A Girl Scout "wide game" is a term that generally refers to a rotation of outdoor activities that follow a common theme. Wide games are appropriate for encampments, for a Juliette Low celebration, or a multi-troop activity during a weekend camping trip.

To create a wide game, start with a theme. The theme should be fairly specific, designed to be informative and fun, and lend itself to four or five rotations. One rotation should be a service project related to the theme. It isn't necessary for the activities to focus on earning a badge, although the badge books are a great resource to build ideas.

Starters

• Remember that the idea of a wide game is to have the girls be active participants, chose activities (games) that keep the girls moving.
• Games should focus on teamwork, learning new skills, and of course fun.
• Older girls should be used to run the rotations, if at all possible. The facilitators should know the rules of the game and enforce safety issues.
• Demonstrate the game before playing
• Remind the girls to use "positive Girl Scout words" while playing.

Juliette Low's Birthday Wide Game

Here is a wide game example, to celebrate Juliette Low's birthday. The games were chosen as period activities that may have been done during Juliette's time.

Rotation 1: Pancake toss relay: At the start of the rotation, explain that the pancake toss relay was a game played by girls back in Juliette's time. Girls ran with iron skillets, tossing a pancake into the air as she ran. This game was usually played as part of Pancake Day, a day still celebrated in some cities in England today. Pancake day falls 47 days before Easter

How to Play: Divide girls into two teams. This game is played in relay fashion. In the pancake toss, each team gets a sturdy paper or plastic plate. On the plate is an oversized pancake. One girl from each team begins by holding their team's pancake on the plate. On start, the two girls race down the playing area, tossing her pancake in the air and catching it on her plate. At the end of the playing area, she turns and runs back to her team, still tossing and catching her pancake.

Tips for this game:

• Younger girls may simply run without tossing her pancake in the air. You might want to have, as a rule, each girl toss and catch her pancake at least three times each way. Explain this rule ahead of time.
• It helps to use really stale, tough pancakes. Not the kind made from pancake mix.
• Have many extra pancakes. They tend to fall apart.
• Tell the girls not to eat the pancakes.
• At the end of the game, the girls should help clean up any broken bits of pancake that may have ended up on the ground. This enforces the "Girl Scouts leave a place cleaner than they found it" rule.

Rotation 2: Kim's Game, variation: At the start of the rotation, explain that Kim's Game was one of Juliette's favorite games. It continues to be a popular Girl Scout game today. Explain that this version of Kim's Game was invented so that many girls could play, and so that it could be played outdoors.

How to Play: This is played like a scavenger hunt, but on a large open area. Show the girls a tray containing many objects, some found in nature, some not found in nature. Cover the tray. Tell the girls that the same objects are scattered (hidden) on the field and they have 15 minutes to find them all. (You can adjust the time to suit your needs.) At the end of the game, talk about how items found in nature are sometimes hard to see in their natural surroundings. Are items not found in nature easier to spot? Why or why not?

Tips for this game:

• Have enough objects on the field to keep the girls busy for the time period, at least 5 objects per girl.
• To save on cost, or if you have many girls per rotation, you can use short pieces of color pipe-cleaner, or short pieces of yarn instead of different objects. It is extremely difficult to find enough different objects for many girls.
• To ensure that each girl finds at least one thing, you can use different color pieces of yarn (or pipe-cleaner,) and assign one or two girls per color. So the rule is that girls can only pick up their color yarn.
• You can also divide the group into two teams, so that the girls work cooperatively, and so that they don't get upset if one girl finds only one thing, and another girl finds five things.

Rotation 3: Hoop roll: At the start of the rotation, explain that hoop rolling was a game played mostly by girls and young women in England and the United States as part of May Day celebrations during the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Hoop rolling was also called "hoop and stick" because the hoop was pushed along by a wooden stick. Girls back in the "olden" times liked this game because it was an active game, yet could still be played while wearing a dress. Meaning, girls could not be left out of the fun.

How to Play: Divide girls into two teams. This game is played in relay fashion. Each team gets a hula hoop. One girl from each team rolls her hula-hoop down the playing field. At the ending point, she must turn around and roll the hula-hoop back to her team.

Tips for this game:

• Stress that the girls must control their hula hoop!
• Play on a flat surface, even a slight slope is frustrating for young girls.

Rotation 4: Tea Party: At the start or end of the rotation, explain that when Juliette Low first formed her troops, she had a tea party at the end of each meeting for the girls in her troops. She wanted the girls to learn manners, to be good citizens, and have the social skills to be good leaders in the business world.

How to Play: This is a craft and snack activity. Girls make "Mad Hatter" style hats from brown paper grocery bags. Crumple and roll the edges up and fashion a hat. Use markers, sticky felt, ribbon and bows to decorate. After making a hat, girls can get something to drink and a snack.

Tips:

• Help younger girls crumple and roll the hat shape out of the paper bags. For very young girls, you may want to pre-make all of the hat shapes and have the girls just decorate them.
• To decorate, hot glue guns are useful, but if electricity is not available, think about using sticky-backed felt or foam, or simply markers and ribbon. Bottled glue is usually unsuccessful.
• You will need at least two tables, one to make the hats, one to serve the snacks.
• If you are doing this activity outside, don't use feathers for decorating. They immediately blow away!

Rotation 5: Service Project. At the start of the rotation, explain that Juliette Low believed in service to the community. She wanted all Girl Scouts and Girl Guides to set good examples and to be good citizens.

How To: Since Juliette Low's birthday falls on Halloween, and since candy is usually in abundance in the stores in October, our Service Unit made English-style "poppers" ("crackers") filled with candy. They were donated to our city's largest homeless outreach program that provides thousands of meals each day to homeless families. The "poppers" were constructed out of toilet paper tubes. One end of the tube is taped. The tube is filled with candy. The other end is taped. The entire tube is wrapped with wrapping paper, ends taped. The homeless outreach program in our city handed out the poppers with Thanksgiving meals. Check with your community's food shelter, homeless shelters (especially those for families,) teen shelters or children's shelters to see if they could use decorated candy boxes or poppers for their meals or programs. Other service ideas include:

• Decorated greeting cards or "thanks" cards for use by your Council
• No-sew fleece blankets for Project Linus or your local Humane Society
• No-sew fleece caps for your local children's hospital

Final Words: Wide games are usually very popular, particularly among girls who like to be very active. Try to schedule plenty of time for traveling between stations, encourage troop leaders to use the travel time as a time to talk, to reflect, and to enjoy being outdoors as a troop.