can use for a bean bag toss. We have a great giant cell phone to play Guess Who’s Calling. And of course a notepad and pencil to keep score, or use for a quick game of hang-man.

I don’t even have a game in mind for some of the items. But in a pinch, you can make a game out of almost anything. The contents of Jeff’s backpack are designed for Cubs. Here’s what I would include for Scouts 3×5 and 4×6 Index cards and Sharpie markers – Any number of games and contests can be invented with 3×5 card.

There are some examples in this post A deck of Playing Cards – great for randomizing teams (all the hearts over here, clubs over here, etc.), skimming into a hat, and playing cards.

Poker Chips – used as markers, score keepers etc. Newspaper – a few sheets for one of our Troop’s favorite games The Wacker of Death Duct Tape – On principle alone every backpack should have a roll of duct tape. Good for marking lines, etc.