Play Moana's reef escape
You’ll need
- Mats (enough for one per pair)
- Stones (enough for one per pair)
- Equipment around your meeting place to use and obstacles. For example, chairs, tables, hoops and boxes.
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.
- Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.
- At one end of your meeting place, put the mats on the floor in a row with one stone on each mat.
- In the middle of the room, create an obstacle course using the equipment you have in your meeting place. You can find some suggestions for setting up your obstacle course below.
The Heart of Te Fiti
Consider painting the stones in this activity to look like the Heart of Te Fiti, you could get the young people to create these with you in another meeting before you run your obstacle course.
Three thousand years ago, the greatest sailors in the world voyaged across the vast Pacific, discovering the many islands of Oceania. But then, for a millennium, their voyages stopped – and no one knows why.
Moana is the story of an adventurous teenager – the daughter of the chief of Motunui – who sails out on a daring mission to save her people from a mysterious dark force overtaking her island and the surrounding waters. Inspired by the love for her island home and her people, the spirit of her grandmother Tala, and the calling of the ocean, Moana courageously sets out on an epic odyssey to return the stolen heart of Te Fiti.
During her journey beyond the reef, Moana meets the once-mighty demigod Maui, a shapeshifter who guides her in the quest to become a master wayfinder. Together, they sail across the open ocean on an action-packed voyage, encountering coconut-armored pirates, enormous monsters, and impossible odds.
With great resilience, courage, and a kind heart, Moana fulfils the ancient quest of her ancestors, returns the heart of Te Fiti, and discovers the one thing she’s always sought: her own identity.
Explore Moana’s story
- Have a chat with everyone about the story of Moana. Ask them if they know the story, what they can remember from the story, and if they can remember why Moana and her tribe live on the island.
- Now, ask everyone to think about how the tribe got onto the island, why they are scared to leave it and what Moana needs to do to save her island.
- Explain to everyone that, as teams, they’re going to work together, just like Moana and Maui did, and escape the reef to rescue their stone.
Moana’s great escape
- Tell everyone that they’re going to work in pairs to complete the reef obstacle course. Explain that they must be always holding hands while they cross the reef. When they reach the end, they can collect their stone.
- Two volunteers or young leaders should show everyone how they need to work together to cross the obstacle course while holding hands.
- Split everyone into pairs and let every pair have a go at the obstacle course.
- Chairs to climb under or over
- Tables to crawl under
- Blankets to crawl under
- Hoops to crawl through or jump into
- Benches to balance or walk along
- Blankets over tables to create a dark tunnel to crawl through
© Disney
Reflection
This activity needed you to communicate and work together as a team to cross the obstacle course and reach the stone.
Moana’s great escape
- How did Moana and Maui work together in the story?
- How did you and your partner work together when crossing all the obstacles?
- Was it easy to get across to the other side of the obstacles?
- Did you talk to each other when you were crossing the ‘reef’? How did you help your partner if they needed it?
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.
- You could add or take away obstacles to make this activity easier or more difficult. To make it harder, people could try doing it with the ankles tied together, like in a three legged race.
- You could try this activity with one person in each pair being blindfolded, if they are happy and comfortable with this, and the other person could guide them.
- You could do this in groups, instead of pairs, to make the course a bit more challenging as everyone in the group would need to hold hands.
- You should try to make your obstacles as accessible as possible for everyone your group. For example, you could have cones spread further apart to allow a wheelchair to manoeuvre through them.
- You could have a rope between the obstacles for people to hold onto and help guide them along the course. You could also add sensory items to the obstacle course, such as bells.
- If someone isn’t comfortable in holding hands with someone else, give them the opportunity to hold a piece of material, such as a necker or piece of rope, with the other person to connect them together.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
Teamwork was a key part of this activity. Why not have a go at other activities which help promote good communication, and working well and collaborating with others?
For example, this could include playing games, building something together or trying something adventurous.
You could see if you could use a local obstacle course, such as one at a playground or a local Ninja style obstacle park.
You could consider getting the pairs to choose and set up an obstacle each for everyone to do to build the course together.