ROPE

Here are some ideas for earning the Rope badge.  Some activities are designed to be done in a patrol or unit, others are designed to be done at home.

Suggestions have been split into ideas for Guides aged under 10 and Guides aged over 10, but feel free to mix and match - as long as it is a challenge for the individual girl!

Under 10

Be able to tie a reef knot.

Participate in a knotting relay (see Games section).

With your patrol or unit, get a long length of rope and tie it into a large loop.  Give everyone in the group a part of the rope to hold and have everyone close their eyes.  See if the group can form a square, a circle and a triangle.

Participate in a Tug of War.

Tie a reef knot in a lolly snake.

See how many reef knots your patrol can tie in 2 minutes.

Make a Human Knot.

With your patrol or unit, have a treasure hunt where different coloured pieces of string have been hidden around an area.  Each patrol is allocated a different colour and must find as many pieces of string of their own colour as they can in 5 minutes.  Then they must tie the pieces together with reef knots.  The patrol with the longest length of string wins.

Make friendship bracelets.

Try some skipping – either by yourself or with others using a long rope with two people turning the ends.

Over 10

Be able to tie a reef knot, a clove hitch, a sheet bend and a packing knot.

Demonstrate, using the correct knots, how to attach the flag and raise and lower colours.

Participate in a knotting relay (see Games section). 

Be able to tie a reef knot using only your feet, or with your eyes closed.

Tie a reef knot with a partner, using only one hand each.

Learn square lashing and make a ladder.  Go here for some instructions.

Tie a clove hitch in a group of 3, each only using one hand.

Learn to make a lasso (you will need to learn to tie a Honda knot which can be found here) and practice.

Do some ‘Little People’ work - for details visit this site.

Do warm fuzzies with ribbons.  Organise small piles of different coloured ribbons and allocate a different virtue to each colour (eg pink for kindness, white for gentleness, red for good fun, green for helpful) and each girl chooses various ribbons to tie on the wrists of other girls and explain why they have given them that colour.  The ribbons must be tied on using reef knots.

Try some skipping – either by yourself or with others using a long rope with two people turning the ends.