Family GB entertainment
Picnics are a wonderful way to get outside with the family but, if you want a bit of peace and quiet, you need to keep everyone happy.
If you’re looking for great family entertainment, with a touch of education thrown in, all from the comfort of your PACMAT, you’ve come to the right place. We have some map-related family picnic games to keep the whole family amused, hopefully while you get to eat that last slice of cake!
By Fi Darby
. 
Toddlers
North or South?
Show players where north and south are on the map. Using instructions like the ones below, encourage players to ‘travel’ around the map. For additional fun, turn your instructions into a story, and include east and west.
It was too windy there so I crawled north again.
Whilst singing the version of ‘Row, row, row your boat’ below, encourage players to pretend to row across the map (sitting or standing) then fall ‘asleep’ on the word ‘nap’. How long you encourage the nap to last is up to you.
Right across the map,
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Time to have a nap!
Call out the map symbols below and encourage players to find that symbol whilst making an appropriate transport noise. The first one to find a symbol and stop making the noise is the winner.
Motorway (thick blue line)
Mountain Climb (brown triangle)
1. Question
How long is the longest ferry journey marked on the map? (Clue: Look for the boat symbols)
Teens
Food confusion
2. Question
These foods are all named after places but they’re muddled up. Sort them out, and then find their locations on the map.
Chorley Tart
Dover Pasty
Double Bakewell Cheese
Yorkshire Bun
Chelsea Cake
Gloucester Pudding
Cornish Sole
Tickets please!
The trick with this game is not to explain the rules before you start.
Tell players you’re going on a journey. Using place names marked on the map, start the journey description from London. To be allowed to travel, each place name on your journey must start with the last letter of the previous location.
I went from London to Newcastle
I went from Newcastle to the island of Eigg
I went from Eigg to Glasgow
Once you’ve started off, encourage players to name the next destination. Without giving the game away, let them know when they’re allowed to travel, using the words ‘tickets please!’.
Young adults
How’s Your Gaelic?
3. Question
Lots of Scotland’s place names are in Gaelic. Work out what these Gaelic words mean by finding place names that use them on the map.
Beinn (Ben Nevis)
Loch (Loch Lomond)
Inver (Inverness)
Firth (Firth of Forth)
GB or not GB?
4. Question
What’s the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain. This map gives you a clue!
Calling all explorers
The map gives you a clue to this one but try and answer it before you look.
5. Question
Can you name all fifteen of Great Britain’s National Parks?
How many have you visited?
Time for cake
Answer the questions then find the locations on the map.
6. Question
• What are Pontefract cakes made out of?
• What’s the difference between Chorley cakes and Eccles cakes?
• Which cake is also Scotland’s fourth largest city?
• Which county does Lardy Cake traditionally come from?
• How do you cook Welsh cakes?
"Grown ups"
Nice latitude!
7. Question
Approximately how many degrees north are,
• Fishguard
• South Shields
• Mallaig
• The Arctic Circle
What do Hebrides, Plymouth, Thames and Irish Sea have in common?
Can you put them in the right order?
9. Question
Can you learn all 31 in order?
The Shipping Forecast Fact Sheet from the Met Office
Answers
1.
14 hours. From Aberdeen to Lerwick in the Shetland Islands
2.
Chorley Cake (near Manchester)
Dover Sole (Kent)
Double Gloucester Cheese (Gloucestershire)
Yorkshire Pudding (Yorkshire)
Chelsea Bun (London)
Bakewell Tart (Derbyshire)
Cornish Pasty (Cornwall)
3.
Beinn = hill (or mountain)
Loch = lake (or sea inlet)
Inver = estuary (or river mouth)
Firth = long narrow sea inlet
4.
The United Kingdom includes Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland.
Great Britain doesn’t include Northern Ireland.
5.
Dartmoor, Exmoor, New Forest, Norfolk Broads, South Downs, Pembrokeshire Coast, Brecon Beacons, Snowdonia, Peak District, Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors, Northumberland, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs, Cairngorms
6.
• Liquorice (Yorkshire)
• Eccles cakes = puff pastry, Chorley cakes = shortcrust pastry (Manchester)
• Dundee (Scotland)
• Wiltshire (England)
• On a stone or griddle (Wales)
7.
a) 52˚N b) 55˚N c) 57˚N d) 66˚N.
8.
They’re all UK Shipping forecast areas
(Thames, Plymouth, Irish Sea, Hebrides)
9.
Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, Forties, Cromarty, Forth, Tyne, Dogger, Fisher, German Bight, Humber, Thames, Dover, Wight, Protland, Plymouth, Biscay, Trafalgar, FitzRoy, Sole, Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea, Shannon, Rockall, Malin, Hebrides, Bailey, Fair Isle, Faeroes, Southeast Iceland.
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