Tag: camp

Bandana Games

Knots with bandanas

In the normal game of knots, people simply hold hands, but in this variation they will hold on to a bandana between each person. The easiest way to set up this game is to use a series of instructions: 1. Everyone stand in a circle holding hands. Drop your hands and then extend your right hand into the circle holding your bandana. Reach into the circle with your left hand and grab the bandana of another person. You may not grab the bandana of someone who is already holding your bandana nor can it be the person on your left or right. Now get untangled without letting go of the Bandanas you are holding. It’s Ok if some end up facing outward and sometimes you may end up with more than one circle. Variation: Complete the task without talking.

7 Legged Relay

Credit: The Disciple Project

Supplies: many bandanas, large playing area

Setup:

  1. Choose two players and tie their legs together with 2 bandanas tied together.
  2. They then go down to the other end of the field and pick up another person
    (have a leader there to tie their legs together).
  3. Those three go back and pick up another person, etc, until they have seven.
  4. Then give them some obstacles to go around.

Variation: Split the group into two and tie 7 together then put some obstacles they have to work around like going around cones or even under some rope.

Capture the Flag

Divide the youth into two teams, each with its own territory. Each team will have a bandana – a flag, which must be guarded by some team members while others try to grab the opponent’s flag. If an opponent is in your territory, you can tag them and send them to jail – a designated area where prisoners are kept. Players must stay in jail until one of their own team can run in and tag them to free them. (Only one prisoner can be rescued at a time.) A team wins the game by capturing the other flag and bearing it back to their home territory.

Fox Tail

A riotous fun never ending tag type game. Requires agility and generosity.
Credit: Art of Mentoring WAS

Define a playing area appropriate for the size and abilities of the group. Everyone gets a bandana, holds it by one corner and puts it in their pocket. The bandana must be trailing out like a ‘tail’. The goal is to steal as many foxtails as you can. Stolen tails are put in the pocket as quick as you can. If you have no tail you must sit down. You can steal the tail of anyone who gets close enough to you but you may not get up. Other players can also give tails to their friends who are sitting down.

Blindfold Games

Children do not particularly like to be blindfolded so these are games best introduced at the end of your week together once a relationship and some trust has been established.

Being blindfolded is a challenge because it removes our primary sense!

We are vision primary animals. Raccoons are touch primary. Dogs are scent primary. Bats are hearing primary.

Blindfold games can be a way to discuss different perspectives and ways of being in the world.

They are also an opportunity to build trust. Don’t break it by doing something cruel or foolish and watch for children who might take the opportunity to do so. Explicitly reprimanding such behavior in the context of camp can be a helpful character building opportunity.

Blind Snake

A trust a team building activity

Everyone is blindfolded except for a sighted person in the back. Everyone places their hands on each others shoulders to form a snake. The goal is to gather bandana balls and place them in a bucket. When the person in the front is successful they go to the back and become the sighted person. The game is over when the person who went first is back at the front.

Drum Stalk

Blindfold Drum Stalk | Drummer in the Woods  

Source: Coyote’s Guide to Connecting With Nature   

Play:

  1. One person has a drum (or rocks clicking together).
  2. The rest go at least 10 paces away and try to walk toward the drummer with eyes closed.  
  3. Once they touch the drummer, they can go off and try again, further back this time

Up Level Variation: The drummer may move through the woods and have the children try and follow them

Dragon’s Tail

Supplies: 2 bandanas, large playing area

  1. Split the children into several teams of approximate equal number.
  2. Each team links together into a chain by lining up one behind the other and placing their hands on the waist of the person in front of them. You can also simply have them link hands or elbows.
  3. The last person on each team is given a bandana to hang from his or her pocket as the dragon’s tail.
  4. Teams must work together to chase and capture the tails from other dragons. Only the person at the front of the chain can grab a bandana from another team. They team can twist around to try to protect their own dragon’s tail but they are not allowed to disconnect.
  5. Once a team’s bandana has been taken or they disconnect, their dragon is dead and the team is out.

The last team standing or the team with the most bandanas wins. If you are adverse to the idea of a dragon, you can also call it lizard’s tail.

Blind Lineup

Give each youth a bandana to use as a blindfold, and then ask the group to put order themselves from the shortest to the tallest in order of height.

Sherpa Walk

In this game, youth are paired up and one person is blindfolded and led to a previously designated location. The focus is not on speed but on trust and safety.

The guide cannot touch the blindfolded person but must lead them using only verbal commands.

As a variation you can also require three tasks along the way such as to smell something, to touch something, to identify an object, to eat something, etc.

Meet a Tree

Instructions >

Additional Blindfold Games:

Storytelling Games

Fortunately/Unfortunately

Instructions >

Once Upon a Time

One person begins with the time-honored, “Once upon a time…” and proceeds to begin a story about whatever they want. At whatever point they feel inspired, they say a distinctive, “…and then…”

…which turns the story to the next person in the circle. The next person then picks up where the story left off and begins to spin their own next part of the tale.

Again, at whatever point they feel ready to hand it off, they say, “…and then…” and turn to the next person to continue the story.

This continues until everyone has had a turn to tell a portion of the story. The last person will no doubt create a magnificent climax-to-denouement and pronounce, “THE END!”

Bird Skits

Have the children act out the 5 types of bird language both as birds and then as people.
alarm calls – companion calling – juvenile begging – territorial aggression – song

Here are a few scenarios to inspire some fun family acting moments:

  • A mother bird tries to feed several babies, but she is keenly aware of a predator bird, like a sharp-shinned hawk, nearby. (The mother bird may stay very close to the nest, taking a lot of moments to stop and look around nervously, while making a short call.)
  • A pair of birds are feeding and companion calling (to let each other know they are okay where they are). Two more birds fly into their territory. How does everyone respond?
  • A group of chickadees is feeding when a human enters their territory. As the human walks through, a weasel sneaks off into the bushes.
The Five Voices Of The Birds