I promised in my last post that this post would be fun, and I am sticking to that promise! This semester has been super busy for me, so I think this is a well-deserved break for all of us.
That being said, picture this scenario: You have an entire fun day of Messy Olympics planned with a spaghetti fight, shaving cream fight, and a paint slip and slide for your group of 11 and 12-year old boys, and they’ve been looking forward to it all week. You spend the first couple days of the week hyping them up for these awesome, day-long Messy Olympics that you have do outside because you can’t make a mess inside of the freshly cleaned building. You get to camp at 6:30 am (unfortunately, this is an actual time that I get to camp), and you check the weather…Thunderstorms. After a long, exasperated sigh of disappointment you think to yourself, “What am I possibly going to do with a group of 15 rowdy 11 and 12-year-old boys who were looking forward to chucking handfuls of spaghetti at my face and who are going to be sorely disappointed when I tell them that it isn’t happening anymore?” The answer is “No-Supply” and “Single-Supply” games! The trick is to make a rotation of these games, so that the kids can have an opportunity to play many different kinds of games without getting bored. On a day like this, the absolute goal is to do anything in your power to keep them from resorting to using their phones and searching up less-than-funny YouTube videos, or even worse: putting in headphones and listening to music that they constantly get you to try to listen to because they think you are a middle-aged man who doesn’t know what rap music is. (Once again, this is unfortunately based on a true story.) That being said, I have found that the best game rotations alternate between sporty activities and non-sporty activities. Obviously, the more athletic kids are going to want to play the sporty games all day, but it’s important to remember that not everyone is a future Michael Jordan. As much as you may want to use the 6-foot basketball hoop to dunk on 12-year-olds all day, camp is for the campers, and not everyone will find that to be fun. Some will, but it’s important that kids feel included at camp, and sports can be some of the most exclusive activities for non-athletes, leaving them feeling isolated. Although it’s best not to play sports all day, it is definitely a good idea to start off with a sport that is every-camper-for-themselves, especially if they are feeling disappointed that they won’t get to do their planned outdoor activities. A great game to start with is called Wall Ball. It seems like one of the most mind-numbing games ever, but the kids rave about it. The only supplies that Wall Ball requires are a wall and a tennis ball (surprise!). One person throws the ball at the wall, and then someone has to catch it or pick it up from wherever it lands. Once they have the ball in their hand, they cannot take any steps, and they must throw the ball at the wall from wherever they are. If they miss the wall, or if the ball touches someone and then touches the ground at any point, the person who the ball last touched has to run and touch the wall. If someone is able to pick up the ball and throw it at the wall before the other person touches the wall, the person running to the wall is out. (If the game seems to be going well and the kids are loving it, you can start by giving them three lives and instead of making them go out at zero lives, just start giving them negative lives; they’ll never know!) It’s such a great game because it doesn’t require extreme athleticism, and the kids get to run all over the place to chase after the ball and tag the wall. (Sorry parents, but on rainy days, all counselors are thinking about is “How on Earth am I going to wear these children down?) Another good activity to play after Wall Ball would be some quick riddle games that confuse them every time! These games are good for waiting around, and would be perfect for when the kids are eating a snack or taking a break after all of the running the did after a sport. One of the games is called Green Glass Door. In this game, counselors tell the campers that only certain things can fit in the green glass door, and they have to figure out what those things are. Give them an example of something that can fit in the green glass door by saying, “Yellow carrots can go into the green glass door,” and have them take turns guessing what can go into the green glass door. The trick here is that only things with double letters (green, glass, door, yellow, carrots, etc.) can go into the door, and they’ll never figure it out! It’s great! A similar game to this is called Bob Likes Coffee, But He Doesn’t Like Tea. In this situation Bob likes shoes, apples, monkeys, and Maryland, but he doesn’t like tomatoes. The trick here is that he doesn’t like things that have Ts in them. (Get it? He doesn’t like Tea!) Another good one is The Triangle Game, where you say, “I have a triangle from [this thing/person] to [this thing/person] to [this thing/person]. Whose triangle is it?” and the triangle belongs to whoever makes some sort of audible noise after the question. The kids are never going to guess that if they say someone’s name first, it becomes their triangle! A final riddle game like this is The Cup of the Nice People. In this game, the kids stand in a circle and pass an imaginary cup around. When someone receives the imaginary cup, they must say “Thank you. This is the cup of the nice people, and I am going to put [insert thing here] in it.” If they don’t say “thank you” when passed the cup, they can’t put anything in it. They get so frustrated by this one! After getting the kids nice and frustrated with these riddle games, it’s a good idea to play another active game. This game is very simple, and it’s called “Don’t Touch the Trashcan” and all it requires is a trash can! The kids hold hands and form a large circle around a trashcan. The aim of the game is to try to get people out by making them touch the trashcan. They can pull, spin, and run around to try to get other people to touch the trashcan, but as soon as someone touches the trashcan, or someone breaks the circle, they are out. This game can get a little bit too exciting for the kids who really get into it, so it’s important to watch for overstimulation here and end the game if necessary. (Also, make sure there isn’t any trash in the trashcan because based on personal experience, the trashcan will fall over and spill trash everywhere!) Another great active game to play is “Captain’s Coming.” This is a game in which the counselor is the captain, and everyone else is the crew. The crew must do whatever the captain calls out, and if they are the last one to do it, they are out. (It works well if the captain is more lenient.) Their options are “port,” where they run to the left of the room, starboard, where they run to the right of the room, “swab the deck,” where they get on their hands and knees and pretend to clean the floor, “climb the mast,” where they pretend to climb a ladder, “lifeboat,” or “captain’s coming.” If the counselor calls “lifeboat [insert number here],” the campers must form groups of that number, and whoever is not in a group of that number is out. If the counselor calls “Captain’s coming” everyone must freeze and stand still, “at ease,” and the counselor and the campers who are out go and try to make the campers who are in laugh. The first person to laugh is out. This game is really good because the campers can still be involved, even if they are out. Finally, you’re going to want to end the rotation with another active game to really tire them out. This is a really fun game that is good if you have a lot of space: “Ravens and Crows.” In this game, the kids are split evenly into two teams: ravens and crows. They stand in lines about 6 feet apart and face each other. If the counselor yells crows, the crows have to chase the other team to the wall. If the counselor yells ravens, the ravens have to chase the other team to the wall. If someone is tagged they join the other team. This game is really good because what usually happens is that the kids end up switching teams over and over again, and it takes a really long time to have a winning team, which occurs when everyone is on one team. These are just some of the “No-Supply” or “Single-Supply” games that I utilize on a rainy day, and they are actually a lot of fun! The days seem to fly by when we play them, and the kids always seem to love them. This was an exceptionally long post, but I hope it was as fun to read as it was to write! Here is an overview of everything I covered in this post.
Thanks so much for reading! Logan
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Logan DechterUniversity of Maryland student by fall and spring, camp counselor by summer. Archives
February 2018
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