Girl Scout Indoor Games

Devising a list of indoor girl scout games can be particularly useful during the inclement weather of the winter months. Girl scout meetings are regularly held on a night during the week and often involve indoor activities such as games. There are a few categories of games that girl scouts can play, ranging from straightforward fun and energetic games to thought-provoking games with a moral. As always, safety is key when organizing and running indoor games.

Arguably, one of the most important categories of girl scout games are those that help your girls get acquainted with one another. An example of this is a straightforward game in which girls stand in a circle and perform an action of their choice--such as jumping jacks or star jumps--as they say their names. Go around in the circle having each girl repeat the names and actions of all of the preceding girls before adding her own name and, ideally unique, action so that by the time you have come full circle, the last girl will repeat all of the actions and names of the girls involved.

Quizzes are a simple way to include all of your girls and encourage them to perform in an indoor team activity. Prepare a quiz and have your girls play Girl Scout Jeopardy (see sample quiz in Resources), with rewards that correspond to the question number--a correct answer for question one results in one chocolate bar, question two equals two chocolate bars, and so on. Have the girls collect the chocolate communally and share it equally among the team at the end of the game.

Just because games are played indoors, this does not mean you cannot get your girl scouts active and working off some of their energy. An easy sample game is called "Daisy, Daisy, Scout," in which the girls sit in a small circle and one person is designated "it," leaving a gap in the circle. She walks around patting her fellow scouts on the head saying "daisy, daisy, daisy" for as many times as she wishes before she decides who she wants to chase her, where she says "scout." The scout chases the girl that is "it" around the circle and the one who reaches the space left by "it" wins, leaving the other one as the new "it" to start the game over.

While many of the indoor games that girl scouts can play are simply for the purpose of fun, others also have a strong moral undercurrent that can be used prior to having a discussion. An example of this (see Resources) is the Sally Scout game, in which you will first need a paper/card Sally figure. Sit the paper Sally in the middle of a circle of girl scouts and have each one say one nice and one nasty thing about Sally. When the girls say something nasty, they should rip off a part of Sally, such as an arm. Once each girl has had a turn, have the girls tape Sally back together before having a discussion about how she was torn apart and that the scars will never fully heal.

As always, safety is paramount when organizing indoor girl scout games. Make sure that your games are relevant to the ages of the girls involved, and always carefully supervise any and all activities. It is also worthwhile ensuring that you gain written consent from girls' parents/guardians when undergoing activities that could be regarded as risky.