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Discover what this means

Out of this world

Turn into a planet or a star and explore the differences between the two in this action-packed game.

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Decide on your rules

  1. Everyone should sit together in a group.
  2. The person leading the game should help everyone to think about the differences between planets and stars. How do they move? How big are they? What do they look like?
  1. Every time the group thinks of a difference, they should suggest an action that a person pretending to be a planet or a star could do to represent the answer. For example, when asked ‘how do you move?’ stars could stay perfectly still, while planets spin around.

Play the game

  1. Split into two groups. One group are the stars, the other are the planets.
  2. Everyone should move around the room to jumble up – they could walk, skip, or jump.
  3. The person leading the game should call out a question from the list the whole group made together.
  4. The stars and the planets should do the action the group agreed on, showing the answer for their group.
  5. The person leading the game should keep calling out questions, and the stars and planets should answer with their actions.
  6. After a while, the stars and planets should swap, and everyone should play again.

Reflection

This game gave you a chance to be active. Do you like being active? Is it fun to be active through games like this one? Why is it important to be active? What’s your favourite way to move?

This game was also the chance to be a leader. Did you try to set a good example for your group? Was anyone good at helping people who found it trickier to remember the actions? How did you help other people in your group?

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.

Add or remove questions and actions to suit the group.

You could select one person in each group to be the leader – either choose someone who’s really good at remembering, or give the leader a prompt sheet.

You could add another group (for example, moons) and invent actions for them too.

Change the actions to suit the group. The game can be done standing still or sitting down by using hand actions, or sounds.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Cubs Astronomer Activity Badge

This activity would be a great way to introduce stars, leading on to an activity which fulfils the fifth requirement of the Cub Astronomer Activity Badge, identifying three constellations.