Jungle Day Camp 2012- days 1 & 2 classes

The biggest part of my job as program director is planning the activities the boys will participate in during the week.  Some classes return year after year, others are theme specific.  Our theme is provided by the national Boy Scout office each year.  We have twenty two classes the boys rotate through as well as two "den times" (quiet times they spend as a den practicing their skit and flag ceremony).

I have a lot of fun planning the theme specific classes each time.  I know the theme a year in advance so I can start looking for good ideas.  I like to use the momentum and excitement I have for day camp when it's happening to plan for the following year.  I already have a Pinterest board with lots of ideas for 2013.

The biggest drawback of themed classes is we don't get to do them year after year so they don't get perfected.  Do they take too long, or not long enough?  Do we go through the supplies like I thought we would or do we have a lot left over, or not enough?  Does it actually work (ie. the glue sticks things together like it's supposed to)?  Do the boys enjoy it?  Each theme class is an experiment and, as such, great or failure, it's what we're stuck with that year.

Here's a run down of the first two days of our 2012 camp.

Monday/Tuesday Classes:

Archery
every year class
A perennial favorite.
How have we perfected it over the years?
A volunteer got some leather scraps donated and made arm guards to help protect from bruises from the bow string.  A huge help!  

BB Guns
every year class
Every boy's favorite class.
We've added our own tarps and burlap to lay on and bring our own rebar and caution tape to create the shooting ranges for archery and bbs.  

Jungle Masks
themed class
Paper masks from Oriental Trading decorated with craft supplies that have been collecting in the camp bins for years.  Once they had their masks done, they did silly dances as a den.

Wooden animal bank assembly
every year woodworking class although the project changes to go with our theme
We get our wood crafts from a retired gentleman each year.  He makes a special project each time to go with the theme.

Bracelet Making or Soap Carving depending on age
every year class
The tigers and wolves made these cub scout themed bracelets my mom found on Pinterest.
The bears and webelos do soap carving.

Indiana Jones Obstacle Course-
theme class

This class is so amazing, it gets it's own post!  click here

The Watering Hole
theme class, although we have a "games" class each year

I found a bunch of Minute-to-Win-It games that could apply to animals.  

Pretending to be an anteater.  Using a spaghetti noodle to catch an ant (tube pasta)

Cooking
every year class

Their first visit through cooking, they made foil apple crisp.  We bring our metal firepit I bought years ago on clearance.  Last year, it was really looking worn out with big holes in the bottom.  This year it's even worse.  But, fill it up with charcoal and it works.  I wonder how many years we can stretch its use?!

Leaf Study
theme class

sun prints, leaf rubbing, leaf scavenger hunt

Soccer

every year we do a sport, we rotate through five different sports

Every jungle day camp needs a gorilla playing soccer!

It's our hard working camp director.

Monsoon
theme class

We have to offer some quiet classes to let the boys rest and get some energy back for the active ones.  Our monsoon class was a bunch of quiet games for the cubs to play.