Planning for camp
On today’s slate, and already 4 weeks late, are the activities I’ve got to offer for the upcoming camp (July 16-30). They’ve given me detailed forms that need to describe the events and activities I’ll lead, thus giving teens unforgettable joy and making them want to elect me best camp counselor of the century.
I’m trying to find activities that will justify the purchase of some new Mac equipment. I’ve put film-making and digital portraits on my list. If I could just find a way to justify a 24” screen or a color laser printer…
There’s got to be a “nature” activity. Does capture the flag played in the forest count? I wanted to pin beetles to a piece of wood for display, but conscience got in the way. And I’m not too sure about mushrooms. (“Sure it’s edible. I think.”)
For the outdoor activity we’ll make water-balloon launchers with old jean legs and surgical tubing. We’ll shoot at the kids from the 7-12 year old camp.
I’ve got to find an outside game for 24 kids. Any ideas? What did you enjoy doing when you were at camp (besides painting ceramic fish), that did not include TP, explosives, or the display of under-garments?
Come on. Help me out here.
I’m trying to find activities that will justify the purchase of some new Mac equipment. I’ve put film-making and digital portraits on my list. If I could just find a way to justify a 24” screen or a color laser printer…
There’s got to be a “nature” activity. Does capture the flag played in the forest count? I wanted to pin beetles to a piece of wood for display, but conscience got in the way. And I’m not too sure about mushrooms. (“Sure it’s edible. I think.”)
For the outdoor activity we’ll make water-balloon launchers with old jean legs and surgical tubing. We’ll shoot at the kids from the 7-12 year old camp.
I’ve got to find an outside game for 24 kids. Any ideas? What did you enjoy doing when you were at camp (besides painting ceramic fish), that did not include TP, explosives, or the display of under-garments?
Come on. Help me out here.
June 20th, 2007 at 8:52 am
My first Christian camp outing at Camp Big Bear in California after we got back from Kandahar included a fun outdoor game of ’snipe hunting’, complete with paper bags and lemon meringue pies.
Except the hilarity of the event was lost on me because:
1. I was gullible (and still am), and
2. We really had snipe birds in Afghanistan. (The Taliban and Kuchis ate them for snacks.)
If there are no snipe to be had in your area, perhaps you could have teams compete on ’survival’-type courses? Arranging logs and stones for different activities like ’shark island’ and ‘log balancing’ are fun.
June 20th, 2007 at 8:56 am
Ah yes, the old snipe hunt. I’m glad to know that there really are snipes. Hadn’t thought of shark island though… THANKS!
June 20th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Our Camp favorite is “Gunk Ball.” You play the game like baseball using a whiffle ball bat and a soft rubber ball. (you can usually buy the two together in the kid section)
You’ll need 3 baby pools (home and 2 bases), a large sheet or two of plastic, baby shampoo, and then the gunk which can consist of maple syrup, chocolate syrup, corn flakes, any mixture of condiments of your choice, flour, etc.
The set up:
Lay out the plastic sheets in a straight line. Put one of the baby pools on the end of your plastic sheets. You’ll need to bury this pool because in order to score, one must slide into this pool and it will function as home plate.
The “gunk” goes into this pool. The other 2 pools (evenly apart and function as 1st and 2nd bases) sit on top of the plastic sheets and are filled with water and baby shampoo.
Wet the plastic runway down and also douse with baby shampoo.
The batter stands in the Gunk –pool. He is pitched to (underhand) and must put the ball in play with a full swing. If he foul tips or hits a foul ball he must dunk himself into the gunk. One he hits the ball he runs to the first pool and if he can, may continue to the second, and so on.
Standing in the pool bases means one is safe. When the next batter hits the ball as in baseball, he player standing in a pool must advance. However, you can have more than one person safe in a pool at a time.
Example, batter is up and you have a person in the second pool facing home. The batter puts the ball in play and takes off for the 1st pool. The camper in the 2nd pool takes off for the first pool as he is heading home. They both may end up in the first pool safe, one trying to get home on the next hit and the other trying to advance to 2nd on the next hit.
Remember, a run is only scored if a runner slides into the gunked-up / homeplate pool.
Tell the campers to wear something they don’t mind getting dirty and perhaps ruined. Have fun.
June 20th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Thanks, Cecil. I saw the picture of you guys playing that. You put it up on your site. Very good. Could you play it with a soccer ball, you think?
BTW, maple syrup is 7 dollars for 8 ounces. I think we’d use something else… I like gunk, but that’s some expensive gunk.
June 20th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Nature activity could be a nature scavenger hunt. Give points for each item found with bonus points for things such as edible mushrooms and truffles.
You can’t go wrong with good ol’ fashioned kickball (which can be played with a soccer ball) ad the twist that you have to kick backwards like a mule or donkey and call it donkey ball. You might even consider having the participants bray like a donkey on their way to first base.
Tug of war is another classic.
June 20th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Yes, you can use any kind of ball you wish. Of course, if you use a soccer ball and someone scores, you’ll have to have someone yell, “Goalllllllllllll!!!!”
June 20th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
We usually have a flour war. You need a sack of flour, a box of tissues, some rubberbands and two old towels. You separate the tissues (they are usually two-ply), put a soupspoonful of flour in the middle of each separated tissue and fold them up, finally wrapping them with the rubberband. This is a bomb. Make about 100 of these (a box of tissues is usually 100 - so you could make 200 bombs).
Split the kids into teams and play capture the flag (that’s what the two towels are for). The losing general could be dunked in the gunk pool if you have already played that game. The bombs have to be cleaned up, but they are basically environmentally friendly. You can even play again with the half-broken bombs.
By the way, we play that if any flour gets on you - whether from your own bomb or someone else’s, you are dead.
An added benefit would be that you can play referee and in order to make sure that everything goes fairly you would need to digitally record the whole thing. You could even reason that you would need to show offenders what they had done wrong - meaning that you would need a good picture printed out of the offense (laser printer?)
June 21st, 2007 at 7:12 am
Randy, I like the nature scavenger hunt idea. I’m making up another list in my head: Spider, poison ivy, something from the reptile department. Donkey ball would be fun. I could make a real a.. of myself.
I can tell Scott has had some fun camp experiences. I say you come to our camp next year as activities coordinator.
I love these ideas. We may need another week of camp.