Ideas for Day Camp

[caveman21]

Hello all, I am looking for some ideas for day camp activities. Our theme this year is Pirates. We will probably have 200+ Cubs this year (we had 150+ last year) and will need 10 activity stations. 2 of these will be BB guns and Archery. One station will be "Man overboard", where the cubs throw bicycle inner tubes with ropes tied to them at #10 cans 20 feet away. Another station will be an obstacle course, which we need ideas for also. Any input will be appreciated.

[MarkS]

Our Boy Scout/Webelos Fall Encampment was based on a Pirate theme. Check out our manual on our district web site. Maybe some of the games will be age appropriate for Cubs.

 

http://www.stlbsa.org/NR/rdonlyres/6667F750-7084-4288-80CE-70CB361C1D8C/0/Resource_PiratesCamporeeManual2006.pdf

[ScoutNut]

Treasure chest/map

Making a pirate hat

Making a pirate flag for each crew

Make a treasure bag

Compass

Raingutter Regatta

Fishing

Predator/Prey games with ocean animals

Sailors knots

Talk like a pirate!

Pirate skits

Oriental Trading stuff

 

Ocean in a Bottle: Each kid gets a baby food jar (or any other little jar or clear water bottle for that matter). They then add small sea beads, glitter, water, baby oil and blue food coloring to create their own ocean!! (Hot-glue the tops so the ocean doesn't drain on your floor)

 

"X" Marks the Spot

Play like Pin the tail on the donkey--

Before the party make a treasure map from poster board and

mark an X for the location of the treasure. Also make a

pirate flag (small squares of colored paper) for each child with a skull and crossbones on one side and double stick tape on the other. At game time cover the players eyes (one player at a time) with a pirate's bandana. Spin the player gently 2-3 times, then point him towards the map where he will attempt to find the treasure with his flag.

The player with the flag closest to the treasure wins!

 

Treasure Toss

Before the party decorate a cardboard box to look like a wooden chest, or use a real chest if you have one. Leave the top off or open. Make or purchase five bean bags. This is a simple bean bag toss game where the children will take turns tossing the bean bags into the box from a pre-determined location.

Variations - For older children make Draw a map on a large box. Cut three large holes in the map/box and the children will attempt to get the bean bags into the holes. Just like a bean bags toss game at a carnival.

 

Peg Leg Race: Three legged races.

 

Gold Nugget Treasure Hunt: Spray paint small rocks to make the gold. Hide. Give each child a handmade 'nugget' bag made from black cloth.

 

Sunken Treasure: Cleaned out all your child's old "McDonald" toys from the past year or so, and added some gold coins, etc -- anything that fit the theme. Fill a small pool with water and put the "treasure" in the bottom. The children can use shovels and kitchen utensils (can't use their hands, except the littlest who were under 3) to "dig" for sunken treasure.

 

Panning for gold: spray paint some rocks (more of that trusty gold spray paint) gold. Fill a small wading pool with water and added a 25 lb. bag of sand (about $3) and the "gold nuggets". Give the children metal pie plates and show them how to "pan" for gold.

 

Marooned: A game of tag were the person chasing everyone is "Shark" and the marooned sailors can go to the "Island" (home free - a towel on the floor) one at a time. When the shark catches a sailor he becomes a shark too and tries to catch sailors. The last remaining sailor wins the game.

 

Decorate felt hats cut and glued as pirate hats.

 

Cannonball Piata: make from a balloon, paint black.

 

Pin the parrot on the pirate

 

Draw a picture of a pirate ship on some poster board and have the children throw Styrofoam balls (cannon balls) at it. This can be done from the cardboard Pirate Ship.

 

Get a refrigerator box and cut in half. Divide children and put each team in their box. Give team one, 2 dozen ping-pong balls and see how many "cannon balls" they can toss into the other teams "ship" to try and sink it. Team two can catch the "bombs" and toss back into team ones ship, but they cannot pick "bombs" up off of the floor. After team one has used their 2 dozen balls, give team two a try, then count the bombs to see who sunk who's ship.

 

Walking the plank: Use a little tykes pool or other hard side kiddie pool and make a wooden plank to go across the top. Purchase enough rubber alligators for each child and put them at the bottom of the pool. Then filled with water. As they go out at Musical Island, they walked the plank.

 

Island Hopping

Place several pillows around a large open area. Tell your children they are islands. Have the children hop from island to island without falling in the water. Make up stories about pirates and alligators while playing.

 

 

Pirate Costume Ideas

Bandannas Cut out square pieces of red cotton, polka dotted or plain, to make bandannas. Tie around the children's head.

 

Belts Cut large strips of black cotton to make the belts to tie around their waists.

 

Eye patches Cut out eye patches from black cardboard and fasten rubber bands onto them and put over one eye.

 

Mustaches Give each child a black eye-liner pencil and provide a mirror for them to draw a mustache on their face.

 

Pirate Name What's a pirate without a great pirate name? Provide them with buttons to write a name on and pin it on their clothing.

 

Buccaneer hats - fold a sheet of tissue into a 20x15 inch rectangle. Now fold the rectangle into a 10x15 inch rec., with the major fold at the top. Fold the corners of each top side down 7 inches and crease. There should be about a 1 inch space at the top. Fold bottom on each side up 1-1/2 inches. Crease. Fold up 1-1/2 inches again and crease. Turn hat over and repeat on the other side. Staple hat together at edges. On the right side of hat, slightly off center, staple a feather behind the cuff or brim. Stick a gold seal over the staple.

 

Hooks - Draw a hook on cardboard, cut it out and insert it in the bottom of a Styrofoam cup. The kids then insert there hand and it looks like a Pirate's Hook Hand. 3.

 

Get earrings from Mom that are clip-ons.

 

Add a red kerchief from the dime store and make an instant "scurvy swabbie".

 

Use instant tatoos to create real swashbucklers.

 

If possible, get white t-shirts, and using reb/black fabric paint or shoeshine applicators, paint stripes on them.

 

 

 

Some fun sites:

 

http://familyfun.go.com/parties/holiday/specialfeature/doca0603_pirates_sf/

 

http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/pirates.html

 

http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/pirates/pirates.html

 

http://users.tinyworld.co.uk/giggles/Pirate%20Theme%20Birthday%20Party%20Games.htm

 

http://www.themeunits.com/Pirates_c.html

 

http://www.kathimitchell.com/pirates.html

 

 

[theysawyoucomin']

Soda bottle water rockets.

 

 

Get two liter soda bottle, find launcher making directions on the net,

 

SAFETY FIRST NEVER LAST, HAVE A FUTURE NOT A PAST.

 

kids just love this event.

 

I can send you a PP presentation if you email me at BSANRACERT@AOL.COM

[ScoutNut]

Yep, the soda bottle rockets are great! If your facility can let you have the use of a hose this would be a good "big" outdoor activity that could even serve to cool off the boys. Another good one for that is a water balloon toss.

 

If you have access to slingshots (small) or catapults (large) these would be good for outdoors as well. We have even used the catapults with water balloons!

 

I see some kind of cannon ball launching as a fun station!

 

How about having each group build their own cardboard pirate ship. This would be a kid sized one, with no top or bottom, that a boy could get into & carry around. This would be a good ongoing group project that could cover the entire day camp period (week?). They could name their ship, and, along with their ships flag that they also create, could serve to identify their pirate crew. The last day of camp you could hold a camp wide Cardboard Pirate Ship Relay Race. You could have 2 crews race against each other at a time, thru various stations (stop to get your grocery bag full of water balloon cannon balls - stop to fire your cannon balls at a target - stop, no wind, must wait 10 sec for wind to start up again - etc). Depending on how many crews there are you could have more than 1 race going on at a time. Winning crews race against each other until the final winner gets a best sailors certificate for each of the crew.

 

We do a cardboard derby every year in our Pack & the boys love it.

 

 

[John-in-KC]

Cooking is ALWAYS an age-appropriate activity for Day Camp, and can be fitted into ANY theme.

 

Making a tropical cold fruit cup (bananas, oranges, limes, a little sugar) is one idea.

 

Hot dogs, foil dinners, biscuit on a stick or Bannock bread.

 

Dutch oven dump cake!

 

If you PM me, I have a NCS formatted cooking activity. Now, it's designed to support our District Day Camp population (800 Cubs), so you may have to scale it back some.

 

KISMIF!

[caveman21]

Wow! Thanks for all the great ideas, folks!!! My wife, who is the program director, has been in a mild panic state because she might be doing this day camp by herself. The lady that did the camp director job last year might not be able to do it this year due to health issues, so I am trying to help her out as much as possible. Last year was our first doing the day camp, and she did a very good job setting the camp up around an Olympic theme, and I did the archery range. Talk about an eye opener!!! After the first day working with cubs that had never picked up a bow before, it took all the courage I could muster to come back the second day. It was well worth the effort, seeing the cub's skills improve by the end of the week. Thanks again for all the ideas, keep em coming!

[mtm25653]

We did a pirate theme campout - the boys loved dressing up. We had strips and triangle of fabric for sashes and headbands, eyebrow pencils for mustaches, beards, stubble or scars (adults drew them), temporary tattoos and the gem rings from Oriental trading co.

[devaney_scouts]

Our theme two summers ago was "Sea Ventures"

 

We make raingutter regatta boats as a craft, 1 day to build, 1 day to decorate, 1 day to race. We made costumes, pirate bandanas that the boys stamped themselves to wear, dens named different piratey things, foamie birds for on their shoulders.

 

Congrats on helping with camp. I have been a Camp director for 3 years, and run 7 accredited camps. My husband is my range officer and attends with me and having someone else in the house who" gets it" is better than anything else you could imagine.

 

Good luck.