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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

Mappy chappies

Who knows the local area? Make your meeting space a map of the neighbourhood from memory.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Pens or pencils
  • A4 paper
  • Rope
  • Boxes
  • Sticks
  • A map of the local area

Before you begin

  • The person leading the activity should have a look at the map of the local area, around the location of the meeting place. Use a pencil to circle some local landmarks and points of interest. Draw a border around the edge of the area.

Run the activity

  1. Everyone should sit in a circle. The person leading the activity should give each member of the group a pen or pencil and some paper. Ask them to think about the landmarks around the meeting place. Explain that they shouldn’t think about landmarks outside the border they’ve drawn on the map.

A ‘landmark’ is a natural or manmade feature. It must be something people know about – a point of interest where you might meet a friend or find something you need.

  1. Each person in the circle should think of one landmark and draw that landmark quickly on their paper. They should try to hide their drawing from the person next to them.
  2. The person leading the activity should choose a person to hold up their drawing for everyone to see. The rest of the group must try to name the local landmark from the drawing. When they’ve guessed it, the next person in the circle should hold up their drawing and everyone else should guess what it is. Allow thirty seconds to guess each drawing. If no-one gets it, the person who drew it may say what the landmark is.

The person leading the activity should make a note of each landmark that the group drew.

  1. Once everyone’s held up their drawing, the person leading the activity should explain that they’re going to make a map of the local area and put the landmarks on it. Everyone must work together to map out the roads, rivers, buildings and green spaces on the floor. Each member of the group should stand where the landmark they drew is in real life – they’re the map symbol for that place!

The person leading the activity should make a sign from some paper and a stick to mark where the meeting place is, before the group start mapping roads and buildings. Try to make sure that the meeting place is somewhere near the centre of your mapped area.

  1. If more than one person drew the same local landmark, the person leading the activity should give them a new one to be on the map, from the places they circled earlier. Show them where this landmark is, if necessary. If there aren’t enough landmarks to go around, put the people without a landmark in charge of plotting out the roads, paths and rivers in your area with rope, and any buildings or statues with boxes.
  2. When the map is complete, the person leading the activity should look at the real map of the local area to see how close the group got to getting the map right. If anything’s wrong, see if the group can figure it out. Ask someone to find their way from one place to another, as they would in real life, to see where the map works and where it doesn’t.

Reflection

The group have made a 3D map of the local area. How hard was it to picture which landmarks were where? Did anyone surprise themselves with how much they knew about the area? Did they need to navigate their way to a certain point and was it easier to do this with the 3D map or would they rather use a real one?

Everyone drew a landmark that they knew about in the local area too. Did anyone choose the same landmark as anybody else? What made them choose that spot? How hard was it to think of landmarks that you see a lot, given that it’s often very easy to overlook them?

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.

When creating the map, the group could build their 3D world in the same way as the real world is built. For example, the people who represent local libraries or tourist information centres could be the only ones who are allowed to speak and direct the ones who’re building. Local shops, banks or factories should fetch the rope or boxes, while local businesses and council buildings should lay out any roads and buildings. Natural features like trees and rivers can place themselves.

Give assistance to groups who are less familiar with the local area. The person leading the activity may need to help with scaling the 3D map, so that everything can fit. Young people may not know where every road goes, so these could be mapped out for them by an older person.

  • Anyone who struggles to visualise features and landmarks may need extra help and advice. They could use photos or cue cards to remind them of other local places.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Beavers Creative Activity Badge
Navigator Stage 1
Beavers Thistle Award

The group should use their 3D map to think about the landmarks they either didn’t know about or never visited. They should do some research to learn more about these landmarks and why they are popular points of interest for other people.

Let the group use their knowledge of the local area such as it is to map out as much as they can without help.