Two very important questions:
1. How many kids total are involved?? (the larger the herd, the harder to control)
2. What is the projected kid:adult ratio??
Keep the kids busy *DOING* something or they'll scatter on you. Those 8-12 year olds are dangerous. They're full of energy, have way too many ideas of what to do with it, and are approaching the "I know it all" stage.
#1. SAR Hunt
Put the kids in a scenario where they are to find some lost "kid" targets. This will show them being lost from the other end of the search.
Make some kid-sized poster board (or painted hardboard/masonite) chunks in different colors. Then place them against varying backgrounds like bushes, among tree trunks, bright fall foliage, at the base of rocks. Place some where they stand out and others where they blend in. You could do variations of color (hunter orange to the nature colors of green/brown/gray) and pattern (solid blocks of color to plaids or other shape-hiding patterns). Be sure to include some strips of that bright surveyors/contractors flagging tape among your "targets".
Have the kids try to spot the cutouts from decreasing distances, starting at the half-mile or so mark. Maybe take the kids on a stroll from a starting line toward the area where the cutouts are positioned. As the kids spot the cutouts, have an adult that is stationed in the area of the cutouts with a walkie talkie tag the spotted ones as "found" or else lay them down so those cutouts are out of play.
This exercise will teach the kids about how their clothing color and position relative to foliage & other nature structures can help them be spotted by SAR teams if they get lost. You might even mix the coloring scheme up (dull jacket with bright hat cutout vs bright jacket with dull hat cutout) to show the kids how large/small the color contrast with the background has to be for it to be easily spotted.
After the SAR Hunt, have the kids tie surveyor's tape on sticks and prop the sticks up in the air for greater visibility. This is an easy activity that will give them some hands-on conditioning to use when they're lost for real. (We all learn best by doing, kids included.)
#2. "Whistle distance" demo.
Have an adult in walkie-talkie contact with you & the kid group both yell and blow a whistle (or more than one kind/brand of whistle) at increasing distance to show how the sound diminishes. Maybe have the whistle blower drive down a road going away from the kids, stopping every 0.1 of a mile to make time between whistle blasts short enough for the kids' attention span. You might try doing this in two types of environment at once to show how foliage absorbs sound -- one blower driving down a road among trees, while the other blower simultaneously drives across an open field bordering the trees.
This will show the kids in a very empirical way how far the sound of a whistle will (and will not) carry.
Give each of the kids a bright colored whistle of their very own. (maybe all the same color, to keep down the "My color is better than yours" squabbles.
) Teach them that three whistle blasts is a signal for help. And to only do it "WHEN THEY MEAN IT!!" Have them practice spacing the blasts out by a few seconds in a pattern of blast, wait, blast, wait, blast. Not blast-blast-blast altogether in a second (which in the field echoes will muddle together).
#3. Make your bed before you lay in it
These kids are probably old enough to understand about getting up off the cold ground if they are overnighted while lost.
Have a branch mattress built (to avoid them trashing themselves breaking off branches to make their own). Have the kids lay down on bare ground to feel the cold. Then have each of them lay down on the bough mattress to feel how it keeps them from losing heat to the ground so directly.
I figure this is already part of your "hug a tree to survive" program. But if not, this might occupy them for a half hour or so by the time each of them tries out the bough mattress.
Speaking of which, part of your time slot could simply be to cover some of that "hug a tree" material with adjustments made for the age group.
#4. A bit of what to have along with you
Maybe do a layout of some kid-stuff they could be sure to take along any time they are headed for the woods or even out for a walk. Keep it to no more than probably six items. The emphasis will be on very simple comfort & discovery equipment.
- their whistle
- full bottle of water, probably 1-liter or so
- some snack bars
- rain jacket, preferably bright colored
- 2 or 3 three-foot long pieces of surveyors tape with their name written on it with a waterproof marking pen
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In every exercise, it's important to give the kids a role to play, to give their impressions, state their opinions. Condition them to the idea that they can and should play an active part in their own rescue if they get lost for real.
