Rob the Nest

Rob the Nest

Running, Team

Time - Medium (5-10 minutes)

Group size - Any

Equipment needed - Dozens of small items, hula hoops

Split the group into 3-5 teams, and give each team a hula hoop to designate their base, with each team spread throughout the edges of the space. 

Place all the small items for collecting in the middle of the space. Items that work well include glow sticks, mini bean bags, novelty bowling pins or anything else of a similar size.

At the start of the game, each team will send one person at a time to collect one item from the centre and return to their team. This continues until no items are remaining, at which point teams can steal from other teams, still only taking one item at a time.

At the end of time, each team counts the number of items in their base, with the highest scoring team winning.

Considerations and Variations

• Cheating - it is very easy to cheat in this game, either by taking more than one item or sending more than one runner. While this can be dissuaded by penalising teams who cheat, it is important that leaders model good behaviour and encourage kids to play fair, even if other teams aren’t, which will hopefully lead to a better experience for all kids.

• Guards and Jail - this variation has 2-3 leaders who guard the middle horde, who can tag kids and send them back empty handed to their team, with anything they were holding sent back to the middle. This can be expanded upon further by sending anyone tagged to jail, who must then either be rescued or bailed out (price of one item, returned to the middle) to continue playing.