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Tent building races

Work as a team to practice your tent building and see who can assemble their tent the quickest.

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You’ll need

  • Stopwatch or phone
  • Cones
  • Tents (one per group)

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. 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.  

Setting up this activity

  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.  
  • Depending on how many tents you have, you could give each group a tent, or have each group use the same tent and time them. 
  • You may want to run the activity Teamwork Tents to learn to put the tent up before running this activity.

Running this activity

  1. Gather everyone together as a group and tell everyone that you’re going to have some tent building races.
  2. For anyone who may need it, you may want to have a demonstration of how to put up the tents your using and what each piece is. 
  3. When you’re ready, ask everyone to get into groups.
  4. Next, decide which type of race you’re going to have. You could have a set tent building race, a relay race or a blindfolded tent challenge.

Tent building race 

  1. Everyone should get into their groups and take a tent. 
  2. Make sure everyone is a set distance away from the tent and decide if the tent can be out of the bag before people start. 
  3. When everyone’s ready, give people a countdown.
  4. On ‘Go!’ the teams can start building the tent.
  5. The first team to correctly pitch the tent, wins.

Tent relay race

  1. Everyone should get into their groups and take a tent.
  2. Set out the cones for each team to stand at and place another cone around 5m away. This is where people will race to build the tent. 
  3. Teams can remove the tent parts from the bag and place them next to the starting cone. 
  4. Each person will take one piece of the tent, then race to their cone and place it their to build the tent. 
  5. They’ll then need to race back to the starting cone and tag the next player in.
  6. When all the parts are across, the team can then build the tent. 
  7. When everyone’s ready, give people a countdown.
  8. On ‘Go!’ the teams can start.
  9. The first team to correctly pitch the tent, wins.

Blindfolded tent challenge

  1. Everyone should get into their groups and take a tent. 
  2. Make sure everyone is a set distance away from the tent and decide if the tent can be out of the bag before people start. 
  3. Give blindfolds out to the team. This could be their necker.
  4. Each team should choose someone to be the leader. This person won’t wear a blindfold, but will help to direct the team.
  5. When everyone’s ready, ask people to put the blindfolds on and give people a countdown.
  6. On ‘Go!’ each team leader can start instructing people to build the tent.
  7. Try to make sure no-one removes their blindfold during the activity, unless they need to or for an emergency.
  8. The first team to correctly pitch the tent, wins.

Reflection

This activity was a chance for everyone to develop their tent building skills. This activity also needed everyone to work in a team. Did you manage to remember the different steps to build the tent? Did people find any steps especially tricky? 

Do people think it would be easier to pitch a tent alone, or with a group of friends? How did people work with their teammates to make sure they pitched their tent as well as they could?

Communication is a really important part of teamwork. Was your team good at listening to each other? How did you make sure everyone could have the chance to be heard, as well as listened to others? How did you use everyone’s skills or knowledge to try to be as efficient a possible? Is there anything people would do differently next time they pitch a tent?

If you led the team in the blindfold tent building challenge, what was that like? And what was it like to be blindfolded? How did it impact your teamwork and communication?

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.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Manufacturer’s guidelines

All vehicles will be different so always follow the manufacturer’s guidelines.

Poles and long objects

Be careful when moving poles or long items. Take care if the ends are sharp. Have appropriate supervision for this activity.

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. 

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.

  • To make this activity easier, you could have bigger teams or have some of the tent pre-built.
  • To make this activity harder, you could make people do it in smaller teams or add in additional challenges, such as play the game with one hand having to be on your hips at all times.
  • If anyone may struggle to lift the tent parts or pitch the tent, they could help tell everyone what to do and lead the building. They could also be the timer or referee.
  • If needed, let people be in bigger groups to make sure everyone’s supported in taking part in the activity. A young leader could join a group to help people to take part, too.
  • People could take part in building the tent while sat down. 
  • People can move at their own pace, so you don’t need to make it competitive unless it works for everyone.
  • No-one has to be blindfolded if they don’t want to be. They could just close their eyes, or they could choose someone else to have their turn.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Beavers My Outdoors Challenge Award
Beavers Camp Craft Activity Badge
Cubs Our Outdoors Challenge Award
Scouts Outdoor Challenge Award
Scouts Camper Activity Badge