MATERIALS:
Beanbags or similar suitable objects.

If there are twenty boys in this contest, they line up as for a race. Fifteen beanbags are placed along a parallel line about sixty feet from the starting line. The boys race for the beanbags, with instructions to bring them back. Since there are twenty boys in the race and only fifteen beanbags, five boys will be eliminated in the first heat. Then the fifteen boys race for ten bags; then the ten boys for five bags. So far it hasn't made any difference who got back to the starting line first with a beanbag. Every boy with a bag qualified for the next heat. Now three bags are placed for the five remaining contestants, and it becomes a real race. First boy back with a bag is the winner, unless the director prefers to have the two remaining boys run again for a single bag. If there is a big field of contestants and the director does not wish to run so many heats, he just puts down half as many bags as there are boys at the beginning of the game to eliminate half of the boys at once. The same can be done in the second heat. Mixed-up Shoe Scramble The boys take off their shoes in the center of the game area. The director instructs them to put one of their shoes in one pile and the other in another pile about ten feet away. The boys then withdraw to a starting line at least fifty feet from the two piles. The contest begins with a racing start. The boys must find their own shoes in the two piles, put them on and return to the starting line. The director can either rule that the shoes must be laced and tied, or not, as he wishes. In the mad scramble for shoes the boys are likely to throw other boys' shoes out of the piles. They should be warned not to do this, or some boy may stop a shoe with his face. While black eyes are no novelty to small boys, no one wants to get one at a picnic. The shoe scramble is a favorite game for children of all ages and for adults as well. A variation of the scramble is described among the games for women. back to picnic games