The colours of Avalon
You’ll need
- Buckets
- Scissors
- Dice
- Cardboard boxes
- Plastic ball pit balls in four colours (or pieces of card in four colours)
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.
- Print enough copies of the 'Pieces of Merlin's parchment' sheet, so that every team has one complete set. Next, cut out the four parchments.
Alternatively, write the text from the four parchments onto different pieces of scrap paper.
- Put the plastic balls in boxes. Each box should contain only one colour.
- Hide the boxes – choose places that are accessible but not too easy to find.
Play the wide game
- Share the story of King Arthur and Merlin to help set the scene for the game. We have included this at the bottom of this section.
- Split into teams of four. Make sure teams have a good balance of age and ability.
- Assign each player one of the four colours. Players must retrieve a specific number of their balls by finding the hidden boxes.
- Roll a dice to choose the number of balls each player must find.
- Players should search across the area to find their coloured balls. They can only take one at a time from a box, and they can’t take two in a row from the same box. They must find a different box before they can return and take another ball from a box they’d already found.
- Once a player has found enough of their colour balls, the person leading the game should give them a piece of Merlin’s parchment. They should then help others in their team to find theirs.
- The game is finished when everyone has found the right number of coloured balls, and each team has received all of the pieces of the parchment. The winning team is the first to finish.
A long time ago, there lived a great king called Arthur. Legend has it that King Arthur was a hero who saved our green lands from Saxon invasion during the Dark Ages. But he didn’t fight alone. He had the Knights of the Round Table by his side in every battle. He also had the help of his best friend, Merlin. Merlin was a powerful wizard who met an unfortunate end when he was enchanted by an evil spirit. Before he grew sick, he turned his secrets into coloured balls (or cards) and hid them all around the land. The prophecy says that one day all the coloured balls will be collected – giving us the true secrets of the Isle of Avalon.
Reflection
The game was a good way to be active. Was this game good exercise? Did you enjoy moving in this game? Was it a fun way to be active? Did the game encourage you to keep going if you felt tired? What other things can you do to keep fit?
The outdoors was also very important in this game. Why was the outdoors a good setting? Why is it important to have (and look after) outdoor spaces? Could you adapt this game to work in the dark?
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.
- Scissors
Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.
- 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.
Instead of rolling a dice to get a random number of balls for each player, you could give each player a higher or lower number of balls to collect depending on their age and ability.
Make it accessible
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
