Activities Handbook 2012

Contents
Introduction Casino Blackjack Roulette Higher or Lower Race the Ace Poker -Poker Hands Human Fruit Machine Trash Fashion Show Summer fete Wacky Team Sports You Bet! Camp Fire Talent Show Horror Night Save the egg Scavenger Hunt Beat the Clock Theme Nights Boys & Girls Night Blind Date Karaoke/X Factor Discos Quiz Night Indoor Sports

Hello, This handbook has been written as a guide to the on-site activities. It is by no means a definitive guide and should be used as a starting point for you to build upon and make the activity your own. . Some students will be returning to Bucksmore for their second, third, fourth or even fifth year and they do not want to do the same activities every year. Equally there will be many first time students at your centre and it is important that they enjoy the activities. There are tried and tested activities that work well year after year but it falls on you to give these activities a fresh twist so that they still work well and engage returners. Be inventive, be creative, be enthusiastic. Students take their lead from you. If you build the games up and get involved then the students will soon follow. Even the teenagers who are acting too cool for school will soon be strutting down the cat-walk in a bin-bag if the activities are organised, promoted and run in the right way. Any activities you find to be a great success please make a note off and let us know at the end of the programme, particularly if it is an activity you have made up at your centre. Have Fun! Ben Please note this is a general guide for all centres and some activities may not be suitable or even do-able at your centre or for the age of your students

Casino
This is one of these evening activities that is usually a huge hit with students and staff. The usual recipe for a successful Casino Night is as follows: All staff manning the event need to break-out their glad-rags. Suits for the males, or at least smart trousers and a shirt, and nice dresses for the females. A selection of casino games that the students can bet on. Some suitable background music, basically Sinatra and The Rat pack will have you covered for the night

Games

Blackjack (21) Higher or Lower Roulette Race the Ace Poker Human Fruit Machine

Other Ideas

Cocktails (non-alcoholic!) Sweet Cups Auction

Casino
Blackjack
Typical this works best with 4/5 students playing, otherwise the table becomes too crowded. The basic premise of the game is that you want to have a hand value that is closer to 21 than that of the dealer, without going over 21. Other players at the table are of no concern. The value of the cards is as follows: An Ace can count as either 1 or 11, as explained below. The cards from 2 through 9 are valued at their face value. The 10, Jack, Queen, and King are all valued at 10. Players place their bets Two cards are dealt to each player face up,. You (The Dealer) deal your second card face down. You then work your way round the table asking each player if they want to stick (stay with what they have), or hit (be given another card). If a players total goes over 21 they are Bust and lose their bet. Once you have gone round all players you are now playing against the ones who didnt go bust. You turn over your down-turned card and continue to draw yourself cards, face-up, following the rule below: "Dealer stands on all 17s": In this case, the dealer must continue to take cards ("hit") until his total is 17 or greater. An Ace in the dealer's hand is always counted as 11 if possible without the dealer going over 21. For example, (Ace,8) would be 19 and the dealer would stop drawing cards ("stand"). Also, (Ace,6) is 17 and again the dealer will stand. (Ace,5) is only 16, so the dealer would hit. He will continue to draw cards until the hand's value is 17 or more . If your score, when you finish drawing cards, beats any player then you take their money, any player who has beaten you will need to be given their winnings. Running odds of 1:1 is generally the easiest, so if a student bets 10 and bets you, you Equipment Needed giver them 10 on top of their 10 bet.

2 x Packs of cards 1 x Playing Mat

Casino Method
A few days before the casino take an inventory of the equipment you have and what you will need. Remember decorations as these really help set the mood.

Hopefully a link lesson would have been done in the morning classes so students will be eagerly anticipating the casino evening. This can take a bit of set-up so ensure you give yourself plenty of time to set up the room/rooms. A basic room plan for casino is as follows:

Race the Ace Higher or Lower? Blackjack

Cocktails and snacks

Roulette Human Fruit Machine Cash Table Poker

Depending upon the space you have available you may not be able to do this many games so just tailor your Casino to your centre. Make sure you decorate and set up a laptop/iPod with suitable music playing. At the cash table give students a set amount of Bucksmore money and mark their hands so you know who has been given money and who hasn't

Casino
Higher or Lower A simple and easy game that is also quick. This game is for one student at a time Put yourself in the role of Bruce Forsythe and blu-tak 6 random cards to the board. Ask the student how much they want to bet and then the game begins Turn over the first card and ask the student if they think the next card will be higher, or lower. Depending on what mood you find yourself in you may give the student the chance to exchange the first card if it is a 7, for example. The game continues until the student guesses incorrectly or they successfully make it to the end of the board. If they guess incorrectly take their money, if they make it across pay them odds of 1:1 (a 10 bet will result in them getting 10 in winnings, so 20 back in total)

Equipment Needed 1 x Giant playing cards 1x Pack of Blu-Tak 1 x Board of some variety

Casino
Roulette A very simple game to run, depending on how many options you let the students have. You can keep it simple and only allow bets on red or black, odd or even and single numbers or if you want to go full out you can but make sure you work out the odds beforehand! Roulette is all about luck. People place their bets and you as the croupier spins the wheel, puts in the ball and collects the money. Betting options are:

A Single Number Two Numbers A Row A Corner 1-18 or 19-36 collectively Red or Black Odd or Even First 12 (1-12), Second 12 (13-24) or Third 12 (25-36) If the ball lands where the student bet then you pay them their winnings, if it doesnt you take their money. The Odds: 1:1 - Black, Red, Odd, Even, 1-18 and 19-36, so a 10 bet gives 10 winnings 2:1 - Rows or a 12, so a 10 bet gives 20 winnings 8:1 - Corner, so a 10 bet gives 80 winnings 36:1 - single number, so a 10 bet gives 360 winnings Equipment Needed 1 x Roulette Wheel 1 x playing Mat

Casino
Race the Ace A fun game but it does require preparation. The basic concept here is that each of the 4 Aces is a Horse that must race along a horse track, jumping over fences. This is the track you need to make: 2. 1. Cellotape a few paces of A3, enough to cover a table Then you have to design your track. Ideally you want around 8 fences either draw these on your paper or get creative with straws and whatever else you can lay your hands on 3. Add decoration to your track To Play the game 1. The 4 Aces start side by side at the start 2. Students bet on the Horse they think will win 3. You turn over one card at a time from the remaining pack of cards 4. Whatever suit the card you turn over is that is the Ace that moves forward, eg if you turn over the 3 of club, then the Ace of Clubs moves forward one fence. 5. This continues until the first horse reaches the finish line 6. Whichever student/s bet on this horse wins 7. For ease put odds at 2:1 8. As many students as you can handle can bet on any one horse, just make sure you can keep track!

Equipment Needed 1 x Pack of cards Materials to make the track

Casino
Poker Texas Hold em
Students love to play poker so make sure you have a poker table. There are two ways to run the poker table, either let the students run it themselves and just check on them every now and then to ensure that everyone who wants to play has the chance to play or have a member of staff at the table to run the game. The premise of Poker is to have the best possible 5 card poker hand using the players two cards they are dealt combined with the 5 community cards that will be in the middle of the table. Basic Rules To ensure that some money is played each round there is the blind and the small blind. The player to the left of the dealer puts down half of the minimum bet (the small blind) and the player next to them puts down the full minimum bet (The blind). Two cards are then dealt to each player face down. Each player can then either call, raise or fold. If they want to continue playing then they must match the minimum bet, they can raise the bet, in which case everyone else will need to match it if they want to stay in the game, finally a player can fold, they hand in their cards and cease to play that hand. Once complete the dealer discards (burns) the top card of the deck, three cards are then placed face up in the middle of the table. Another round of betting then takes place. Players can check (not betting any more money, but staying in the game), raise or fold. If one player raises the bet then all others must match this bet to stay in the game. The dealer burns the card at the top of the deck and places a fourth card in the middle of the table. Another round of betting takes place. The dealer burns a final card and places the fifth card in the middle of the table. A final round of betting takes place. Any players who are left in the game must show their hand at the end of the betting and whoever has the best 5 card hand from their 2 cards and the community 5 cards wins the game. Simples

Equipment Needed 1 x Poker Set

Casino
Human Fruit Machine A fruit machine that uses people as opposed to a machine. Three people sit in a line in a manner so that they cannot see each other, or at the very least should be told not to communicate with one another. Each person should be given a bag/box with a banana, apple and orange inside. On the count of three a piece of fruit should be pulled from the bag/box. If three of the same fruit is shown then the student who was playing wins. Depending on staff numbers you may want to get students to be the fruit machine Suggested Odds: 2:1 or 3:1
Equipment Needed 3 x banana, apple, orange Decoration

Casino
Other Ideas Cocktails A cocktail table always goes down well, just make sure that they're non-alcoholic! Get some fruit juices and experiment before-hand to see what works. Add in some straws and umbrellas. Sweet Cups A simple way to get some of that money back in. Buy some multibags of sweets (any pound shop always sells them) and some plastic cups. Put an assortment of sweets into each cup and sell for 5 a cup (Bucksmore money!) Auction At the end of your casino you can choose to award a prize to whoever has the most money. If you do not want to do this an alternative is an auction. You can buy prizes in or be more inventive and offer other things for the students to bid for. A member of staff may be a students servant for the day (within reason) or a student may be able to bid for 15 minutes extra time to stay up with 3 friends. Prizes could be linked to future activities, eg feeding the fish at sea-life. Be inventive and make it fun.

Trash Fashion Show

This is one of those events that can either work really well or can flop completely so it is crucial that staff get heavily involved and are enthusiastic. Build this even up during the day and ensure that there is adequate advertising in the form of posters building up to the day of your trash fashion show. The idea for this even is that students make their own clothes using materials provided to them; bin bags, cellotape, crepe paper etc. They make their outfits and then display their creations on a cat-walk. Judges can vote for the outfit they think is the best and this person/group wins a prize. Staff should be heavily involved in this event, making their own clothes and giving limited help to students. When it comes to displaying the clothes make a cat-walk, use tables and arrange chairs along the length of your catwalk. This really helps to create the right atmosphere, also play some appropriate music whilst the students show case their creations. 3 Judges could sit at the end of the catwalk ready to judge what comes before them.

Equipment Needed Bin bags Boxes String Cellotape Glue A Catwalk Decoration

Summer Fete
An event thats highly weather dependent. It might be the case that if you find yourself with a sunny evening change the timetable around and do this then. There is nothing worse than having to repeatedly cancel an event due to bad weather. Decorate your outside area with bunting, union jacks, a big banner etc. Assess the number of staff you have available and assign stalls accordingly; Tombola Face painting (depending on ages at your centre) Apple bobbing Sports Day events - sack race, egg & spoon, three legged race, tug of war. Soak the teacher - make stocks, cardboard box covered in bin bags. Use wet sponges or water balloons English food & drink - cloudy lemonade, strawberries & cream etc. Anymore you can think of. Have a set time for the sports events and assure students know this time. It might be an idea to have pre-assigned teams beforehand so students know their team. Keep track of scores and award a prize to the winning team.
Equipment Needed Raffle tickets Prizes Face paints Apples A big container Sacks Eggs & spoons String A rope Stocks Sponges Drinks Food Bunting Flags

Wacky Team Sports

Some of these games have been suggested for the Summer fete but depending on time you may want to make a separate event of them. On a sunny day this can be a great way to spend an afternoon. Students are separated into teams, maybe 8 at most. Team games are played with teams competing for a prize. Games: Three Legged race (or tie the whole time together) Egg and Spoon Sack race Pass the water balloon Teams stand a set length apart and throw the water balloon to each other the last time to have their water balloon intact wins Shoe Tangle Every student takes off one-shoe. All of the teams shoes are then tied together about 25 metres in front of the team. In a relay they must hop to the shoes, untie theirs, put it on and race back. The first team to have all their members back and fully shoed wins. Spoon and String A piece of string is tied to a spoon. This spoon must pass up one members top, down the others, up the next etc until the whole team is attached, they must then race to a certain point. First team wins. Continued on Next page

The Final Game A personal favourite. Firstly make sure you have 2 buckets of water balloons hidden. About 10 metres in front of the teams place a washing bowl of water with an apple in. 10 metres further on have a plate of flour and a few smarties. Students must run to the water, pick up the apple, drop it again and then run to the plate and find a smartie. Let the game go for a minute or two then unleash the water bombs, add in some flour and before long the game is forgotten and carnage ensues. Dont wear anything you dont want covered in flour as students will get you! A great way to end an afternoon. Head for a shower and prepare for dinner

You Bet
A team game for students in which they bet on a series of challenges performed by other students/centre staff. One member of staff needs to be the presenter, maybe with a lovely assistant (cross-dressing never fails to amuse). 1. The students are divided into teams and given a set amount of points to start with. 2. The Host introduces challenges and picks staff members/ random students to try and complete them. The teams must decide how many points they want to bet that the student will complete the challenge/do it the quickest etc. Challenge examples: More Keepy ups than a teacher Eat 10 cream crackers in a minute Feel a teachers face and guess who it is More hula hoops than a teacher Remember items on a tray that is then taken away Furthest flying paper aeroplane Like most activities be inventive add your own 3. Points are kept by the assistant and whoever has the most at the end of the evening wins.

Equipment Needed Decorations Football Crackers Hula Hoop A4 paper A Board and marker pen Prize

Camp Fire
Depending on your centre this may not be do-able. I cant see the staff at the Oxbridge colleges being too pleased if you start a fire on the college lawn This is a nice evening activity that can easily be tailored to suit particular levels of English. This really doesnt take that much explaining. Make a fire, organise some sort of boundary with logs so students dont sit too close. Provide some marshmallows, drinks and if possible a guitar to start some camp fire songs. It may also be an idea to tell ghost stories. Once more this is an activity that can be a really fun evening provided that staff are enthusiastic and get involved. Make sure you ensure that the fire is properly out before you leave for the night!

Equipment Needed 1 x camp 1 x fire Marshmallows Guitar Drinks A good singing voice Bucket of water, just in case

Talent Show
Another activity that can be the highlight of a students stay or can fall flat. Preparation is crucial and its important to let students know about the talent show as early as possible and give them ideas about what they can do. It might be an idea to include a talent show preparation session alongside one of the evening activity slots. Hopefully youll have a multitude of different acts signing up for the talent show, a sign-up sheet is useful. You can then begin to get an idea of the running order together and what equipment students might need. Sometimes its as simple as finding some music for them to sing-a-long to, other things may take some finding and may not always be possible to acquire. Staff should also put on a performance, previous years have seen pantomimes, dance routines, musical renditions. The more staff involved the better.

Horror Night
A night that goes down well at all centres, but again, preparation is key. . The basic premise at every centre will remain the same, staff dress up, make props and scare students but from there this evening activity has plenty of potential so make sure you put your own stamp on it and truly make it your own. Previous centres have had ghosts of murdered staff coming back to track down their killer, different themed rooms for students to explore. This is an activity to have fun with and staff generally enjoy it just as much if not more than the students themselves! Black out the windows Scary Music Staff dress up Lots of decoration Try and get a story going or small activities in the rooms

Save the Egg

This classic game is great for pitting teams of students against each other. The premise is that students have to make an egg carrying device so that when it is dropped out of a window the egg will survive the fall crack free. 1. Divide the students into groups Allocate each group a certain amount of materials E.g. 1 plastic cup, 1 carrier bag, a set length of string, 2 balloons, 2 sheets of newspaper, a pair of scissors. NB: If you give a group a roll of cellotape they will use it all to wrap their egg, so keep the cellotape yourself and also issue a small amount at a time to a group when they ask. 2.Give each group a time limit. 3.You may want to award prizes for the best looking, most original etc 4.After the time period is up get the students to follow you to the pre-assigned dropping point. (somewhere near a high window that opens) 5.Either you take all of the devices up to the window or take 1 student from each group up to the window. 6.The eggs and carrying devices are thrown out of the window. 7.Someone on the ground needs to inspect the eggs for cracks 8.Those whose egg escapes crack-free are the winners.

Scavenger Hunt
This is probably more suited to younger students but it depends on the kind of group you have at your centre and could work with older students. Write a list of questions/things to find that will get the students racing around the campus. Questions could ask them to count the number of trees in a certain area; name a particular building; the opening times of places. Things to find could include: 3 different leaves, a certain staff members signature, a piece of paper that you have previously hidden somewhere. The first team back with everything correct wins. This activity is easy to modify with a theme. For Bucky Kids this can easily be tailored to fit in with a themed day. It can turn into solving a crime where they have to find clues scattered around the campus or can become a pirate treasure hunt or a monster hunt.

Beat the Clock

At various locations around your centres you need to set-up different activities. Students will rotate around the activities and try to complete them/get the best score in an allotted amount of time. Staff at the activities keep score of all the groups and at the end all of the scores are collated and a winning team is announced. An alternative would be that one teacher stays with the same group for the entirety of the activity, whichever works. Possible Activities: - An Anagram on the board, students have to make the most words. - Badminton, students all have a racquet and have to amass the highest score they can in 10 minutes - The teacher throws the object and a blindfolded student has to be directed in English to retrieve the object. - Students all sit down in a circle and pass an empty drinks can around using only their legs and feet. If the can touches the floor they have to start again. Highest score is recorded. - Pictionary10/15 words are decided before the activity, so all groups have the same words, and students must nominate a drawer. The others must see how many they can guess in the time limit. - Find a long song (American Pie, Freebird) print out the lyrics and tip-ex out some words, photocopy this sheet. Students must listen to the song and fill in the gaps.

Equipment Needed Stop Watches Badminton Racquets Empty drinks cans Music playing device

Theme nights
Theme nights are a good way of giving a theme to an otherwise relatively quiet evening or afternoon (making it a Theme afternoon). A sports choice or arts and craft afternoon can be rejuvenated by giving it a theme. Possible Themes American Theme American Football, basketball, baseball, Cheerleading, arrange a BBQ with catering staff and have burgers. English Theme Cricket, Croquet, football, tennis, Picnic Scottish Night Split students into clans. Highland Gamescaber tossing (use a roll of carpet or wrapping paper roll stuffed with newspaper), throw a wellie over a high pole, Tug-of-war. Celidh. Sing Scottish folk songs.

Boys & Girls night

Split boys and girls into two separate groups

Boys

Burping competition Arm Wrestling A lad Film (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Top Gun Shandy, lemonade, crisps

Girls

Nail Painting Pyjama Party Twister Hot Chocolate Girly Film

Blind Date
Find yourself a Cilla and prepare to unleash some Bucksmore romances. Organise three chairs in a line and then a fourth chair separated by a screen. Find a volunteer from the audience, or a staff member to start with and get them to wait outside. Get Three more volunteers and seat them on the three chairs in a row. Bring in the first volunteer and seat them on the solitary chair. Get them to say a few things about themselves. You might wan to have some pre-written questions that the contestant can ask the three potential dates. After 3 questions and 3 answers to each, its a good idea to get someone to re-cap, in the style of our graham. The contestant then chooses his date and romance blooms. To ensure participation you could offer a candle-lit dinner with waiter service (provided by staff) for the meal that evening or the next day.

Karaoke / X factor
Karaoke nights can sometimes work well on their own, and as a councillor youll find yourself supervising and singing the odd song. An alternative to this standard karaoke night is to turn it into an X-factor style competition. Get contestants to give their song choices to you and make up a board with their name and song on. Nominate three judges and sit them at the judges table. Make scorecards from 1-10 for the judges. Each contestant is announced on stage by the host (one of the staff). At the end of the song the judges scores are counted and added to the scoreboard, an audience vote could also be added whereby the host turns their level of applause into a score out of 10. If time allows you could even have a final where the top 3/4 singers sing another song.

Discos
Discos invariably start slowly but within an hour any shyness has dissipated and students are having a great time. Some alternatives to a normal disco are never a bad idea and are given here as suggestions that you may or may not want to employ. Any theme for a disco needs to be properly advertised so the students know what to do. Cross-dressing disco This relies on students swapping clothes with each other so may be a bit tricky in the first week when they dont really know each other. The cross-dressing disco has gone down well in previous years, its always the teenage boys who seem to get into it the most. Just make sure that the students know how they are meant to dress. Staff should also get involved in the cross dressing spirit, its good for morale. Masquerade Disco This is a disco that can be prepared for in a previous arts & craft session. Students can make their own masks in an arts and craft session and then wear them to the Masquerade disco. Face-painting can also be offered on the night of the disco for those who lost/failed to make their mask. Any theme you do implement needs to be advertised through posters and announcements in class.

Quiz night
This needs to be looked at and planned before the night. You need to be sure of where you will do it, how many people will be in each round and how youll organise the rounds. Ideally youll want several varied rounds. Split up the question rounds with some picture rounds/music rounds/something a bit different. An idea for a structure is as follows: Introduction make them be quiet and give points to the quietest team. Make them be loud and give points to the loudest team. Geography questions Speed round 1 student from each team runs to fetch a tooth brush from their room. 1st place gets 10 points 2nd 9 points etc. Sport questions Strength round 1 student from each team goes up on stage and does press ups. The one who does the most pressups wins the most points. History questions Dance round 1 student from each team goes on stage and the best dancer gets the most points Science questions The balance round 1 student from each team must balance a book on their head the one who keeps it on their head for the longest time win the most points for their team. Entertainment questions The ball round 1 student form each team must throw the ball between their legs and catch it repeatedly. The one who doesnt drop the ball wins the most points. Picture questions The final LOUD round Each team makes as much noise as possible and points are awarded. Final scores

Indoor Sports
Dodgeball Split students into teams Divide the hall in half If students get hit by the ball they are out. If they catch the ball the person who threw the ball is out. Continue until a whole team is out A slight variation on this is that if a team member catches the ball one of their team who was out can re-enter the game. Depends how long you want games to last. Bench Ball Split the group into two, one half on one side one on the other Set benches / chairs behind each team. 2 members from each team stand on the bench behind the opposition. Students must throw the ball to their team member on the bench whilst the opposition try and intercept. If the ball is cleanly caught by their team member on the bench then they go and join them on the bench. Continue until an entire team is on the bench. British Bulldog Choose 1 or 2 people to stand in the middle of the hall. The other students must run from one side to the other. If they are tagged by the person in the middle they join the person in the middle trying to tag people. The game continues until all students are out.