Go on a spooky rope walk
You’ll need
- Rope
- String
- Scrap paper
- Pens or pencils
- Blindfolds or Scout scarves
- Spooky objects (find ideas on this page)
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.
Planning this activity
- Tie ropes to mark out a trail, which people will feel their way along. Keep the rope no higher than chest height.
- You could try changing the height of the rope to make the course varied, such as by having some nearer the ground. You could use trees to help hold the rope up or use chairs and tables if you’re inside.
- Have good supervision to make sure people don’t hurt themselves on the rope, such as catching their neck on the rope.
- Space out the objects along the course. You could attach some to the rope and have some placed on the ground, with the rope leading down to them. If you’re including any messy items, have a volunteer at that part of the trail, who can give people something to wipe or wash their hands.
Running the activity
Blindfolds on and guess the objects
- Gather everyone together and tell them that they’re going to go on a spooky walk rope. Depending on the size of the group, you might want to get everyone into pairs, so they can work together to try to remember all the items they’ll feel on the rope walk.
- Explain that everyone will have a go at exploring the rope trail with a blindfold on, if they’re comfortable to do so.
- Explain that there’ll be different objects for them to feel, guess and remember. They should try to keep hold of the rope, and they can take as long as they need to fully explore.
- Depending on the objects you’ve chosen, you might want to reassure people that everything is safe to touch, there’s nothing gruesome and no real creepy crawlies.
- Remind everyone that they don’t have to complete the whole trail if they don’t want to.
- Decide how many people can safely be on the trail at once. The first participants or first team should put on their blindfolds and go the start of the course.
- Start the participants going along the trail. You should have responsible adults and young leaders along the trail, making sure everyone is staying safe and is carefully watched while taking part.
- Once at the end of the course, participants can remove their blindfold. Keep going until everyone has had a go.
What can you remember?
- Gather everyone back together. You should head back inside if you need to. Everyone can wash their hands, while they try to remember all the items they felt.
- Ask everyone to write or draw a list of the objects they can remember feeling on the course. People could do this individually, in small groups or in pairs.
- Give everyone a set amount of time to do this.
- Gather back together in a circle and ask a few people, who are happy and comfortable to, to read out what they felt.
- Now, reveal the objects. They could be collected together, or people could redo the trail with their eyes open. Did anyone manage to guess and remember them all?
To be more environmentally-friendly, see what objects you and your volunteer team already own, see what’s on offer in charity shops, or get creative and make your own.
You could put items in empty tissue boxes, ice cream tubs or bags, for people to delve into to keep them hidden, too.
Here are some ideas for objects for your trail:
- Toy or decorative bats, spiders or skeletons
- Witches hat
- Fake teeth or fingers
- Broomstick
- Bag of wet sponges or cooked spaghetti
- Spiders web made of thread
- Slime or jelly. You can make some simple slime with cornflour, or cook up some environmentally-friendly slime
- Shaving foam
- Shapes cut out of card or foam
- Sensory toys, like gooey mesh balls or squishy fidget toys
Ideas to make the trail extra spooky:
- You could set the scene with some eerie music or sound effects.
- You could hang streamers or wool from any branches, so it feels like people are walking through cobwebs.
- You could place some old twigs/sticks on the ground, to make a cracking noise when people step on them. Dry spaghetti or corn/tortilla chips will make a great sound too, so it’s worth checking the backs of your cupboards, to see if you’ve got any that are no longer suitable to eat.
Halloween’s celebrated in many countries around the world, on 31 October every year.
The word 'Halloween' comes from "All Hallows' Eve". In Christianity, this’s the day before All Hallows’ Day, also known as All Saints' Day, on the 1 November.
However, its origins/traditions can be traced back to a festival called Samhain (pronounced Sow-in). Samhain was first celebrated by the Celts of ancient Europe, around 2000 years ago, to mark the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter.
People believe that at this time of year that the barrier or veil between our physical world and the world of ghosts and spirits is at its thinnest. It’s believed that this means the ghosts and spirits can easily between the two realms and enter into our world, but there are practices/rituals to scare away the ghosts and spirits.
You can find out more about where some of today’s Halloween traditions may come from in this Halloween traditions explained video, which is from CBBC’s Newsround.
Reflection
This activity was all about trying new things and being courageous.
When you were blindfolded during this activity, you had to use all your senses, including your sense of balance and awareness of your own body. Did you find this part of the activity easy or difficult? What was it like to not have your sense of sight? How did you feel?
Were any objects easier to guess or to remember than others? Why do you think that was?
Was there any part of the activity that people found scary or any items they didn’t like feeling? Why do you think different people find different things scary, and have different reactions to different textures?
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.
- Visits away from your meeting place
Complete a thorough risk assessment and include hazards, such as roads, woodland, plants, animals, and bodies of water (for example, rivers, ponds, lakes, and seas). You’ll probably need more adult helpers than usual. Your risk assessment should include how many adults you need. The young people to adult ratios are a minimum requirement. When you do your risk assessment, you might decide that you need more adults than the ratio specifies. Think about extra equipment that you may need to take with you, such as high visibility clothing, a first aid kit, water, and waterproofs. Throughout the activity, watch out for changes in the weather and do regular headcounts.
- Dark
Provide some light, so the environment isn’t completely dark. Everyone must be able to see others and move around the area safely.
- 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.
- Craft: Unusual substances
Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using unusual substances, such as powdered paint, ash or dirt. Be aware of any medical conditions that could be affected by what’s being used. Make sure you follow all relevant safety guidance or manufacturers guidelines, where available. Make sure you dispose of it appropriately too, in line with safety guidance.
- You could choose objects that are easier or harder to guess. You could also have fewer or more objects for people to remember and adjust the length of the trail.
- For younger groups, or groups who’d find the rope walk too scary, you could read a Halloween story and pass objects around for people to feel instead. They could do this blindfolded, with eyes closed or eyes open. You could also have some empty tissue boxes with items in for them to guess, rather than them having to do the rope walk.
- For a competitive element, you can score how many items each group correctly guesses and remembers. Or, to make it easier, everyone could work together.
- Remember that some people may not be comfortable with Halloween. You’ll know your group best and be able to decide whether Halloween activities are suitable for your group or meeting place.
- If you’re looking for a rope walk without a Halloween theme, take a look at our Rope walk activity.
- Make sure the terrain is suitable for everyone in your group. The trail could be set up inside if needed, or the items could be explored without a trail. For example, you could put the items into tissue boxes for people to be blindfolded, put their hands in the box and guess what’s inside.
- Anyone that isn’t comfortable wearing a blindfold could close their eyes or cover their eyes with their hands. Alternatively, the activity could be completed with eyes open.
- Make sure you check for any allergies, sensory issues, and fears or phobias. Be mindful to select objects around this.
- Check before and during the activity that everyone is comfortable, and make sure everyone knows that they can leave the activity at any point. It might be useful to agree a signal people can use, such as raising their hand, to stop the activity and come off the trail.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
This activity could be part of a bigger spooky or Halloween-themed event or camp.
People could create their own courses for others to follow, either by designing them on paper or by using objects.