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Draw and score

Put your drawing skills to the test in this fun icebreaker.

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You’ll need

  • Pens or pencils
  • Paper plates or card

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.

Play the game

  1. Give everyone a pen and either a piece of card or a paper plate.
  2. Everyone should put the card or paper plate on top of their heads.
  3. They’re going to be following some instructions to create a drawing, but they won’t be able to see while doing it! The card or paper plate needs to stay on their heads, and they’ll use the pen to reach up and draw on it.
  4. Ask everyone to take the pen lids off and get in a comfortable position to draw.
  5. Remind everyone that they can’t look at their card or paper plate again until they told to do so.
  6. An adult volunteer should read the instructions:
    • Draw a line for a floor.
    • Draw a tree.
    • Draw a campfire.
    • Draw Scouts sat around the campfire. Feel free to add some badges to their uniform.
    • Draw a pot hanging over the campfire.
    • Draw the moon and stars.
  1. Everyone should remove the card or paper plate from their head and look at what they’ve drawn. Now it’s time to score your drawings! You get:
    • 2 points if the tree touches the floor
    • 2 points if your campfire touches the floor.
    • 1 point if your Scouts aren’t overlapping.
    • 1 point for every Scout badge that’s on a Scout uniform.
    • 2 points if your campfire doesn’t touch the tree and isn’t below it. Remember, it’s a fire hazard!
    • 1 point for every moon and star that doesn’t overlap anything else.
  1. Everyone can mark their own work or swap with a partner. The person with the highest score could win, but you could also offer prizes for the best listener, most creative drawing or the tidiest drawing.

Instructions:

  • Draw a line for a floor.
  • Draw a Christmas Tree. Add decorations if you feel so inclined.
  • Draw a star on top of your tree.
  • Draw a fireplace with a mantel next to the tree.
  • Draw a stocking hanging from the mantel of your fireplace.
  • Draw a present below the tree.

Scoring:

  • 2 points if the tree touches the floor.
  • 2 points if your stocking is touching your mantel.
  • 1 point if your star touches your tree.
  • 1 point if your star is above your tree.
  • 1 point for every Christmas ornament ball that is ON your tree, etc.
  • 1 point if your fireplace doesn’t touch the tree (it’s a fire hazard!).
  • 1 point if you drew something decorative on your stocking (or something cute, like a tiny kitten peeking out).
  • 2 points if your present is under your tree.

Reflection

Was this a new way of drawing for everyone? How did your drawing come out? Was it difficult to create the scene you wanted? Maybe everyone would like to have another go at home and draw the scene again.  

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

If it's too difficult, you can ask everyone to draw normally on a flat surface, but with their eyes shut instead.

If people are unable to lift their arms above their head, you may just want to ask everyone to shut their eyes or use a blindfold, such as their Necker, and try to draw the image instead.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.