The Silent Line-Up Challenge

The Silent Line-Up Challenge is a simple teamwork game where the group must arrange themselves in a particular order without speaking.

The leader chooses the rule for the line-up, such as height, birthday month or first name alphabetically. The group then has to communicate using gestures and body language to work out where everyone belongs.

What you’ll learn

Young people will practise:

• Communicating without words
• Listening and observing others
• Working together
• Solving problems as a group
• Thinking about different ways to communicate
• Showing patience and cooperation

The activity can be run indoors or outdoors on a flat, clear surface.

Ask everyone to walk rather than run while changing positions. Make sure there is enough room for the group to move around without bumping into furniture, equipment or other people.

Equipment

None.

Prerequisites

No previous knowledge or skills are required.

The group should understand that they are not allowed to speak during the challenge.

Instructions

1. Ask everyone to spread out around the activity area.
2. Explain that they must arrange themselves into a line without speaking.
3. Give them a rule for the line-up. For example, arrange yourselves from shortest to tallest.
4. Start the challenge and let the group work out how to communicate.
5. When they believe they are correctly arranged, allow them to speak again.
6. Check the order and see whether they managed it correctly.
7. Try another challenge using a different rule.

Good line-up challenges include:

• Height, shortest to tallest
• Birthday month, January to December
• First name, A to Z
• Number of siblings
• Shoe size
• Length of time they have been in Scouts
• Number of letters in their first name

For younger groups, start with something visual such as height. For older Scouts and Explorers, use information that requires more discussion and problem-solving.

Final tip

Once the group has mastered the basic challenge, give them a time limit. The pressure of trying to beat their previous time makes a very simple activity surprisingly competitive.