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What to wear in any weather - at home

Try and choose the correct clothing for the outdoor activity, but watch out for the changing weather conditions.

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You’ll need

  • Scissors
  • A printed copy of the Clothing Pictures sheet
  • Access to a printer
Clothing Pictures
PDF – 537.8KB
Download Clothing Pictures

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 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. 
  • This is a great activity to run during an online session. Check out the advice on using Zoom and other popular digital platforms and the guidance on being safe online.

Setting up this activity

  • Everyone will need a copy of the clothing pictures for this activity. Ask them to print off a copy and cut each picture out.
  • If someone doesn’t have access to a printer, they could write the items down as a list, or draw them on a piece of paper.
  • Create a list of scenarios or weather events that might be experienced during a hike or expedition. 
    • Scenarios could include: A sunny day in the Peak District, winter walking in the Cairngorms, a night hike in spring on a beach in Devon or a walk from Brighton to Lewes. 
    • Weather conditions could include: sun, rain, wind, snow and hailstones. Think about including different lengths of hike, with anything between a couple of hours and a two-day expedition.

Choosing the clothes

  1. Explain that everyone will be given a scenario. From the information given and from the equipment provided, they need to decide what they would wear.
  2. Give everyone their first scenario and two minutes to decide which items of clothing to choose.
  3. Start with a simple scenario, such as: ‘A sunny day hike in the Peak District’.
  4. Each time the scenarios could get harder, but try to cover a variety of different conditions and times of year.
  5. You could think about adding in changes part way through, such as: ‘A storm is building while you’re walking in the Yorkshire Dales in the middle of summer. What equipment do you need to protect yourself?’
  6. When the two minutes is up, ask everyone what they've chosen and why.
  7. When finished, everyone should put their clothing pictures back and give them the next scenario and repeat the process.

Navigator activity badge

You can tailor the scenarios to the stage that is being completed to help people get the badge:

  • Stage 3: everyone needs some understanding of what equipment to take and why.
  • Stage 4: everyone should know more detail about the uses of each piece of equipment, such as what’s essential and non-essential, and discuss this with their peers.
  • Stage 5: everyone should have detailed knowledge of all of the equipment you’d bring on an expedition, including personal medical equipment, emergency equipment and group equipment, and everyone should also be able to explain why each piece of equipment is needed and what they’d do if something got lost, broken or was left behind.

Reflection

Understanding how to dress appropriately for a hike or expedition helps you stay safe and comfortable when you’re out walking. The weather can change at any time and bringing along the necessary equipment will keep you prepared.

It might be frustrating sometimes to have to carry more than you feel you’ll need, but you can never guarantee what’ll happen when you’re outdoors.

What should you do if you lose a piece of essential equipment on a hike? How about a piece of non-essential equipment? How did you decide what was the best equipment? Sometimes the most suitable equipment isn’t available. 

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.

Scissors

Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.

Depending on the variables in each scenario, this task will get easier or harder.

Make sure all equipment is suitably accessible for everyone.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Cubs Our Adventure Challenge Award
Scouts Expedition Challenge Award
Scouts Hill Walker Activity Badge
Navigator Stage 3
Navigator Stage 4
Navigator Stage 5

Everyone should pack clothes and equipment for an imaginary, scenario-based weekend expedition and camp. Check each person’s kit and everyone should explain why they chose each item.

The scenario can be as simple or detailed as you wish, but those taking part should be reminded to check the weather forecast before packing!

They should also consider how large their group will be, as this will influence how much water, first aid and survival equipment they’ll need to bring along.

Everyone was able to choose items of clothing and equipment that they thought were useful in each individual scenario.

For a more youth-led session, young people could help come up with and decide upon the scenarios beforehand, then have the person leading the activity read them out in no particular order.