Secret Orders

Have you stopped by Gaye Wilson's Guiding Works website? It's full of amazing resources; camping tips, program ideas, wide games and more.

One of the games I love from her website is called Secret Orders, which she has adapted from the book of games, Clouds on the Clothesline. We have that book in our unit and i'm ashamed to say that I haven't opened it in many years. Thank goodness for Gaye or i'd be missing out on a great activity!

The basic premise of the games is that Patrols need to complete a set of orders in silence. A member of each Patrol chooses a card and has her Patrol complete the order before the next player can choose a card. Play continues until all the challenges have been completed.

We have four sets of laminated cards in different colors, one for each Patrol. All the challenges are the same for each Patrol and can be completed in any order.

I played this game with the Guides (10-14 years), as a test run to see if it would be suitable for the Brownies. It worked really well but was quite a challenge for them, so I would definitely need to adapt some of the challenges to suit the younger girls. It was really interesting to watch how the Patrol's interpreted the challenges and worked (or didn't work) as a team. 

At the moment we use 12 challenges in total, listed below. The majority are straight from Gaye's list.

Be sure to check out the Guiding Works website for the complete instructions to this wonderful game of teamwork.

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What secret orders can you come up with?