What to tie your knots in

Take a batch or two of cheap cotton clothes line, cut it into 4 foot lengths, wrap the ends with cloth tape to keep them from fraying. Or you could whip the ends if your knotting is up to it!

Die about 2 feet of each rope a color in a bucket of die.  The colour makes no difference. Now when you are teaching knots, you can say put the red rope over and then twice under the white one, etc............ It makes it much easier for the girls to learn knots and for us as leaders to see if the knot is done correctly.

(Mike Baird  "TheSwampFoX", via WAGGGS-L)

This variation works especially well with younger girls:  SInce so many of them didn't know their left from right the colours on the ends of the rope DID matter.  We made the "right" side "red" and the "left" side "lime green."  Thus the younger girls learned left and right a bit better too!!!!
(Mary Willett, Cadette Leader, Troop 5119 via WAGGGS-L)

Teach the girls to tie knots in sweets! The "shoelace" ones are best and if you need a "pole" to tie round (for example clove hitches) you can use twiglets or pretzels.  This has the added advantage that you can bribe the girls - once the knot is correct they can eat it!

Cook some
spaghetti, leave it 'til it's cold then try tying knots it that!  (yuck)
Sandra's guide pages
Knotting and teaching knots -
some ideas and some useful hints
Sandra's Guide Pages Home
Games with knots

Reef knot race: each girl has a piece of string (or thin rope is better) with 4 beads on. They challenge each other to a "who can tie the fastest (correct) reef knot" contest - the winner then takes a bead from the loser. They can then challenge someone else who has the same (or higher) number of beads on their string to another race - the game winner is the person with the most beads on their string at the end of an allotted time.

Hands on land: Give each girl a piece of string or cord at least 18" long, up to a yard.  Get the girls to stand in a circle & each tie their cord to their neighbours with a reef knot (or sheet bend etc).  Once the knots are all correct you should have a large ring of cord.  Get everyone to sit just outside the circle.  The inside of the circle is the "sea" and the outside is "land".  If you say "hands in teh sea" everyone puts their hands inside the rope, if you say "hands on land" they put them outside and if you say "hands on shore" they put their hands on the rope.  Last one to get it right is out.  My guides preferred to stand and jump "in the sea" or whatever.

Tie up your neighbour:
Stand in a circle.  Who can tie a knot round the ankle of the girl on their right before the girl on their left ties one round their own ankle??  (Careful, this one can get rather violent!).  Appropriate knots might be reef, round turn and two half hitches or even a clove hitch.

More knotting games
here.





Knot puzzles

Spot the difference: tie a reef knot and a thief knot and see if the girls can spot the difference between the finished knots and work out how to tie the thief's knot.  See the "real knots" site for more on this.

Don't let go: challenge the girls to take hold of a piece of cord, one end in each hand and then tie a knot in it without letting go with either hand.  Stumped?  First fold your arms.  Then pick up the string, unfold your arms & hey presto - a knot!  (this produces a thumb or overhand knot).
Using knots and lashings

make mini gadgets for camp from barbecue skewers and thread (very fiddly but quite fun)

mini-pioneering projects
* build a bridge to cross between two tables - maybe to hold the weight of a toy car or similar
* build a bridge out of spaghetti
* build the tallest tower possible from string and pea sticks

Full size pioneering
- projects from Hurricane District.

build a monopod
A monopod and a chariot are more or less the same except in how they are used.  The pictures (2a and 2b, below) show how to make a monopod.  It uses diagonal lashing at the top and square lashing on the feet - your square lashing needs to be very tight.  You then stand on the cross bar with your feet outside the uprights and "walk" it along.  It's harder than it sounds!
Build a chariot

A chariot is built in the same way as a monopod, except the cross piece needs to be longer.  You can use yellow dusters attached with elastic bands to pad the feet.  Then one person stands on the cross piece, between the uprights, and one or two others (depending on relative size!) hold the top and drag the "charioteer" along.  You could hold a chariot race.
Try a pair of stilts (a good use for square lashing)
What knot? Click here for some clear instructions on tying various knots.