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60 Second Activities
by Dave Morley
Somewhere during a Beaver meeting or activity is a gap. If only you had something that would fill that gap; occupy the Beavers; say for a minute. That's what this is all about: simple games and activities Beavers can do alone, or in a group.
We've tried to keep things simple. Many of the activities need nothing more than what a Beaver brings to a meeting. However, many more can be done with simple equipment such as a ball, playing cards, bean bags, peanuts, sticks, paper and pencil. The biggest problems is that with everyone having so much fun, a minute just won't be long enough.
- Challenge Beavers to count how many times they can stand up and sit down in a minute?
- Beavers are paired, a bean bag on the shoulder of one of the Beavers. How many times can they take the bean bag and put it on their own shoulder in a minute?
- Paired Beavers count how many times they can catch a ball that is bounced back and forth between them.
- How many times can each Beaver touch all four walls in a minute, either before time runs out, or before they're exhausted (never happen)?
- Given a tennis ball, the Beaver counts how many times he catches the ball after he bounces it off a wall.
- For this crash-bang activity, Beavers walk backwards, counting laps for the minute.
- How many times can the Beaver hop on a foot for sixty seconds. Let them alternate feet. What about two feet?
- Do a bunny hop for a minute, and count how many times they can go around set objects, say pylons. Make it harder. Do a frog hop.
- Beavers in a line do a leap frog. How many Beavers can be leapt in a minute?
- With Beavers sitting in a circle, OK the dam, how many times can they pass an object around the circle? Make it more difficult by passing two objects in opposite directions. Count how many times the objects pass at a set point, or pass.
- Two Beavers stand back to back. One has an object they pass over their head followed by between the legs. How many times can they do this in sixty seconds?
- Beavers in pairs roll the ball between them. Count how many times they can do this in a minute. Increase the size of the Beaver groups. Do it by lodges.
- Balance on one foot for a minute. Challenge them to close their eyes and stay balanced for the minute.
- Beavers in lodges. How many times can they throw a ring over a stick in the minute.
- How many times can Beavers throw a Frisbee back and forth without dropping it for the minute.
- Tie their shoes. Beavers are challenged to tie their shoes as many times as they can in the time? If this is not enough, challenge them to take the shoes off and put them back on again.
- Toss bean bags into a bucket and count how many go in during the minute.
- How many times can they repeat a tongue twister in the minute?
- With paper and pencil in hand, how many letters of the alphabet can they print in a minute? OK, how many times can they go through the alphabet in a minute? What about doing the alphabet backwards from Z?
- Something you always wanted to know — how many tiles on the floor of the room? What about ceiling tiles or concrete blocks in a wall?
- Try to exhaust your Beavers by challenging them to see how many times they can sit in each corner of the room in a minute? No piling on.
- A pair of Beavers, back to back, clap partner's hands between the legs as many times as possible in the given time.
- Bounce a ball for a minute. Count how many times they bounce the ball in the minute.
- How many times can the Beaver bounce the ball, turn around and catch it in the minute?
- Beavers are to find the person in the room with a birth day closest to theirs. Birth day: such as 5 or 17. Be prepared. Some Beavers don't know when their birthday is.
- All those with a birthday in the same month get together.
- Run on the spot for a minute.
- Each Beaver blows an inflated balloon as far as they can in a minute.
- Skip around the room for sixty seconds.
- With a partner, Beavers sit face to face, hands up, palm to palm. Clap right hand to right hand, left to left for a minute.
- Lay on the floor and stand up as many times as they can in sixty seconds. Keep count. As a variation, lay down, roll over, then stand up.
- Put the Beaver hat to use. How many times in the minute can Beavers take it off and put it back on.
- Each Beaver with a deck of cards. Flip the card. If it is face up flip another card. If face down, pick that card up and retry until it is face up. The idea is to get them all face up in the minute.
- How many times in 60 seconds can Beavers put on their coat or jacket, and take it off?
- Skip rope.
- Count how many times they can go through Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes in a minute. Or, keep it simple by just touching toes.
- With a partner, do a staring contest for the time.
- How many times can Beavers blink their eyes in a minute. They have to count each one, so that'll slow them down.
- Let's see if they can laugh for a minute.
- Using an inflated balloon, the Colony tries to keep it in the air for a minute. Never the same Beaver twice in a row. Make it more difficult by letting each lodge do it. Add more balloons to the mix.
- Each Beaver with a chair. Let them count the number of times they can climb on top of the chair. Try over and under the chair.
- Can they count to 100 in a minute? How far can they go in a minute? How many times can they count to 10 in the minute? Count backwards from 100 — or ten.
- How many times can they walk around the room with a ball (tennis or golf) balanced on their open palm.
- Beavers balance a plastic spoon on their noses. See if they can sit down and stand up while still balancing the spoon on the noise. How many times can they do this in the minute?
- Give each Beaver 10 toothpicks (safer than match sticks). Beaver is to form each letter of the alphabet, in order and one at a time, in the minute. How far did they get?
- Say the alphabet backwards from Z. How many far did they get? How many times did they get through the alphabet? Try going front to back, such as A-Z-B-Y-etc.
- In lodges, Beavers try to come up with a list of words in alphabetical order, such as apple, beach, comic, dog. Bring the Colony together to make the list. How fast do you get through the alphabet?
- Each Beaver with a deck of playing cards. Turn Beaver hat over on the floor. Beaver tries to flip cards into the hat. How many did they get in?
- Do Jumping Jacks.
- Beavers in pairs take turns trying to make each other laugh.
- With a very long string and Beavers in a line, Beavers pass end of sting through one sleeve of their vest and out the other. How many Beavers can we thread in a minute? Make it more difficult and thread the string through the T-shirt.
- Taking peanuts (or marbles), one at a time from the source, how far can Beaver lodges fill a container in a minute?
- Ten tooth picks per Beaver. Beaver makes one number at a time in order. Count as high as they can.
- Name as many animals as they can in a minute. Put Beavers in a circle and go around in order. If a Beaver is stuck, let another act out what the next animal is. Let Beavers give the next animal as soon as they get it.
- Make paper airplanes and fly them.
- How high can Beavers build a toothpick structure?
- Using 20 toothpicks, play pickup sticks.
- With a face down deck of cards, play Concentration. Keep it simple. Try matching colours only. Make it more difficult by matching face value, and even more difficult by matching face value and colour.
- Equally divided deck of cards. Beavers play "War". That is, each Beaver turns over a card from the top of their pile. The highest card wins.
- Again, with equally divided cards, Beavers play Odds and Evens. One Beaver starts by calling odds or evens, then Beavers flip their card. Winner makes the next call.
- Play closest to the wall with playing cards.
- Give each Beaver a playing card. Beaver flips the card. How many times does it land face up in a minute?
- Give each lodge a newspaper for a scavenger hunt. Find an animal, a smiling face, a not happy face, a transportation method, food, etc.
- Create a paper or sock ball, held tightly together with elastics. Beaver on their knees on the floor. Play hand hockey.
- Teams in a line, pass an object up and down the line as many times as they can in a minute.
- How many handshakes can they do in the time given. Let them do it with a partner, group, or the whole Colony.
- Use a line on the floor, masking tape about a metre apart, or table — Beavers flick a button or penny and see how close they can get it to the tape or edge.
- Play "I Spy" (with my little eye). Try the traditional colours, but also shapes, and perhaps relative sizes, such as big, small, tiny.
- Masking tape lines on the floor, (a table is good), about a metre apart. Beavers try to blow a ping pong ball over the opposite line.
- Without looking at a clock or watch, estimate a minute. Start in a sitting position. Beaver stands up once they figure a minute has passed. (Suggest they count to 60 — slowly. Or use "Mississippi's").
- For a minute: Beavers take their hat off, put it on the floor and stand up. How many times can they take it off and put it back on in a minute?
- Beavers walk heel to toe. How far can they walk in a minute? How many steps can they take in a minute?
- How many times can a Beaver jump up and turn around in a minute?
- How far and how long can they crab walk?
- Sing a song such as, "Row, Row Your Boat". Sing it as a round. Try dropping a word from beginning each time through.
- Each Beaver lays on the floor face down, puts his hands on the floor, then walks up to his hands. This is followed by laying back down and repeating the cycle. How many times can they do it in the time?
- Do finger plays.
Can you think of some other neat things to do in sixty seconds?
Copyright © Dave Morley, 1998
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Last updated: January 18, 1999
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