September - Cooperation

Cooperation is needed to play most games, particularly played in groups and pairs. Our job is to get the children to be aware it. Discuss what cooperation is, and how it might look when playing games they are familiar with like soccer or baseball, as well as what the game might look like without cooperation.

Here are two links (Link 1 and Link 2) to some short group games that demonstrate cooperation quite well. You might want to play these games, then have them assess how cooperation helped them reach their goal.

Two other popular games for scouts are Human Knot and Shrinking Island. Click on the Human Knot link above for instructions to play it.

For Shrinking Island, take a tarp, open it up and place it on the ground. The goal of the game is to get everybody on the island. When they have successfully completed their task, have everyone get off the island, fold the tarp in half, and have them see how many of them can now get on the island. Continue shrinking the island to see how small that island can get and still have everyone on it. You can do this talking or without talking. It's fun to watch the cooperation as they hold each other to all be safe on the island.