Themes

Theme of the Week – Anything Goes

Theme of the Week is a post where we ask readers like you to comment with ideas for a particular theme. What ideas and suggestions do you have? What game, craft, apparel choice, theme meal, evening activity, special event, song, skit, or anything else would you do at camp if your theme was…

Anything Goes

As always I will kick off the theme with five suggestions. Then it’s your turn to leave your awesome suggestions and ideas in the comments area below.

  1. Bull in the Ring – This is a game for high school campers, CITs or Counselors. Take a hose and create a muddy area. Then rope it off. The players get in the ring on their hands and knees. At the whistle, everyone tries to push the others out of the ring. Players must stay on their knees at all times. This game is very physical and very messy. Make sure that your mud spot doesn’t have rocks in it. The campers watch and cheer for their favorite players.
  2. Fear Factor eating challenges. I will usually go to an authentic Asian market or order things online, like bugs. During one camp we purchased 50 live crickets and placed them in a jar.  The teen campers had to stick their hand in the jar and pull out a coin. Afterward, they got the chance to eat a cricket for bonus points. You can buy edible crickets online.
  3. After lights out take the middle school-aged cabins out in the woods or around camp and play flashlight tag, capture the flag or dodgeball in the dining hall with the lights out and disco lights on.
  4. Set up three targets on the zipline course and have campers zip down with a paintball gun. As they are zipping along they try to shoot the targets.
  5. Have a meal where the campers eat only with their hands. No finger food here. Serve dishes like mashed potatoes and corn (not on the cob).

4 Comments

  • My family lives on camp and my kids take every opportunity they can to play in the mud. They would love this camp. Me, as a parent, not so much, especially if they come home with muddy or painted clothes. If our camp had laundry facilities that could handle cleaning every campers clothes then it might be another story.

    Bull in the Ring seems a bit dangerous.

    I would suggest having a crafts session where all the craft materials are set out and the campers can make anything they want.

  • When the campers play in the mud have them wear their bathing suits. Afterward, they can rinse off in the shower. Granted, it takes some extra clean-up but I see camp as a place for kids to experience things they wouldn’t normally experience at home. That includes getting dirty in the mud if possible.

    Bull in the Ring can get rough that’s why it’s best with high school campers or just staff. By the way, the girls go against the girls and the boys against the boys. There is no mixing of genders for this game.

    I like the crafts idea.

  • For Bull in the Ring I have found that when you put a object in the mud (like a rubber duck, or something that is water proof) and have the kids look for it, still being able to push each other, but when they find it they retrieve it back to their side to win. This way it is structured physicality, it doesn’t get very out of hand and the kids love it!

    Another great one like Bull in the Ring is sock wrestling. You go on a volleyball court or beach with socks and a bathing suit. The objective is to get the socks off the other person. You cant hold your socks up, and you cant get off your knees. Ive run its tens of times and I have never had any problems!

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