Orienteering Activities and Games

• Play orienteering games from an ebook on the Orienteering USA website.Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
  
  The Scoutarama website offers instructions for an orienteering game that uses compasses to guide players through a triangular-shaped course that ends where it began. Players enter the minimum and maximum distances for the game, as well as units of measure, the type of movement (such as walk, jog, slither) and the number of route cards desired. The site then generates a game route. The game route includes instructions for players to proceed a certain number of units in a specified compass direction. Students also learn the parts of a baseplate or orienteering compass using an online tutorial and quiz at Jan Brett's website. An ebook entitled "Orienteering For The Young" is full of orienteering activities and is available at the Orienteering USA site.
  
  

Human Compass and Compass Reading Games

• A compass reading game teaches students to find bearings with a compass using stakes with arrows in a game.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  Students can play a "human compass game," which teaches students about compass bearings by having them use their own bodies as compasses. A leader calls out directions or bearings in degrees and players turn their bodies in the directions called out. Only those facing the correct direction get to continue play. One compass reading game involves stakes with arrows pointing in different directions. The players' job is to find the bearings of the arrows using a compass. Players can be timed as they go through the course with a pencil and paper, noting the stake bearings as fast as possible.
  
  

Compass Basketball and Minesweepers Compass Game

• Students learn about compass bearings by playing "Compass Basketball."IT Stock Free/Polka Dot/Getty Images
  
  An Australian scouting website has a printable pdf file with instructions for 10 games involving compasses. "Compass Basketball" simulates a compass face on the playing court. When a bearing is called out, the player must shoot from that position. If he goes to the wrong place on the court, he cannot shoot. "Minesweepers" uses compass bearings shouted out by team members to guide players away from hidden "mines" in the game. The site also includes directions for a scavenger hunt using compass bearings and clues that lead players from clue to clue.
  
  

Compass Rose Coloring Pages and an Online Compass Game

• Print out compass rose coloring pages and label directions as a bearing activity.Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images
  
  The Mariners' Museum has a pdf file of a compass rose (face of a compass), which can be printed out, colored and labeled with proper directions as a bearing activity. The Learning Ark also has a compass rose activity, which includes a pdf file with a compass rose for students to color in, as well as directional signs to attach to the proper spaces on the compass face. The British Broadcasting Company hosts an interactive game called "Landscapes" which teaches players about compass bearings using animated graphics.