Mini-Shelter-Building Challenge
- Last edited 3 years ago by Kevin MacDonald
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Requirements
- Age 7+
- Players 8-12
- Time 3-5 min rounds
- Location Small clear area Large clear area Forest
- Energy Low (sitting, standing) Medium (walking, stalking) High (running) Extreme (sprinting)
- Materials Bands
- Lead by Pathfinder Whiskers Cloak
- Guides 1
Story
What is the essence of this game?
Action Call
Compelling questions / challenges to get kids excited to play.
Game
Safety
- Scout playing area for hazards: tripping objects, stinging insects, trash, and much more.
Mission
Ask the group: what is the COLDEST YOU’VE EVER BEEN IN YOUR LIFE? Invite people to share a story about their coldest moment.
Why is it important to respect cold? Because cold can kill you. It’s one of the deadliest hazards in the woods.
What are some contributing factors to us being cold?
- Cold temps
- Wind
- Water (rain, snow)
- Shade
When in cold situations, humans need shelter. Shelter is anything that helps us maintain body temperature, which is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
Imagine this scenario: you’re on a hike, you get lost, the sun starts to set, it starts to rain. All you have are the clothes on your back. What could you do to survive the night? To maintain 98.6 even as the temperature drops and you’re chilled by wind and rain?
Answer: construct some sort of shelter out of sticks and leaves.
It takes a LONG time, and a lot of sticks and leaves, to make a shelter big enough for a human to fit it. So to practice, first we’re going to create shelters for some stuffed animals.
Some criteria:
- Your shelter should totally protect your animal from rain. In fact, in 20 minutes we’re going to call STOP, visit your shelters, and pour water over it. Hopefully, your animal will stay totally dry.
- Your shelter must have structure, meaning a roof and a door, so your animal can exit and re-enter the shelter easily. How else is it going to be able to get up and pee in the middle of the night?
Divide into three groups and have them begin.
Call STOP in about 15 - 20 minutes.
Tour the shelters, pour water all over them, make some comments about shelter construction.
Discuss the finer points of debris shelters
- Insulation from the ground
- Ridgepole
- Y-sticks
- Ribs
- LOTS of leaves. 2 - 3 feet in cold temps
As a WHOLE mini-adventure group, build a small leaf hut using the principles described above.
Test the leaf hut by putting an animal inside and pouring lots of water on top of it.
Modify
Instead of stuffed animals, you COULD, in theory, up the stakes by inviting instructors or students to put their PHONE inside their mini-shelter. Beware of destroying a student's phone! Parents would not be happy!