Over the years as a leader I have tried a number of different games using hula hoops. Hula hoops have been around for years and I have always had them around at my troop meetings. Hula hoop contest is a standard use for the hoop, keeping it on your waist as long as possible by wiggling your hips, but if you really explore what you can do with a hula hoop you would be surprised the uses.

Before jumping into hula hoop ideas here are some other great games to play with your troop at your meetings. They are great ways to break up badge work and get your girls up and moving:

• 5 easy and fun cotton ball games
• 12 great games to play with a balloon
• 10 games to play with parachute

We have taken hula hoops with us to our camp outs just to give the girls something to do during down time. For your next camp out or event purchase a few hula hoops and take this list of ideas with you and you won’t have to worry about down time with your girls.

There are a few great hula hoop products out there that our awesome for traveling they are called snap and go hula hoops easier to pack for your next camping trip. Check it out here

The girls joined hands in a circle with a hula hoop hanging on one of the girls arm. The girls begin by passing the hoop around the circle without letting go of hands. By stepping through it and the girls continue around the whole circle until it returns back to the beginning. We had two teams running together and made it a challenge, first team won. The teams had different heights so they had to work together to get the hoop around.

During one of our day camps we had girls make bubble wands and then we filled a kiddy pool full of bubbles, we used hula hoops to make giant bubbles.

We used a hula hoop to represent the rolling of the hoops from the pioneer day. We explained how they used a stick to make it roll, but for safety we didn’t do that we just had the girls roll from one end of the hall and back. We form teams and the girls rolled down and back, this was hard to do because the hula hoop would get away from them. I would recommend to try to even have half the team on one end and other half on other end and just try to roll to the other person on the other end.

Make an obstacle course using orange cones, table and hoops placing them so far apart, then we placed a full pail of water and a large solo cup in each hoop. The girls partnered up and one was blind folded then the girl that could see had to guide them through the course the girl had to guide the girl into each hoop but with other obstacles, around cones and under a table while working her way from hoop to hoop and when blind folded girl got into hoop she had to find the cup fill it with water and pore a cup of water onto her head and then move on to next hoop the fastest time won. We played twice so the girls could rotate places, the girls also had a spray of water hitting them while going through the maze. If it is not summer time or want to play indoors customize it so they don’t play with water maybe they have to draw a circle on a paper when they get into hoop or throw something into a bucket blindfolded.

Hula hoops come in many sizes, this game we used small hula hoops it is similar to musical chairs except the hoops were called islands, we have a lot of girls so this worked great, the girls walked (swam) around the area (Ocean) when I shouted shark! Everyone had to get to an island, but as the game continued we took islands away so the girls had to share islands without touching the ocean. This continues until the last island, the idea is for the girls to work together and get everyone on the island, sometimes the one group did but others failed. We made sure if we had a lot of girls playing we made two areas for the game. Rule was no one could set on shoulders for safety. We have played this with a newspaper or anything you can take away if you do not have hula hoops.

We gave each girl a chance to practice rolling a hula hoop, after they all got a chance to practice we had a roll off between two girls at a time. The girl that rolled hoop and it went the farthest got to be in the second roll off, this continued until last two girls are standing then we had a final roll off.

If you have old t-shirts have girls make their own rag rug using torn up t shirts and a hula hoop. The trick to this craft is not put the weaving to tight or it ends up looking like a hat when you take if off the hoop. You can find the directions online go family fun magazine, hula hoop rugs.

Use these directions to run your very own Photo Scavenger hunt from beginning to end no planning necessary. Just follow the steps and your good to go. You can bring your hula hoops along for extra props. Get your planned event now.

One thing we all know as leaders we need all the help we can get to make the program fun, educational, and to help build the girl leaders of tomorrow. I compiled a list of some great companies that sell patches, programs and also other bloggers offering amazing resources that may fit your needs even better than my site did plus I made a really cool Kaper Chart you will love to use with your troop. Grab some of these resources now