Camping Out Ideas

I am trying to think of something cool to give out to the kids in my cabin at church camp. Any Ideas?

I am going to be a counselor at church camp in two weeks. I want to get something for the kids in the cabin. I was going to get plain t-shirts and take paint and have all of them do shirts, maybe decorate together- hand prints/foot prints of all of them, but I have no idea of their sizes. I was hoping for kind of a "we are a cabin" with "remember me after this week together." What do you think???

Public Comments

1. beer.
2. sounds good
3. well depending on their ages sizes is probably not a huge deal...but if you go to those dollar stores they usually have tons of really cute, inexpensive, kids stuff. you can get them those squash balls they can get wet and throw around, they just have tons of really cute and fun stuff there, thats where i would look. and by the way, congrats to you for doing it, have fun, an older kid or a grown up taking an interest in who a kid is can change their lives.
4. copies f the three musketeers and kidnapped . they will cherish forever.
5. Anything creative will work. Try getting over- sized bibles and hand paint them. T-shirts are a great idea, or you could do like duffel bags or something.
6. Need I say water balloons its hot kids love things like that let them paint t-shirts so you can put them in teams
7. u can always just get extra-large shirts they look cute on kids anyways. great idea
8. T-Shirts are a great idea--Go for big ones because they will wear them anyway--If they are 10 try for adult mediums and smalls. You could probably get a good deal at Hobby Lobby or Walmart. You can get paint pens for fabric--then they could autograph and you could even do a transfer with your theme or cabin name for the end. Another idea would be do make a cross for them or do a picture frame they could autograph. Good luck
9. I guess it depends on their age... like a younger kid might like a bubble set or something that they can use to build with when an older kid might like something sporty or a souvenir from the trip.
10. I Think that sounds like a Great Idea and what you could do is get a bunch of Medium or Small Men sized white T-Shirts that way Yeah they will be big on some of the smaller kids but they will be fine for the bigger kids or if all of your crew are larger sized kids get them Large/X-large Shirts you guys can do that at the start of camp and at the end you can give them all one of those colorful Wristbands (you know everyone is wearing wristbands now) you can get them the ones that say all types of Biblical Messages 'I Love Jesus, Jesus loves me, Praise God...etc." I have been a counselor at camp for my church for 3-4 years straight now and last year we gave out the Wristbands and EVEN THE BOYS were excited to have and wear them. I'm sure that they can be found many places but I think we got them from the Oriental Trading Company "www.orientaltrading.com or something like that? Be Blessed and Enjoy your Camping!
11. Get some beads at a craft shop like Hobby Lobby or Michaels and make them a cool necklace.
12. Chicken/Egg Trick Ok, this is more of a stunt than an activity, but I remember this from when I was at church camp as a kid. What you do is get some volunteers from the audience. Once you have your volunteers (have a chair for each one up in front of everyone, but have an adult standing nonchalantly nearby, behind the chairs), tell each one that you are going to have a contest. Tell them that you will assign them each an animal to act like, and the one who does the best acting wins a prize. Let them practice a couple times, having the audience clap loudest for the ones who do the best job, etc. When it's finally time to have the contest, have the volunteers sit down. Have each one stand to do his impersonation and then sit down. Here's the trick: when the person to whom you assigned "chicken" sits down, the adult standing nearby places an egg in his/her seat. If all goes well, he/she will get a surprise when they sit back down! Give the best animal (chicken) a prize! Make sure this is someone who can take a joke and let their parents in on the surprise ahead of time so that they will have a change of clothes. Also~ it's great if you can get an adult that everyone loves for this part! Doing the Impossible This is an activity to help the children see that anything is possible with God! Ask the children if any of them can do handstands. Let them demonstrate, if possible, being aware of girls' clothing, of course. Some will say yes, and likely some will say no. Next, give a couple kids a raw potato and ask them if they can push a drinking straw through the potato. Allow them to try, along with any doubters. Next, ask the kids if they can make an egg stand up on its end. Give a couple kids the chance to try. Now ask them if they think any of these feats are impossible. Most will say yes. Tell them that you are going to prove that nothing is impossible! Say, "I will now stand on my hands!" Bend over, put your hands on the ground and step on them J Now, say, "I will now push this drinking straw through this potato!" Do so. (Your potato is boiled, of course! Practice this ahead of time). Next, say, "I will now make an egg stand on its end!" Do so. (If you poke a tiny hole at the small end of the egg ahead of time, it will allow enough air in to make it stand on end!) You will have some kids who want to inspect your items and try the egg trick again. At that point, you can say, I didn't say the potato had to be raw. Tell them that just like they didn't know that your idea of standing on your hands was different than theirs, that your potato was cooked, OR that your egg had a hole in it, we don't always know everything about a circumstance, but God does! He knows all and sees all and ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE with God! Eyewitness Account This is a fun activity to use when discussing gossip, the truth, or paying attention. While your kids are busy with another activity, have someone run into your classroom dressed in a crazy clown outfit. Have him wear a bright wig, designs on his face, different colored socks, mismatched shoes, etc. Have him carry some things. The more details, the better! Have the "visitor" run around the room a couple times, looking at the kids' artwork or patting them on the heads, or just dancing around with them. After the surprise visitor leaves, have the children finish what they were doing to start with, and then ask them some questions about the visitor. Keep track of their answers on the board. Ask them things like, "What color was his hair? What color were his socks? What was he carrying in his left hand?" etc. When finished, have the visitor come back in so that you can compare their answers to the "truth." Praise Streamers Have the children tape party streamers onto large craft sticks and then use them as they move to praise music. Sherlock Combs the Yard Divide the kids into groups of 3 or 4 and give each group a brown paper sack and a card with different characteristics written on it. For example, shiny, short, long, dirty, red, etc. The goal for each team is to go outside (or in a given safe area) and find an object that represents each of the characteristics. An item may share characteristics~ for example, it may be red AND shiny. After a set amount of time, have the teams place their items out on the table and let the other teams guess what characteristics were on their cards. This activity is good practice in classification and sorting, and lends itself well to a lesson discussing how we can't always judge people by the characteristics we think we see in them, because there is so much more to people than the outside! Memory Verse Activities Apple: Make a poster with a large tree (like an apple tree). Make apples with one word of the verse on each apple. Make a way to attach the apples to the tree (like Velcro, buttons, or tape). Play one of two ways: 1) Scramble the apples and have children come up and put the apples in order and everyone read the verse together or 2) Place the apples on the tree in order and have each child come up and remove one apple. Then have everyone say the verse together. You may want to attach a small piece of apple candy (like sour apple Jolly Ranchers) to each apple for each child to keep. Bell: Divide the class into two groups. The teacher recites the verse, making a mistake. Each time the teacher makes a mistake, teams compete to ring the bell first. Teams confer to correct the mistake. Both teams then say the verse correctly. Points can be awarded, if desired. If a team rings the bell when a mistake has not been made, a point is deducted. Car: Divide into two teams and have each team decorate a large box to look like a car. When the cars are completed, attach balloons to the cars. Balloons should have slips of paper inside containing the words of the memory verse (one set per car). Children line up in teams, and, one at a time, get in their car and "drive" it Flintstones-style to the other end of the room, where they get out, take a balloon off their car, pop it and retrieve the word. They use tape to attach the word to the side of a paper cup, then get back into their car and drive back to their team where the next team member is waiting to make the same road trip. The winning team is the one who has its verse in the correct order and all its drivers safely home first! Games Bible Baseball Play this game just like baseball, but instead of hitting a ball, the teacher is the "pitcher" and "pitches" questions at the students. If the student answers the question correctly, he goes to first base. The children move around the bases, one question at a time. A missed answer is an out. Keep score and predetermine a number of innings to play. You can use bases and have the children actually walk around them OR you can play using a chalkboard or dry erase board and have the children move themselves around the bases by erasing/drawing stick figures at each base. Clothespins Game Clip 3 clothespins on each child's back. Play a game of tag in which the children try and take the clothespins from other kids' backs and put them on their own backs. After a certain amount of time, see who has the most clothespins! Kids must put the clothespins they take on their own backs immediately. They must give back a clothespin for each one in their hand at the end of the game! Cotton Ball Pick Up For this zany game, have kids put Vaseline on the tips of their noses. Spread cotton balls out all over the playing area and have kids pick up the cotton balls, using only their noses, and bring them back to a designated spot for their team (a container to hold each team's cotton balls is good). Winning team is the one with the most cotton balls in a specified time period. Crazy Clothes Game This game is played like Hot Potato, but you pass around a brown grocery bag with an article of clothing in it. The goofier the article of clothing, the better, since the child caught holding the bag must take the item out and wear it for the rest of the game! I have used goofy ties, big bunny slippers, a super large pair of sunglasses, a beanie cap, and hilarious costume jewelry! Play several rounds so that everyone gets to model an item. Don't forget your camera!! Fishy Fishy Under the Sea A fairly large area is needed for this game. You must have enough room for children to run back and forth from one wall to another. Have the children line up along one wall. Place a long strip of masking tape across the center of the playing area. Choose a child to be the "Fishy." The fishy stands on the masking tape center line and tries to tag the other children as they run past him. He may move freely on the line, but cannot go off the line. Begin by having the children yell out together, "Fishy, fishy, under the sea...Fishy, fishy, you can't catch me!" The children then attempt to run to the other wall without being tagged by the "fishy." Children who make it past safely stay on the wall until everyone has tried to pass the fishy. Then, those who made it safely past yell out the rhyme again and try to make it back to the other wall. Any children who are tagged by the fishy automatically become "seaweed." The seaweed must stand still in the spot where they were tagged and move their arms like seaweed in the water. They can tag children, but they cannot move from their spot. Continue until one child remains or all have been tagged. Everyone will want a turn being the "fishy!" Flip A Fish Help the children cut a fish shape out of newspaper. Let them have a race with their fishes by fanning them with a piece of posterboard. It's funny to watch because the fishes are so lightweight that it's difficult to get them to move in the direction you'd like!