Kim's Game

Kim’s game is a memory game that will keep your scouts engaged during a gathering activity as they wait for the meeting to start. At last nights troop meeting we incorporated the game into a team building activity.

In the book “Kim”, by Rudyard Kipling, the teenager place this same game called the Play of the Jewels and the Jewel Game. Although in the book the game helps Kim become a better spy… this game is great for scouts to work on memory and even communication skills.

The Scoutmaster should collect on a tray a number of articles – knives, spoons, pencil, pen, stones, book and so on – not more than about fifteen for the first few games, and cover the whole over with a cloth. He then makes the others sit round, where they can see the tray, and uncovers it for one minute. Then each of them must make a list on a piece of paper of all the articles he can remember... The one who remembers most wins the game. - Robert Baden-Powell

Making Kim’s game into a team building activity.

As the scouts were playing Kim’s game, the thought came to me… Have the scouts do one round individually and then for the second round have the scouts communicate with their SPL who then hands me the list of items. It worked! They got all 15 items. The awesome part about the activity was the scouts were engaged and having fun while they were being taught the principles of the patrol method. Scouting is a game with a purpose, right?!