After a windy night and damp morning the Alevin and Salamander Efts gathered at the North Galbraith trailhead for a day of games and healthy competition. Each year we have a games showdown between two of the oldest Explorers clubs groups; These days are great opportunities to play games we usually don’t have enough people for and enjoy the energy that a large group of boys brings. As the Explorers gathered it was cool to see friendships that existed outside of specific groups and new friendships forming. As soon as everyone had arrived we headed into the forest to find Tim who was finishing the final touches on our game set up
After hiking for about fifteen minutes we reached our destination and the site for our game. Our game of choice was Life and Death in the Forest. This game is a huge complicated game that involves herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, food sources, and many other factors. The basic premise of the game is a food chain game where each type of animal needs different resources to survive that mirror what this animal would need in the natural world (ask your Explorer to explain the rules sometime!). As soon as everyone had grabbed a snack and had a chance to visit we gathered into a large circle to introduce ourselves and explain the rules of the game.
The flip side of all the positive and excited energy that comes from having such a large group is that it is often hard to hold the group's attention for more than a short time. We worked our way through the rules pausing a couple times to call the boys attention back to the circle. When we finished the explanation of the rules we broke down into groups of herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores and geared up for the game. As soon as everyone was ready we started the game.
After hiking for about fifteen minutes we reached our destination and the site for our game. Our game of choice was Life and Death in the Forest. This game is a huge complicated game that involves herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, food sources, and many other factors. The basic premise of the game is a food chain game where each type of animal needs different resources to survive that mirror what this animal would need in the natural world (ask your Explorer to explain the rules sometime!). As soon as everyone had grabbed a snack and had a chance to visit we gathered into a large circle to introduce ourselves and explain the rules of the game.
The flip side of all the positive and excited energy that comes from having such a large group is that it is often hard to hold the group's attention for more than a short time. We worked our way through the rules pausing a couple times to call the boys attention back to the circle. When we finished the explanation of the rules we broke down into groups of herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores and geared up for the game. As soon as everyone was ready we started the game.
The game flew by in a blur of hiding behind sword ferns, chases through the forest, finding food sources, finding water sources, surprising each other, strategizing with one another, launching down ravines, running up slopes, crawling through the forest, herbivores hiding, and overall lots of laughter and fun. Part of the fun in playing a big game like this is the healthy competition that it promotes. The values that we can still respect each other even while playing hard in the woods. Numerous times I witnessed the game put on hold as one explorer helped another one up during a chase through the woods.
When the first round ended we came back together to talk about the game. Life and Death in the Forest is an interesting game to reflect on since it both puts the players in the mindset of whatever trophic level they were playing as and can show us how different food chains and ecosystem dynamics work. We had a great debrief on what it felt like to be herbivores, omnivores, or carnivores as well as what we can learn about real life ecosystems based on the parameters of this game. How many herbivores would survive in a real ecosystem? Does the amount of food the omnivore's had to eat seem reflective of how it might actually be? what adaptations would you really want if you were a carnivore? These and many other food chain related questions came up as the boys discussed the game.
For our second round we switched the roles and ratios of the animals slightly to reflect what we had discussed after the last game. Again we all disappeared into the forest to become herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores each finding enough food and water to survive.
The second round was just as successful as the first. Again we had a short debrief after the game to see how the changes we had made went. As the enthusiastic conversation died down we transitioned into ending the day with a sit spot. We asked the boys to spread out and find a comfortable place to sit quietly for the next fifteen to twenty minutes. The mentors spread out and began to clean up the various “food” and “water” sources from around the course. As we made our way back toward the backpacks we heard many voices and saw that many of the boys had all gathered together instead of finding a solo sit spot away from each other. We again reminded these boys to spread out and find their own spots. This temporarily spread them out, but soon enough they had come back together and began talking loudly again. We called everyone in from their sit spots and heard really insightful observations and profound realizations from the boys that had taken their sit spot seriously.
Our day ended with a the 20 minute walk a back to the parking lot. As we walked back we all chatted enthusiastically about the game and moments of defeat and success. Again the need for honest and healthy competitive play was highlighted. Weather you are an explorer or mentor a day spent playing in the woods leaves you with a smile on your face. Please take a look at the Alevin photo gallery and Salamander Efts photo gallery for more pictures from the outing!
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