Barnyard Bedlam
Many thanks to Barb Wright for posting this game to the Guide Mailing List!
Supplies: Peanuts in the shell (enough for a handful for each girl, doubled or so), Lunch bags or similar container
Preparation: Use a large field or lightly wooded area (where you can still see all the girls). Shortly before game time, when the girls aren't around and when they won't be coming back to that spot, have a leader distribute little piles of three or so peanuts in obvious and not obvious spots around the field -- at the base of tree, on top of a stump, in the shadow of a rock -- etc. Make lots of piles if you want a long fun loud game!
Before Playing: Away from the site, divide the girls into two or three groups. Make someone in each group the Farmer, and the rest in each group choose an animal to be (farm, forest, bird, whatever theme you've chosen). Each group must have a different animal. Each group practises making their animal's sound.
Explain why you are using peanuts -- if they aren't found, they feed the animals, or biodegrade!!
Explain the rules: They cannot go out of bounds for safety reasons. (Show them the boundaries, don't just tell them.) On "go", the animals (not farmers) from all groups will spread out and look for peanuts hidden around. They cannot talk at any time!!! (for reasons explained below) Once an animal finds a hoard of peanuts, she does not touch them or talk about them. She stands with her toes pointing toward the peanuts and makes her animal's noise *AS LOUD AS SHE CAN*! (
The farmer has to listen for her animals' noises. She hustles over to her animal (there's often more than one at once!) and picks up the peanuts.
The "Bedlam" part comes in because: 1. There are girls everywhere making loud noises (strategy is for teams to split up so there could/should be 3 horses in different spots neighing!) 2. If a horse sees a pile and is neighing, a cow can run over and start mooing: whichever Farmer hears first and gets over, gets the peanuts.
The Farmers have to listen well, and judge which pile to pick up first.
Playing: Bring the girls to the site, and turn them loose! You don't have to have winners if you don't want, but the girls do! If you play it a few times over the day, with only a few piles each time, the different teams have a chance to win. Compost the peanuts that were used in the game, but give the girls the extras that weren't on the ground as a snack.
Warning!!: You should substitute some other food besides peanuts when playing this game with a large number of girls you are unfamiliar with, or if you have children with nut allergies in your group. Other suggestions for foods would be clementines or wrapped candy. If you decide to use wrapped candy, keep a list of your hiding-sites and check them afterwards to make sure all candy has been found... you don't want little forest creatures eating the wrappers!
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