Learning Look Wider Game

The Look Wider program can be a bit complicated for the new Rangers to get their head around, especially when they are expected to plan, undertake then record their own achievements themselves.










The Octant Beetle game was fun and helped last year but I wanted to try something different again this year.

I went for board game style with each square representing a section of the chart.  Some squares give examples of what does count like "Phase 3 out of doors, you camped in all four seasons, well done"

But more were like "Phase 1 leadership, write one example in the chart"

Every Phase 2 was miss one turn. Every Phase 3 was miss 2 turns.  This was to demonstrate that they take longer to achieve.

The chart for the game they had to write on was a badly drawn (by me) octant sheet on flip chart paper.



















To add some fun in I bought a large soft dice, which they enjoyed throwing around the room and at each other.

There was also the all important and numerous 'Take a Biscuit' squares.  They kept the Rangers fed (an absolute requirement for every meeting it would seem!) and also allowed me to talk about how getting all the phase 2 octants means you have achieved your Chief Guide Challenge.

The game went on for a while but came to a natural end as they started to ask questions like "I'm doing a coaching course at swimming, does that count?" "I'm doing this and that, do they count?" "can I have my record sheet to write so and so in?"

I think sometimes the mood for the evening has to be right and the enthusiasm from the leader must be there too, but I was really pleased with how entertaining they found it, the banter it generated and how fired up they were about getting on with completing their phases of the octants.

But mostly they were aiming for the 'take a biscuit' squares!



I have uploaded the Game Squares and full instructions.  You can Download them to use.

My basic instructions are:

I laminated all the sheets
Bought a large dice from Amazon
Drew an octant chart on flip paper (example on slide 2)
Bought biscuits

Lay the squares out on the floor, I did a circle. A block of them with a walk order might work in restricted space.
Make sure the biscuit squares are spread out.

Rangers pick their own starting point, throw dice and do what it says on the square they land on.

You might say they have to go around the board fully once to win but they will probably decide on their own rules for themselves.

*We played this again recently and it didn't have the same energy as the last time.  I came to the conclusion with the girls I have now I should have put them into teams.  One on the board, one throwing dice and one writing and  create competition between the 2 teams, perhaps by giving them a chart each and be the first team to fill it in completely and to totally ignore all the 'miss a turns'.