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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing at Scouts. Read more

Discover what this means

Changing chairs

Work as a team to block an opponent in this chair-choosing game!
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Chairs, one per person

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.

Getting ready to play

  • Make sure you have enough chairs, so that each person has one.

Run the activity

  1. Each player should take a chair and place it wherever they like in the playing area. They should then sit on it.
  2. Make sure that chairs are sturdy, don’t use folding or collapsible chairs.
  3. Choose one volunteer to get up and move to the opposite side of the room to where they put their chair.
  4. Explain that the player standing must try to sit in an empty chair in the playing area. They may only move in pigeon steps, which are small steps placing your heel to your toe. Demonstrate how a pigeon walks so that no-one’s in any doubt!
  5. While the pigeon tries to sit down, everyone else should try to block their path by sitting on the chair nearest to the person moving.
  6. Players in chairs may also get up and pigeon-step their way to an empty chair. The pigeon should aim for whichever chair is vacant.
  7. Players should not make physical contact with the pigeon. If a player stands up to try and sit in another chair, they may not return to their old chair and should find somewhere new to sit.
  8. Should the pigeon find a seat, then the person left standing becomes the pigeon.

Reflection

Shepherding the pigeon with chairs required good teamwork, agility and clear communication. Working towards a common goal is a great way to find out things about each other.

Did anyone find themselves working well with a person they haven’t worked so much with before?

Remember that coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress and working together is success.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Active games

The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.

If the game is too difficult for the pigeon, add an extra chair if there’s one spare.

You could also have two pigeons, with two chairs empty, to keep those sitting down on their toes.

If you can’t use chairs, mark places on the places where chairs could be with something that can be moved, like a sheet of newspaper.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Beavers Teamwork Challenge Award
Cubs Teamwork Challenge Award
Scouts Teamwork Challenge Award

Once everyone knows the rules, have young leaders and members of the group run this game.