Kids Conservation Corner - Drum Stalk (published 5/1/2010 e-newsletter)

Drum Stalk

How-to:

Set-up. Space your participants apart from one another and blindfold them. Explain this outdoor game for teens as a solo experience that requires silence and listening. Put everyone at ease by ensuring them that you (and your team of teachers) will be watching to make sure everyone stays safe and doesn't fall off a cliff or into an underground cave full of starving Grizzly Bears. A good distance away from your group of participants, sit down with something loud and resonant to drum on.

Goal. Have the participants stand silently. "Until you hear the first drum beat." Then they will navigate their way across the landscape towards the sound of the drum, until they touch the drummer. Remind the participants that this is not a race. If anyone wins, it will be the one who goes the slowest, because they will learn the most.

Drumming. The drummer beats infrequently, but often enough to inspire movement from the participants. Make a drumbeat every five or ten seconds. Be sure your spot will project the sound, such as from a high hill, or stand on a tree stump.

When you reach the drum. Before beginning, instruct the participants after they touch the drummer, they will move silently away and sit and watch others arrive. Or, to avoid sniggering at the funny site of their peers struggling to walk blindfolded, ask them to sit and be quiet, keeping their blindfolds on until everyone finishes. Challenge the early-comers to sit so still and quiet a bird might come and land on their shoulder. With younger kids, another instructor may be needed to facilitate this.

Of all the outdoor games for teens we play this one needs really close supervision by the team facilitating it, and also has amazing results when stories are shared at the end of the activity.

 Young,Jon, Ellen Haas and Evan McGowan. Coyotes Guide, 2nd Ed. Owllink Media, 2010.