Play daring Droid rescue
You’ll need
- Coat hanger (1 per team)
- 4 Ropes of various lengths (4 per team)
- A bucket or tub with a handle (1 per team)
- Additional objects that can be picked up with a coat hanger (optional)
- Hoops (1 per team)
- A device connected to the internet
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
Setting up this activity
- Make sure you have plenty of space to play this game. You could play this game outside.
- Prepare the game by tying four pieces of rope to each of the coat hangers.
- Set out clear start and end zones for each team. This’ll help guide teams and make sure no-one bumps into each other.
- At the start zone, place the bucket and coat hanger (with ropes attached)
- At the end zone, mark out an area where each team can drop the bucket. This’ll be the deactivation zone and can be with rope, cones, a hoop and so on.
Tell the story
- Gather everyone around and tell them that today they’re going to be Jedi younglings.
- Explain that you’re going to play a game to test their Jedi skills.
- If you’ve a device connected to the internet, tell everyone you’re going to meet the Young Jedi and play Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures - Meet the Young Jedi.
After watching the video, use these questions to talk about teamwork before starting the game:
- What happened during the video? What was the problem?
- How did the team solve the problem?
- What makes a good team?
- Did any of the characters have special abilities that helped everyone? Lys is quick and knows all about creatures. Nubs is small but is the strongest of the group. Nash is a pilot so can fly in quickly when the group needed help. What special ability could you bring to your team?
- When Kai realised that the task was too difficult for him and his friends, he called in help. Why is it important to ask for help when a task feels too difficult?
- Yoda reminded the group to be mindful of their surroundings when completing a task. What are our surroundings like? How will we keep ourselves safe during this game?
Play the game
- Gather your Jedi younglings round.
- Explain that you’re going to play a Star Wars inspired game called Daring droid rescue.
- Ask everyone to get into small Jedi Clans (groups) of four Jedi. The Jedi clans can be bigger or smaller if needed, just make sure everyone has a rope to hold, attached to the coat hanger.
- Explain that the bucket is the droid, and it needs rescuing.
- Using the ropes, each clan of Jedi need to work together to pick up the droid, with the hook of the coat hanger.
- They then need to carry the droid to the safe zone, which is marked out with hoops, cones or similar.
- Each clan needs to make sure the droid (bucket) doesn’t touch the ground. If it does, they’ll need to start again. A good Jedi tip is that you’ll need to keep the rope tight.
- Everyone needs to make sure they’re only holding the end of their rope. If anyone gets too close to or touches the droid, they’ll need to start again.
- If the Jedi clan successfully transports their droid, you can reset the game and increase the difficulty. You can do this by adding objects at the start that the clan will need to put in the bucket using the coat hanger before transporting it across the space. You could also have a time challenge.
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Reflection (or Jedi Meditation)
Invite the Jedi younglings to sit in a circle with their legs crossed and their hands on their knees.
Explain that the Jedi code teaches us we must meditate on the things we’ve been doing.
Invite the group to close their eyes and think of the activity they’ve just done. Using a calm voice, talk through the reflection below. Tell everyone that you’ll ask them some questions, but for now they should just think of the answers for themselves. When you’ve finished, you could discuss your answers if people want to.
This activity was all about working as a team and communicating. Did the task sound easy or difficult at first? Could one person have done it easily on their own?
What role did everyone play in helping the team complete the task? Did you listen to and try everyone’s ideas? Did anyone take on the role as leader?
What was the hardest part of the game? Did anyone need to ask for help like Kai and his friends?
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.
- Active games
The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.
To make the game easier, tie the ropes directly to the bucket’s handle instead of using the coat hanger. You can also shorten the ropes and decrease the distance they’ll need to transport the bucket.
You can make the game harder by making the length of everyone’s ropes longer. You could also add extra weight to the bucket to make it more difficult to transport.
To make it harder, you could make it a competition between the groups by timing how long it takes them to transport the bucket.
If needed, let people be in bigger groups to make sure everyone’s supported in taking part in the activity A young leader could join a group to help people to take part, too. Adults can take a step back or get more involved depending on how people are getting on. Members of the group could also work in pairs and help each other.
Picking up or holding the materials could be a challenge – so ask young people to assist with collecting the rope from the ground. If needed, people could work in pairs to hold and control each end of the rope, either with another young person, with a young leader or an adult volunteer.
Make sure there’s a way to adapt this game or activity, so everyone can take part. You may need to change the equipment by using a lighter bucket or holding the rope in pairs. If a few people represent each group of Jedis, you could match people’s needs and skills to different game events.
If people may struggle with holding the rope or carrying the bucket, see if there’s another way they could join in. They could help instruct the team and tell them how to move the rope from the deactivation zone or help run the timer to see how quickly everyone can do it.
Take time and have patience while telling everyone what to do. Give short instructions clearly and concisely. If you need to, pause, then repeat the same instruction using the same words. You could have a practice round of the game to make sure everyone knows what they’re doing. Let young people help explain to each other what to do, too.
Make sure that the game is run on terrains or areas that are accessible for everyone in the group. Put coloured tape, or cones, on the floor to indicate boundaries, too.
Make sure the equipment is laid out with enough space for everyone, including anyone using a mobility aid. Think about the space you’ll be in and the equipment you’re using in advance to make sure it’s accessible to everyone in the group. For example, make sure that all the materials are at a level that can be easily worked on by wheelchair users.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
Run a Star Wars themed session or camp using this activity, as well as the other activities we’ve created in partnership with Disney.