How to travel the world without leaving your meeting place
Have you ever wondered how far you can travel in a meeting or on a sleepover?
Well, now you can go all around the world and be back in time for tea. Don't forget to pack your sun cream!
Here are all our activities for you to go on your travels and explore different games, cultures, foods and activities from many countries.
Whether you’ve an hour or 24 of them, see how far you can get. You could make it an extra special meeting too by making your own passports and creating a plane to fly on.
Remember your adventure by taking lots of pictures and making your own adventure scrapbook. You could even send someone you live with a postcard!
Getting ready for your adventure
Practice your packing: Ask your group to practice their packing skills at home by bringing a small bag to check in. It could be a water bottle, snack and coat. You could also challenge them to bring five items for a cold or sunny destination and see what everyone brings!
Make your own passports: To get ready to go on their adventure, you could give everyone a passport and have them design it themselves. They could draw their own photo and add in their name, with a page for each country they’re going to visit. You might also make some passports to hand out that are pre-made to save time.
Create a check in and a gate: Why not have a check in desk for people when they arrive? You could take the register and give them their ticket to fly. While you're waiting for everyone to get to the meeting, you could set up an airport lounge. It might have some chairs, healthy snacks, magazines or books to keep everyone entertained. You use a pegboard or whiteboard to list the destinations, too!
Passport control: You could have adults to stamp your passports or put stickers on them as you visit each country – or even make your own passport control table so people can check in when they land!
Create a plane to fly on: Come and fly with us! Hop aboard Scouts Airlines and put your chairs out in the layout of an aeroplane. Everyone could board the plane at the start of each meeting, before landing at the first destination. Jump back on the plane and travel to the next place to make it a more exciting journey. You could choose someone to be the captain and get to decide on the next destination. You might also want to offer some in-flight snacks or a safety briefing, too!
The destinations and activities
Who does that voice belong to? Get guessing with this quick circle game from Australia called Skippyroo kangaroo.
Learn about towers of rocks and stones that you might see around Canada, Alaska and North America, then have a go at making your own.
You could make a colourful headband, try some Caribbean flavours and get dancing to Celebrate a Caribbean carnival.
Try this traditional Jamaican children’s game, which is called Punchinella, little fella Can you copy the person in the middle in this?
Try these three fun games to introduce your group to the Catalonian Cub Scout Promise and Baloo’s maxims.
You could create some beautiful Chinese paper cut artwork to display on your windows with Chinese window flowers or learn about China’s traditions and culture around food with this fun relay race.
Discover how animals represent things in different cultures with this fun game from China called Catch the dragon’s tail. Will the head manage to capture the tail?
Try to design your own in this paper-cutting craft activity or celebrate the winter solstice with these tasty Taiwanese treats.
Make each other into Egyptian mummies using toilet paper in our game, It’s a wrap.
Learn some basic French while playing this adapted version of Captain’s coming, Le Captaine arrive!
Pair some Olympic-level organisation with some great games in this activity, Our Olympics, as we explore what goes into making this historic event that originated in Greece.
Did you know that the first recorded mention of pancakes dates back to ancient Greeceand comes from a poet who described warm pancakes in one of his writings? Why not make some Tin can pancakes or try making pancakes with fruit?
Make a Diya and learn about the festival of light. Can you separate Diwali fact from fiction?
Share this game, Hunt The Ring, which originates from Iraq and learn about how it’s affected by conflict.
Play this bigger version of a traditional throwing game, Gogo Im, from Israel. Ready, steady, throw!
Get a pizza the action while you cook these Italian classics. Or make your own pasta and then shape it like a pro, the Pasta-bilties are endless!
Whip up a refreshing glass of ranovola, a Madagascan toasted rice treat, in this activity, Rice rice tasty.
Discover this traditional game from South Africa, Drie blikkies, and work as a team to score the most points.
Carnival is celebrated every year in Brazil. You can join in by making your own maracas or. Try this super simple, delicious recipe and make some traditional Brazilian sweets.
You could also make your own pan flute and learn about the Inca Sun God and the festival of Inti Raymi, which originates in South America.
Why not learn about Papel Picado, which is thought to have originated with the Aztecs, and design your own in this paper-cutting craft activity?
Learn how to play the traditional Korean game Tuho, or try Yut Nori where you make the board and have a go at playing it with your friends.
You could celebrate a fettisdagen fika with this simple recipe for some Scouts semla buns or cook up some kanelbullar with this simple Swedish cinnamon roll recipe.
Learn about djembe drums from west Africa, make a djembe drum, and perform some freshly-learnt songs for an audience.
You can add any country to the list by finding out some facts about it and maybe even trying a snack from that place in our international fact finder.
You could delve into the history of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement and have a think about where it should go next in Scouts around the globe. Or get creative, make your own Scout World Membership Badge, and learn about its parts in this World membership badge art attack.
You could explore what it’s like to be a part of Scouts in another country with these fun puzzles in Who Scouts in a place like this.
Get practising in other languages in this fast-paced greeting game, Hello wave goodbye ball.
Alternatively, get your taste buds at the ready and learn about the Flavours of the world in this global gastro gathering.
You could make links with a group abroad and share pictures of your country to go from Local to global. Remember to have photo permissions, not to share any personal data or information, and use a PO box or Scout meeting place address rather than a personal address.
Fold for fun and create the uniform of Scouts in a different country in this traditional origami challenge and Foldy go where no other Scouts have dared to.