Looking for some fresh ideas to get the kids moving? Who better to ask than a camp counselor! We reached out to our friends at the YMCA of Greater Charlotte and asked them to share some ideas with us! The Greater Charlotte YMCA also has an awesome section of their website packed with ideas to keep the kids busy at home and their exercise classes have moved online as well! Check out Virtual Y and Y360 for more information
Dance and Sing-Along
Skits
Come See The Monster!
An announcer is standing by a person sitting in a chair covered by a sheet.
Announcer: Come one come all! Come see the scariest monster in the world! (The person under the sheet)
Customer1: Alright, I'll check it out, how scary can it be? (They peek under the sheet and faint or run away
screaming)
Announcer: O.K., Who's next? Step right up!
Customer2: I'll take a look (Peeks under sheet and screams while fainting)
Announcer: (rolls customer to the side) Anyone Else?
Customers 3 & 4: Let us look! (They both look under the sheet and faint)
Announcer: (Rolls customers with the other one) This wasn't in the job description. Does anyone from out there
want to look at the monster?
(Choose a volunteer who won’t get their feelings hurt easily)
Volunteer looks under the sheet and then the monster runs away screaming.
Do That Moo That You Do So Well
3-4 campers are on stage and they call up an unknowing volunteer from the audience.
They tell the volunteer that they are going to have a mooing contest and these are the rules:
Each person in the group has to yell MOO as loud as they can on the count of three.
Whoever is heard above the rest will win. But you have to yell really, really loud.
You also have to beat your chest with your hands, as this will make you Moo louder.
One camper counts out 1-2-3 and the campers just let the volunteer moo as loud as he can.
Do you have it?
The object is to have a very dramatic person who keeps on saying "Do you have it? Do you have it?" while
walking back in forth in front of the audience.
People keep on bringing things out and hold up to him/her.
Once everyone has gone except the last person the last person comes out running with toilet paper!
Then he/she shouts out "That’s it you got it!" They run off and pretend to go the bathroom! If it is outside run
behind a tree.
Variation of “Important Papers”
Games
Frozen T-shirts (Teambuilding and fun for hot days)
A few days before this project dip a few large T-shirts into water and fold it up while they are
sopping wet and put them into large zip lock bags. Freeze the bags for a day or two. Divide the
campers into groups of 5 to 6. Give each group a frozen zip lock bag. The teams need to work
together to get the shirt out of the bag and thawed out enough for one of the team members to
put the t-shirt on. There are several ways to get them thawed out, but we let our campers figure it
out for themselves. Some ideas are: run it under water-microwave it-lay it in the sun-sit on it etc.
Radar
Get the group into a circle with one blindfolded person in a chair in the center of the circle. Under
the chair place a pair of keys or something that will make a little bit of noise when touched. As
the facilitator pick out a person from the circle to try and get the objects.
The person in the center is to then try and figure out where the person is coming from by pointing
directly at them. If they find the person then they will become the person in the center. If the
person is able to get the object, then the center person stays the center person.
Boxball
Boxball transforms two sidewalk squares into an outdoor version of ping-pong or, perhaps more
accurately, a postage-stamp-sized game of tennis. Each player serves, volleys, and defends his
square. The lines (or "cracks") around the concrete define the court; the seam between the two
squares is the imaginary net. Players choose or volley for first serve. Serve is maintained by
winner of the volley or rotated every five points. In some games, only the server wins a point;
others play so that either player can win any point. Twenty-one is usually the winning score, with
the requirement of winning by two points. The ball is slapped back and forth between boxes with
an open palm. Slap the ball into your opponent's box; he or she returns it back to your box after
one bounce or on the fly. If you step into the playing court, fail to return a shot, or if your return
shot's first bounce lands out of your opponent’s box, you lose the volley. You can choose whether
you can use both hands, and one hand only (where you can use the back of the palm for a
"reverse shot"). Reverse shots aren't easy to control, since the back of the palm is not as flat or
flexible as the front, but they're sometimes necessary in order to protect the full box. Players can
try to hit the ball with force--or with a cutting motion to give the ball more spin, or "English," and
make it more difficult to return. Boxball is quick game with soft spinning shots, slams, and pinpoint
shots to the corners. It's simple, intimate and intense.
Red Robin
This game works best when played around a house or building. Players all begin in front of the
house. Red Robin is the player who is "it." The Red Robin faces the other players and declares,
"I'm thinking of a type of (shoe, car, candy bar, etc.)."
The other players then try to guess what the Red Robin is thinking of (for example, Nike, Adidas,
or Keds). The Red Robin calls out the name of the player who eventually guesses the correct
item. Then, the Red Robin and the player who guessed correctly take off running around the
house in opposite directions. The first person to make it back to the starting line becomes the Red
Robin. (After players get tired, the rules can change to: the first person to get back to the starting
line is NOT the Red Robin.)
