2013 Day Camp Days 1 & 2

Classes for Monday and Tuesday

Map and Compass

The cubs learn how to orient and use a map to find different locations around camp.  They eventually found a treasure box with shiny necklaces in them.  I found a great resource for map and compass type activities this year.  link here

Jedi Training

Our obstacle course.

I reused a lot of the same features from last year.
When I went around camp later asking the boys what their favorite class was, this is the one they chose.
Details of the obstacle course features here.

Each boy built a pool noodle light saber.

retrieve the alien ship without activating the self destruct sequence

(the retrieve the idol painted silver and reused from last year)

A funny thing happened with the obstacle course class.  Last year we couldn't find our balance beam anywhere.  Dode finally decided we must have hauled it to the dump so he made another one.  When we set up camp this year, our now very weathered balance beam was leaning up against one of the trees. It had been there for two years!  This class also gave us a last minute headache.  We re-used our "Dangerous Passage" from last year.  Dode had good intentions to test it out before camp started but life got busy.  The day we were loading the trailer to go to camp the following day, he realized that all the many wires were corroded and would need to be re-soldered.  He and Isaac spent at least an hour repairing everything.  

Then, we got it out to camp and it worked fine in the morning.  But, by the end of the Saturday night orientation (with siblings playing on it while their cub scout siblings attended the meeting), the horn stopped working.  It was a big part of our obstacle course and I couldn't bear to retire it.  We talked about it as we drove home and decided that if we purchased a new horn, Isaac could install it Monday morning.  

So, Monday morning when we got to camp an hour early, Isaac's job was to take the back off the dangerous passage once more and solder on the horn.  We don't have electricity at camp so we use the inverter Dode installed in our van.  Isaac had been waiting forever for the soldering iron to heat up and finally came to get me (in all my busyness) to tell me it wouldn't work.  I went over to find that when the extension cord was plugged in, another cord was stuck under it between the prongs so he wasn't getting a good connection.  Isaac took a few tries to get the horn working correctly but he got it up and running with minutes to spare.

Archery

A perennial favorite of the boys.  We have to find hay bales each year to use as our target backstops.  This year I used part of my budget to buy a straw archery target.  I figure if I buy one a year, in four years, I won't have to borrow hay any more.  It was supposed to be here the week before camp, I'm still waiting.

BB Guns

Another favorite of the boys.

Mission Control

A series of fun team building activities.  In this photo they are using sticks and rocks to build a tripod to support some leaves.  I also bought those grabbers people use to pick up trash on the side of the road.  My sister-in-law Sheri bought me a huge box of ball pit balls and their mission was to sort as many balls from the large bin into color coded bins as possible.  I found a lot of ideas here

Solar System

In this class they built a comet and edible model of the solar system.
My inspiration was here.
To make our comets, I used wiffle balls from the Dollar Tree that they decorated with curling ribbon.

Cooking

biscuit wrapped "rocket" hot dogs

Stars

Learning about stars.

Making their own constellation

They also got to use the power of our star to pop a balloon with a magnifying glass.

The station leader also brought supplies for every boy to make a bracelet with UV beads.

Solar System

The station leader for this class did all the planning for the class.  She brought rocks and fossils and helped the boys earn their geology belt loop.

Flag Football

The cubs learned about flag football and were able to earn their flag football belt loop.