Divide the group into two teams and tell them that they are going to build a human pyramid. Give them about five minutes to discuss how they are going to do this.
Then get each team, in turn to build their human pyramid!

Afterwards have a discussion about tactics:

• what worked and what didn’t?
• Are there any tips they would give to other people making a human pyramid?
• Are there any safety rules that need to be honoured (like getting off when people underneath are in pain!) ?

Listening and co-operating are pretty important in this exercise. Point out that games like this encourage people to practice these skills. Can the group think of other games where they practice both physical and social skills? Do they think that games are a good way to learn such skills?

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What to do

As a group create a big tree trunk from paper, with 4 big branches coming off it and for each branch make sure you have enough space to stick things around it. You might want to have a whole piece of flipchart for each branch and several sheets for the trunk. Use some tape to stick it all together.

Together create a collage of the whole journey you’ve been on this year, term or throughout your project. On each branch write a title e.g. games, trips, camps, topics, fill the sheet with photos, drawings, reflections, comments, thoughts and materials you’ve created. Do this for four Parts so you bring together everything you’ve been working on and fill up all four ‘branches.

Add post-its for the flowers and the fruits of your work – the knowledge and skills you have gained.

Looking at the trunk, write down the qualities and characteristics of the group now that makes it strong.

Add your roots – as your group’s shared values – don’t forget them.

Look at everyone’s contributions. Have a small discussion about what you’ve all put and how you think the group has changed this term.

Take a photo of the whole group with the tree!

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Designate three areas of your space – ‘true’, ‘false’, ‘undecided’

Read out a set of statements (some examples below), ask the Venturers/DFs to run to the part of the room that reflects how they feel about the statement.

Make a tally chart of choices, as you go along, as a few people why they chose to go where they went

Statements:

• Young people are involved enough in Woodcraft Folk decision making already
• Young people’s involvement has had a significant effect on the movement
• Adults encourage young people to voice their ideas
• Young people are not listened to and are asked tokenistically for their ideas
• Participation of young people in Woodcraft Folk is the most important part of Woodcraft Folk
• Young people can easily get involved with Woodcraft Folk on a national scale
• Young people can easily get involved with decision making in their district
• Young people’s opinions are seen as valuable by our leaders
• Young people are asked their opinions on a regular basis
• The participation of young people is a central commitment of Woodcraft Folk

Share the tally chart at the end and lead a discussion. Questions to guide discussion

• how can we support young people to support decision making more in our group / district?
• Would the group like to be more involved in national activities?
• Why do members like coming to the group?
• What do you think could be better about the group?
• How can we improve anything with our group?

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In small groups or individually, ask the children to draw a ‘map’ of a Group Session with drawings. It could start with ‘Leaving home’ and end with ‘the goodbye circle’. In between might be games, a craft activity, singing, nature activities, discussions. Encourage the children to illustrate each part of the session with cartoon drawings and lots of colour. The session they map could be a remembered night or an imagined session.

Let the children share their maps with the group. Encourage a discussion about what the ‘best’ activities are. Are there any activities which they would like to see more of?

Divide the group into two halves, or work as one whole group. Using their maps, get each group to plan a group session. They can be as inventive as they like, but it must be a regular session. They can invite parents or friendly adults in to run a session, but they can’t decide to ‘Watch a film’. Encourage that the session should focus on the aims and principles of Woodcraft Folk (e.g. peace, cooperation, international friendship etc.) If doing it in two groups, once both groups have a plan they can feedback to each other. Discuss the plans as a group.
Encourage the children to suggest modifications and to praise things that they like the look of.

Over the following two group sessions support the children to deliver the sessions they have planned.
The children do not necessarily have to run the nights unless they want to.
At the end of each child planned session hold a group discussion about the session.

• What went right?
• What was tricky?
• Would they change anything in their plan?
• Is there something they would like to do again?
• Have they enjoyed this exercise?
• Is planning something that they would enjoy doing more of?
• Are there ways the children could/do support planning other than running a whole group session?

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What you need:

As many printed character cards as there are players (or assign roles to playing cards).
Note: There should always be 1 “Burnout”, 1 “Volunteer Support”, 1 “Comms Lead” and 2 “Woodies”. If playing with a smaller group, ignore the extra players throughout the game guide. If playing with a bigger group, the addition of 2 “Secret Friends” and 1 “Village Coordinator” can be added. As the group size increases, you can increase the amount of “Burnout” and “Volunteer Support” and fill the rest with more “Woodies”.

What to do

Intro: Although we get a lot out of being a part of Woodcraft Folk, young people and adults alike, sometimes things can get a bit too much and this impacts us negatively. This is often referred to as “burnout”. In order to make sure the events we run are enjoyable for everyone involved, “volunteer support” is there in the background to make sure those that are looking after us get the support they need to not burnout. After playing this game, take some time to think about how each role might be reflected within your own group and come up with some ways you can help prevent burnout in the first place!
How to play: The Curse of Burnout takes place over a series of game days & nights of
camp. During the camp days the woodies work together to determine who among them
is spreading burnout throughout the camp and vote once per day to help rid them of
the curse. The game ends if all woodies are burnt out (burnout wins) or if no burnout
remains (Woodies win). Enjoy and good luck.

All players start by sitting in a circle. Choose your Comms Lead – someone who understands the rules or has played werewolf/mafia before.

The first night – the Comms Lead asks:

• All players to close their eyes to signify night has commenced
• The Secret Friends to raise their hands, while keeping their eyes closed. Thus disclosing their roles without revealing their identities to each other.
• The Burnout to wake up, making themselves known to the Comms Lead and to each other. They are then asked to choose someone to drain and then to go back to sleep. If the Burnout chooses a Woodie, their energy is drained and they must act sluggish, if they choose the Volunteer Support, there is no effect.

The Volunteer Support to wake up, making themselves known to the Comms Lead and to each other. They are then asked to choose someone to support and then to go back to sleep. If the Volunteer Support chooses a burnt out Woodie, they gain their energy back, if they choose the Burnout, there is no effect.

The first day

The comms Lead wakes everyone up, they do not announce who has been drained, but do announce if anyone has been saved, e.g. “someone was/no one was saved last night”.
If playing with a Village Coordinator they are voted upon now.
Woodies vote on who they think the Burnout are (with the Village Coordinator getting two votes). If the woodies vote for a woodie who has been burnt out rather than the Burnout, there is no effect. However if the woodies vote for the Burnout, they support them and by morning the Burnout becomes a Woodie.

The following nights – The Comms Lead asks:

The Burnout to wake up (only those who started with the role) to choose one person
to drain. Then go back to sleep.
The Volunteer Support to wake up to choose one person to support. Then go back
to sleep.

The following days

The Comms Lead announces if someone has been saved.
They then lead a discussion ending in the vote.

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What you need

• Pens
• Paper
• Monopoly money or coins (or even Post-it notes)
• Print the ingredients, price lists

What to do

Start by talking to the group about food on camps and how we work with a limited budget.
Different foods costing different amounts, protein and imported foods are more
expensive but we need them for a nutritious tasty meal.

Split into small groups and use the ingredients price list to plan out a menu for a day at camp. Give the group a budget of 30 money per day to spend. Let them create fun meals and see if there’s any money left for pudding.
Get the groups to present their menus explaining their choices and what they might’ve sacrificed.
Introduce the idea of carbon cost, before giving them the carbon table, get them to guess how much it might cost. Send them back into groups and calculate the carbon cost.

Then do a second day but ask them to think about the carbon cost this time, still within this 30 money budget. Get them to present the second day, ask them what changed when they were making it: what did they struggle with, what surprised them?

Reflection: Mention at last year’s AG, Woodcraft decided to work towards net zero
camps and what we think about meeting this target, how can we make choices with our diet to reach that?

For Venturers we suggest you add the Table of Minimum Requirements per Day. You could reduce food budgets as you go, slightly adjust the money/carbon cost of ingredients based on changes in supply. Feel free to adjust this workshop based on what you think your kids can handle, it can be a simple thought exercise or a complicated puzzle

This activity is from our Camp 100 Activity Pack. Find the full activity pack to help you prepare for Camp 100 here.

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You will need:

• Paper plates or pictures of paper plates
• Colouring pens or pencils.
• A list of all the centres and their descriptions
• Songbooks if needed for campfire.
• Laptop to watch video from Common Ground

What to do

Narrate the steps people will go through and try to get them to imagine the camp they
are in. Each of these sections can take no more than about 5 minutes and some should be less. Here are the steps:

• Setting up the camp – Get the group to role play putting up tents. Encourage them to work together to create a circle of tents: soon they will meet other districts and international groups to form the village! Then settle down to sleep in their tents.
• Sleeping – Narrate the sounds of a morning camp and transition into the morning cry. Everyone wakes up and emerges from their tents to greet the sun, ready for a new day of camp!
• Breakfast – First things first: breakfast! Give everyone a paper plate or a picture of the plate and tell them they can fill one third of the plate with a drawing of their ideal camp breakfast (we would love to see what your young people draw so dont forget to send pictures of the finished plates to yourideas@camp100.org.uk).
• Morning circle – Get everybody to gather in a circle and give some camp announcements. You can get the young people to nominate a chair of the circle and they can make some silly announcements. Play a name game or a circle game.
• Clans – It’s time to meet your clan! Split everyone into 2 or 3 groups, including the adults too! Explain that clans are groups where we help each other to do the tasks around the camp like cooking and cleaning. Teamwork is very important so we will play a game to practise our team working skills: the human knot game! Everyone holds hands with someone who is not next to them. Then, the group has to untangle the knot without letting go of anyone’s hand.
• Morning activities – Have the different centres and their descriptions hung up around the venue, they can go and choose what they want to do. Narrate how they might find activities at camp, hearing from a friend, seeing on a chalkboard, wandering into a session drawn by the sound of laughter etc

A few examples of centres:

• Solidarity Centre- A place to learn how we can work together to create a better world and be inspired to create one! Workshops will cover topics such as what socialism is, class struggle, and direct action.
• STEM Cell- Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths will all be covered in new and exciting ways! Come put on a lab coat and learn about the stars and beyond…
• MEST-UP – A centre to discuss, explore and dissect topics such as mental health, identity, intoxicating substances, and well being in a supportive space.
• Arts and Crafts Centre – Painting, drawing, cutting, sticking, playing instruments… Come get creative at the arts and crafts centre!
• The Cool Zone – A space only for those under 12 years old to play and have fun. Also known as the cool centre!
• Underground Printing Press – Got something to say? Get creative and put those thoughts down using old fashioned mechanical printing presses. Will your canvas be a letter, a poster, a t-shirt…?

• Call everyone back together to find a friend and share what centre they visited, again narrate this as what is happening rather than asking them to do it.
• Lunch – They can now fill in the second third of the plate with what they want to eat for lunch.
• Afternoon activities in the village – Say that you then play some games in the village and get them to play a favourite game.
• Dinner/Tea – Come back together and fill out thfill out the last section of the plate.
• News – gather round a laptop or projector to watch a video from Common Ground (for example the video linked in the materials section is on YouTube. Called ‘Common Ground 2022’ uploaded by Woodcraft Folk). Again, narrate the going to the news, the big tent, the large numbers of people.
• Evening programme – After the news, it’s time for the evening programme! Tell the group that on camp there will be fun for all ages on the main stage in the evening. Play some music and everyone can dance, you can even play a game of musical statues.
• Campfire – The finish the night, get everyone to gather around for a campfire. Either use a lantern or volunteer children to pretend to be a fire. You can sing some songs from the songbook and share stories and memories about previous camps. Use this opportunity for any questions.
• Bed time – Narrate the bedtime routine as the group settle back down into their tents for night time. You can dim the light and read a bedtime story.

This activity is from our Camp 100 Activity Pack. Find the full activity pack to help you prepare for Camp 100 here.

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Before you start

Tell your group the week before you do this activity that they will need to bring an old t-shirt or vest top to the next session. This ideally would be a plain-ish top so that young people can personalise it themselves.

You will need:

• An old T-shirt or vest top (one per person)
• Coloured pens (non-washable. Fabric pens if you have or permanent markers work too!)
• Scissors
• A table or hard surface

What to do

Firstly, it is easiest to start by putting your design on your t-shirt. Get each member of the group to lay out their t-shirt flat on a hard surface.

Decide with the group what they need to put on their bag. e.g. your name, group name or you could decide to just draw pictures about a theme such as protecting our environment, Woodcraft Folk, peace or write a message with words.

Once everyone has designed their shirt, cut out the arms (if using a t-shirt) and cut round the neck line.

Lay out the shirt again. Cut the bottom of the shirt vertically (upward toward the head of the shirt),  creating small slits about 5cm up. This will be how we attach the bag together to ensure your possessions don’t fall out!

Next, find two strips that are in line with each other. With your pair of strips together, knot them with a standard knot. It’s best to make 2 or 3 knots to make sure that it is as secure as possible.

The bags should now be secure! You could bring some plates, bowls and cups to test out the grub bags and give an example to the group of what they need to bring to camp.

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Virtual Tent-Mates is a fun creative exercise to imagine who the ultimate tent-mates would be!

Choose Your Virtual Tent-Mates

Normally when your group go camping, the young people get to choose who you would like to share a tent with. You can pick from your family or friends who you will be camping with – but what if you could choose absolutely anyone?

Get your group together and explain that they will be choosing their ultimate tent-mates. They can choose from real people or fictional ones, they can be alive now or people from history, but
who would be the ultimate tent-mates and why?

Key Questions

Some questions for the group to consider – good and bad:

– Who would be the most fun to stay up chatting with?
– Who would be too chaotic and never let you go to sleep?
– Who would be super tidy and keep the tent looking beautiful?
– Who would borrow all your things and leave them strewn over the camp?
– Who would tell the best stories when you were heading off to sleep?
– Who would wake up really early when you wanted to be asleep?
– Who would be the most exciting to share a camp with?
– Who would look after you if you were feeling homesick or sad?

Final Choice

Get the group to write out who their chosen tent mates would be and why. Ask each member of the group to share who they have chosen and why.

To explore further you could also ask the group:

• What kind of adventures might you go on with this particular selection of people?
• Who would be the worst nightmare to share a tent with?

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What to do

First person begins “When I go to Camp I will take…” and names something they would take, like  “a tent”.

The next person repeats “When I go to Camp I will take a tent…” and adds something else.

This continues around the group with everyone repeating the list of equipment and adding something else on.

Continue until someone forgets – that person has to start the next go

If you are preparing for an upcoming camping or residential trip you could use some of the ideas to put together a kit list for the group to use.

The post When I Go To Camp appeared first on Woodcraft Folk.

What you need

Print outs of the table of IFM-SEI organisations logos, names and countries; cut and separate out the logos from the countries and organization names. You can print several copies of the table depending on size of group.

A large world map poster or projection

Look at the IFM-SEI website https://ifm-sei.org/our-members-2023/ to see the members and find their social media, websites etc

What to do

Ask if anybody has been to an international camp with Woodcraft Folk. Can you remember any of the organisations you camped with or the places they came from?

Has anyone from the group heard of IFM-SEI? Take their ideas and explain that The International Falcon Movement – Socialist Educational International is an international educational movement working to empower children and young people to take an active role in society and fight for their rights. It is
an umbrella organisation for child and youth-led movements (like ours) all over the world, educating on the basis of our common socialist values of equality, democracy, peace, solidarity, co-operation, anti-capitalism and friendship.

Through IFM-SEI, we have sister organisation all over the world. Can you match the logo to the organisation and then guess where in the world they come from?

Split everyone into smaller groups and give them each a set of the logos and organisation names. For an easier version, you can also hand out the list of countries to match up.

• Give the groups 15 minutes to try and match the names up.
• Come back together and ask each group in turn to match a logo with a
  name and pin them on the map to guess the country. Correct as you go
  until all of the logos are pinned on the map.

Discussion questions

• Did you know we have connections to so many organisations across the world?
• How does that feel?
• Why is internationalism a good thing?
• Are there any organisations you want to find out more about? You can look on the IFM-SEI website to find their websites or social media and contact details!

The post Where in the world? (Is IFM-SEI) appeared first on Woodcraft Folk.

Objectives

• Think through why visas exist and how they complement our reflections about borders
• Discover which interests are mainly driving the mechanism / system of visas
• Discuss alternatives to visas

Materials

• Post-it notes
• Pens
• Flipchart paper
• A fake microphone

What to do

Explain to the participants that now you are going to explore a bit more in detail the reasoning behind visas. For this you are using a role-play method by playing a talk show situation.

Split the group into three smaller groups and divide the roles between them: one should be a speaker for governments, one for the economy/corporations and one for an opposition socialist party.

Each group has to prepare an argumentation on why visas make sense (or maybe no sense) for their role. They have to appoint one person to speak for the group in the talk show. They have 25 minutes to prepare their reasoning.

They have to prepare an opening statement, some questions for the other groups and be ready to answer some questions that the others may have for them, so it’s also important to think about which statements the other groups might come up with.

After these 25 minutes you are going into acting out the talk show. One of the facilitators moderates it, introduces the speakers first and then gives the floor to the different participants. After their introductory statement, they should also have the chance to answer questions of the other participants.

Discussion Questions

Thinking about their roles:

• Was it difficult to come up with ideas?
• Did the other groups say what you were expecting?
  What surprised you from the other group’s reasoning?

Now, as themselves:

• What do you agree with?
• Do you think visas make sense?
• How are they used to stop people from moving?
• Do they work the same for everyone?
• Thinking specifically about the corporations, are they having the same barriers to move their products or to move money?

This activity is from IFM-SEI’s On The Move Resource which is a handbook that explores the topics of migration, refugees, visas and regional youth work in order to educate and fight for world where a child or young person’s rights are not dictated by where they are born. This resource highlights that it is vital for young people to understand the issues around migration and mobility as a first step in being able to identify and get practical skills to help tackle these human rights infringements. It includes practical guidance on how to include refugees and migrants in your youth organisation and its activities. Find it here.

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