Children do not particularly like to be blindfolded so these are games best introduced at the end of your week together once a relationship and some trust has been established.
Being blindfolded is a challenge because it removes our primary sense!
We are vision primary animals. Raccoons are touch primary. Dogs are scent primary. Bats are hearing primary.
Blindfold games can be a way to discuss different perspectives and ways of being in the world.
They are also an opportunity to build trust. Don’t break it by doing something cruel or foolish and watch for children who might take the opportunity to do so. Explicitly reprimanding such behavior in the context of camp can be a helpful character building opportunity.
Blind Snake
A trust a team building activity
Everyone is blindfolded except for a sighted person in the back. Everyone places their hands on each others shoulders to form a snake. The goal is to gather bandana balls and place them in a bucket. When the person in the front is successful they go to the back and become the sighted person. The game is over when the person who went first is back at the front.
Drum Stalk
Blindfold Drum Stalk | Drummer in the Woods
Source: Coyote’s Guide to Connecting With Nature
Play:
- One person has a drum (or rocks clicking together).
- The rest go at least 10 paces away and try to walk toward the drummer with eyes closed.
- Once they touch the drummer, they can go off and try again, further back this time
Up Level Variation: The drummer may move through the woods and have the children try and follow them
Dragon’s Tail
Supplies: 2 bandanas, large playing area
- Split the children into several teams of approximate equal number.
- Each team links together into a chain by lining up one behind the other and placing their hands on the waist of the person in front of them. You can also simply have them link hands or elbows.
- The last person on each team is given a bandana to hang from his or her pocket as the dragon’s tail.
- Teams must work together to chase and capture the tails from other dragons. Only the person at the front of the chain can grab a bandana from another team. They team can twist around to try to protect their own dragon’s tail but they are not allowed to disconnect.
- Once a team’s bandana has been taken or they disconnect, their dragon is dead and the team is out.
The last team standing or the team with the most bandanas wins. If you are adverse to the idea of a dragon, you can also call it lizard’s tail.
Blind Lineup
Give each youth a bandana to use as a blindfold, and then ask the group to put order themselves from the shortest to the tallest in order of height.
Sherpa Walk
In this game, youth are paired up and one person is blindfolded and led to a previously designated location. The focus is not on speed but on trust and safety.
The guide cannot touch the blindfolded person but must lead them using only verbal commands.
As a variation you can also require three tasks along the way such as to smell something, to touch something, to identify an object, to eat something, etc.