Play Skippyroo Kangaroo
You’ll need
- Blindfold (optional)
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 game
- If you’ve got new members in your group, you might want to start with a reminder of everyone’s names.
- You could try a simple name game, starting with everyone should stand in a circle. One person should throw a ball to someone else, and either shout out their own name when they catch the ball or shout out the name of the person they’re throwing to.
Running this game
- Everyone should sit in a circle.
- One person should move to the middle of the circle. They’re the first Skippyroo, the kangaroo. They can sit down or crouch if they want to, just like a kangaroo.
- Skippyroo should close their eyes or put on a blindfold. A Scout scarf or necker makes a great blindfold.
- Everyone else should say or sing the first part of the rhyme: ‘Skippyroo, kangaroo, dozing in the midday sun.’
- An adult volunteer should point to someone in the circle.
- The chosen person should go up and touch Skippyroo’s shoulder, and say or sing the rest of the rhyme: ‘Guess who’s caught you just for fun?’
- Skippyroo tries to guess who’s touched them on the shoulder, without looking. If they guess correctly, they swap places. Skippyroo could be given just one guess, or have two or three guesses.
- The game continues until everyone has had a chance to be Skippyroo.
- Everyone could guess which country this game comes from. Where do kangaroos live? Did you know that in Australia, the youngest Scouts are called Joey Scouts? Joey is the name for a baby kangaroo.
Reflection
This game was all about trying something new from another country, and being a citizen by getting to know everyone in the group. This is a great game to practice listening skills, and to help remember everyone’s names.
Skippyroo kangaroo
- Was it easy or difficult to guess the right person?
- Did you enjoy playing this game? Was it fun to try a new game, from another country?
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.
- Contact games and activities
Make sure everyone understands what contact is acceptable, and monitor contact throughout the activity.
You can choose how many guesses Skippyroo gets. If it’s tricky to think of names, Skippyroo could be told two or more names, and have to choose between them.
If people in the group struggle with hearing, everyone could say or sign the whole rhyme together, and Skippyroo can guess who the person is by gently feeling their head. How tall is the person? Do they have short or long hair? Make sure everyone is comfortable with this first, as some people might not like being touched.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
Tell your friends or family about this game and show them how to play it. Do they know any other games they could show you? Ask an adult to help you find something out about Australia and tell everyone next time.
Everyone can share their thoughts on what games they want to play. Do they want to play this game again sometime? Are there any other games they’d like to play?