Here are some ideas for how to use sidewalk chalk as camp activities.
Your campers can use chalk to draw pictures on the sidewalk, driveway, or parking lot. Hold a contest to see who can make the funniest, most unique, or prettiest picture. Of course, give out prizes to every participant. You’ll be surprised to see that even your staff members will want to get in the action. This is a great Photo Op. Capture photos of all the budding chalk artists with their creations covering many square yards of pavement.
In day camps, parents will enjoy viewing the chalk drawings when they arrive to pick up their kids. And your campers will be proud to point out their artwork to their own parent and to their friends’ parents.
Chalk can also be used for games. Draw a hopscotch board, write numbers for shuffleboard or draw a road for bikes or scooters to travel down. You can quickly create boxes for foursquare games. And of course, there is always tic tac toe. Keeping score for group games is another great way to use sidewalk chalk if you are playing near a concrete surface.
Chalk opens up endless possibilities for creation and imagination. Large pieces will keep finger scrapes to a minimum too. Have lots of colors handy!
When campers have options for elective activities, they enjoy camp more than if everything is scheduled for them. “U-Pick-Its” are a way to give campers choices of things they can do on the spot. Choices add fun and uniqueness to the summer camp experience.
Several counselors and/or other staff members announce to campers that they are about to go do a number of different things. And the campers choose which of these staff members to join. For instance, one staff member might describe a craft project, another might announce a hike, another might suggest a basketball game, another might make a big deal about a fun group game, another might announce bubble making, another might ask who wants to practice a puppet show, and another might show some sidewalk games that will be happening in front of the building. Campers go stand near the person they want to join. Extra staff members team up with those who have large groups or who are doing the type of activity in which more supervision is needed. Then everyone goes off to enjoy their choice of activities, with a designated time to return.
Campers often enjoy getting to do activities with camp staff members who are not their own counselors, and U-Pick-Its are the type of camp activities that make this possible. U-Pick-Its also give campers the opportunity to try new things that they might not otherwise have the chance to try. Counselors also enjoy getting to lead activities which include their own special interests with campers who express an interest in these. This is much different than counselors forcing their own group to do mostly just the activities that they themselves are interested in. This brings together many different campers and staff members, helping many people at camp get to know others outside of their own groups.
Every state has its own regulations concerning camps and camp activities. It is important to make sure that you are meeting legal requirements. Some states are quite loose and let camps do pretty much whatever they want as long as they meet basic health and safety standards.
When I was running a day camp in New York, the county health department oversaw every camp. We were required to submit a camp operating manual each year which outlined all of our camp activities, how they would be staffed, how we would maintain safety, and what they involved. If an activity was not listed in the manual, we were not supposed to do it. They had some very specific regulations for camps, and we were inspected by the health department.
When I worked full time at a camp in Pennsylvania we did not even have to turn in a camp operating manual to any regulatory agency. We could add whatever activities we wanted. The health department only inspected our food service facility, our water, and our swimming pool. However, if a day camp operates in Pennsylvania as part of a child care center, it is subject to the state regulations for day care centers.
If your camp is doing outdoor education, make sure you research and follow regulations concerning wildlife. In many places it is illegal to have the bones or skins of certain animals without a permit. You may not be allowed to have campers catch minnows or frogs in a stream without certain permits or certifications. It can even be against the law to possess certain bird feathers!
If you plan off site trips in your camp program, make sure you follow regulations for taking health records along, having first aid kits available, having a vehicle along for emergency transportation, having adequate camper/staff rations, and a system for checking that all campers are accounted for throughout the day. Regulations on such trips vary from state to state.
Also make sure that you are following required supervision requirements for campers at all times. Find out if your state or county mandates particular staff/camper ratios. Also, if you prepare or store food, find out if someone on staff needs to have local Food Service certification to oversee proper food handling.
Not knowing the regulations will not get you excused from liability if you get caught not following them. As the old saying goes, “It’s better to be safe than sorry.” Check with your camp’s regulatory agencies and your lawyer.
Camp directors are always looking for good ideas for camp activities. A camp Treasure Hunt is popular with almost any age group. This usually works best with teams which look for their own set of clues. Clues can be color coded according to teams, with instructions given that each team looks only at its own clues and leaves other colored clues as they are. Since teams travel with camp staff while looking for the clues, staff can monitor that teams are not taking or hiding other teams’ clues.
One clue leads to another, and the final clue leads to the Treasure Box which is filled with prizes or candy. You can set it up so that the team that finds the final clue first gets the treasure, but it’s more fun for campers if each set of clues leads to a treasure. This way, everyone is a winner in the end!
If you have been teaching theme lessons such as good character traits or Bible stories throughout the week, you can have a question based on these lessons on each clue. This makes a fun final wrap-up of the lessons at the end of the week. Give two or three multiple choice answers, with a correct answer leading to the next clue. For instance, the clue could say, “Which one of these is a fruit of the Spirit? A. Persistance (Go to the back door of the kitchen.) B. Joy (Go to the head lifeguard’s chair at the pool.) C. Determination (Go to the swing set at the playground.)
Clues can give general or specific locations. It’s fun for campers to need to search a bit at the right location. Some clues could lead to a staff person instead of to a location. That means they have to find that staff person. This adds interest, especially if the staff person requires them to do something to earn the clue, such as doing 10 jumping jacks, singing a song, or quoting the Bible verse of the day.
You can change the way your camp’s Treasure Hunt works according to what works best in your situation. I have held both indoor and outdoor Treasure Hunts with success. Campers love them!
Treasure Hunts can be part of a weekly camp theme such as “Pirate Week,” “Adventure Week,” “Discovery Week,” or “Safari Week.”
Using camp themes for different weeks of camps for children accomplishes these purposes:
- Every week is unique, so campers have motivation to return multiple weeks.
- The staff doesn’t get bored from repeating the same activities and programs over
and over.
- Themes bring out creativity in your staff as they generate new ideas for incorporating
each theme into the camp program.
- It’s fun to have themes!
Children get excited about camp themes, especially when you incorporate them into as many of the camp activities as possible. Afternoon or evening programs can contain games, skits, songs, and contests based on a theme. Electives such as clubs or skill groups can include choices for theme-based activities. Stories can be told based on themes. And special daily themes can be built into the overall weekly theme.
Ordinary games can be tweaked to fit themes. For instance, “Capture the Flag” could become “Capture the Bandana” during “Wild West Week,” or “Capture the Banana” during “Zoo Week.” A counselor hunt can be changed to a “Pirate Hunt” during “Adventure Week” or a “Clue Hunt” (in which hidden counselors have clues that lead to a prize) during “Mystery Week.”
Camper teams can compete by getting points for the number of kids who dress for the daily theme. For instance, if they wear a crazy hat (which could be made in arts and crafts) for “Crazy Hat Day” or wear a costume for “Decade Day” (in which everyone wears an outfit that represents a decade like the fifties or eighties), points are earned by the percentage of team members who participate.
Counselors and other camp staff members sometimes have more fun than the campers with theme-based activities. Their enthusiasm spreads to the kids, and that makes for exciting camp activities and programs!
Summer camp is a place where kids get to enjoy many fun activities that they might not normally have a chance to do. New and different activities each day or each week keep campers happy and eager to return to camp.
Flying kites with kids is fun for your camp staff and provides great camp memories for staff members and campers alike! They can experiment with different kinds of kites, both prefabricated and homemade.
Here are some of the best kites activities that you can offer your campers:
Have a kite club which meets for one activity period for a few days or a week. This makes a great elective for camps that build activity choices into thier summer programs. Or your camp could offer a special “Fly a Kite Day” as a special school holiday camp or for homeschoolers’ classes. Participants can experiment with flying different kinds of kites. Don’t use a lot of cheap kites that will break quickly. You’ll have to replenish broken kites often. Invest in at least a few power kites that are well made and will last. Campers will get a thrill out of flying them! You can supplement the expensive kites with the less expensive ones or have campers design and build their own kites after they fly the power kites.
You can offer kites for sale in your camp store, as well as kite making kits. Once a couple staff members start flying kites during camp free time, campers will flock to the store to get their own kites! Your kites will be popular sellers if staff express enthusiasm for them.
You could also integrate kites into a theme for a week of day camp. You could include making kites in arts and crafts, flying kites for an afternoon program or activity period, experimenting with different kinds of kites, having a kite flying contest, doing skits about kites, and having character-building sessions about “soaring” over your disadvantages in life. Christian camps can incorporate Bible stories about Bible characters who “soared for God” or angels.
Good staff training is essential before camp opens. Most camps have five to seven days of pre-camp training. Even with a full week, it’s difficult to thoroughly cover all of the important topics. The goal is to thoroughly prepare camp counselors and other staff members to handle every situation that arises at camp in the proper way.
Staff training needs to contain a balance of training classes, hands-on learning activities, recreation, and free time. It should be fun and provide opportunities for bonding and team-building. Yet it also must be instructional, covering all of the topics that are needed to prepare camp counselors and other staff for situations that may arise at camp. In addition, religious camps give attention to spritiual growth of their staff members, preparing them to minister to the spiritual needs of the campers.
Some of the important topics that are covered in many camp staff trainings are as follows:
rainy day activities camper supervision
games to play with campers job descriptions
how to handle possible emergency situations chain of command and supervision
medical, safety, and security issues camp song, cheers, and traditions
camper discipline and behavior issues dining hall or lunch procedures
camp policies, expectations, mission, and philosophy waterfront rules and procedures
the camp schedule off site trip procedures
interactions with parents and camp visitors activity leadership and skills
special skills such as archery and canoeing challenge course training
orientation to the camp grounds keeping motivation strong
Training new staff members can take longer than training returning staff. Some camps hold a special weekend retreat or several pre-camp Saturday trainings so the new staff members will not feel overwhelmed in trying to absorb everything they need to know. Other camps assign mentors to new staff so that one-on-one training can occur the first couple weeks of camp. Pairing up new counselors with experienced ones can help immensely also.
Team-building initiatives are great to use with both campers and staff. They are really fun and produce great results!During staff training week they help bond your staff together and teach them to work togetherand solve problems. During camp, they help bring campers together, building trust, respect, and cooperation.
Initiative game activities help the group to work as a team to solve a problem presented by the facilitator. Participants are challenged to find a solution to an activity safely, without having the facilitator tell them how to solve the problem. Communication, leadership skills, and teamwork develop as the group works together..
Initiative activities are an important step in team building. After each activity, the facilitator leads the group to reflect on how well they communicated, worked together and got the problem solved. A good facilitator help them relate their experience to everyday life. Each team member brings a specific personality, communication style, and behavior pattern to the group activities.The group discovers that each individual’s contributions are essential to team success.
It is well worth the investment for camps to send some of their staff to get training in team-building and initiative game facilitation.At the very least, camps should invest in some good books of team-building initiative games and integrate initiatives into their camp programs.
Click on the books below – They are valuable resources for initiative games and team-building.
Another Team-Building Activity that many camps never consider during Staff Training Week is flying kites together in preparation for teaching campers how to fly kites. Check out this article: Kite Flying Basics.
