ON 6 - DAY 4: What Others are Thinking / Kangaroo Court
Our penultimate day of camp began with one final polar plunge. Before we all headed down to the chalet for breakfast. Today’s breakfast was french toast with whipped cream, sausages and orange slices.
It was then time for choice? That's right choice in the morning! We had horse riding, comic book making and dodgeball as our options.
Lunch was up next, where we had chicken wraps with veggies, and led right into our rest hour.
After a good rest it was time for today’s social skills block. Today’s social skills was “What others are thinking”. We played the game “around the world” where campers must work to spell out around the world, using items that they want to take on a trip around the world. The catch is they don’t know this secret rule until after, this is a great way to show that we can’t always know what others are thinking but we can ask questions to find out. We also talked about ways to understand other’s thoughts, through body language, understanding each other's perspective, and active listening.
A quick snack later and it was time for our only camp wide game of the day human tracker. In human tracker, teams of campers and counselors must hide in the wooded area of camp as the sneaky human trackers try to hunt them down and tag them! It’s a great game of cat and mouse, and also very fun.
Up next was KANGAROO COURT, the most feared activity of our counselors week. Kangaroo court is our mock trial where campers can vote to slime a counselor for committing “camp crimes”. This can range from forgetting a water bottle to Ripley being a rat and stealing all our cheese.
BRONTOSAURUS and MOONBEAM were the unlucky souls to be slimed this week!
After justice was served it was time for dinner which was ground beef with rice and veggies.
We then kicked off our closing campfire! This campfire is special as we like to invite campers up to dance and sing songs with their favourite counselors. Everyone had a great time and we then handed out our final steps of the week.
It was then time to head to bed and rest up for a busy final day of activities and heading home! See you then.
ON 6 - DAY 3: Language / Interpretation
It’s day 3 here at camp and we started our day off with another polar plunge, before heading to our morning meal which was breakfast wraps.
We then had some 2:6 time to hangout and get ready for the rest of our day. Up next was a camp wide game, we played a brand new game today called “bacon” and it was incredibly fun! After all the running and screaming BACON! It was time to transition to social skills.
Today’s social skills was language / interpretation. This skill helps our campers recognize how we all interpret communication differently, and how to be mindful when communicating with others. We played camp apprentice, a fun activity where campers are broken off into groups and tasked with designing a product that can be used at camp. They are given specific roles, and set out to effectively communicate their ideas, opinions and thoughts with each other. It’s a great way to show how these skills come in handy in a more “real world” scenario.
We had grilled cheese and ham sandwiches with carrot sticks and cucumbers for lunch before moving into our rest hour.
It was then time for choice! Today’s activities were swimming, bead animals and gaga ball.
We had a super chill and relaxing afternoon playing in the pool, creating wonderful animals and testing our skills in the gaga pit. And it was then time for some 2:6/free time before dinner.
Dinner was hot dogs with chips and veggies.
It was time for our evening camp wide game where we played a classic game of capture the flag. After thoroughly tiring ourselves out, we proceeded to hand out our steps and begin our bedtime programming.
With the penultimate day just on the horizon, we all wonder what tomorrow will bring. So don’t forget to check back tomorrow for more exciting adventures here at camp!
ON 6 - DAY 2: Expected / Unexpected Behaviours
It’s day two here at Camp Amicus! And we got to start our day with one of our favourite camp traditions! POLAR PLUNGE… This is an opportunity for campers to get up a little earlier, and take a dip in the pool to get an instant shock of alertness and energy. You also get a cool polar bear charm to keep!
Moving onto breakfast which was baked oatmeal with fruit and yogurt, we headed off to our cabins for some 2:6 time before meeting back for camp wide game.
We played Temple of DOOM, a camp classic where a group of campers must run a gauntlet of dodgeball throwers to retrieve special treasures (beanbags in our case).
It was then time for social skills, today’s social skill was “expected/unexpected behaviours”. This focuses on helping campers recognize how people expect us to act a certain way whether at home or at camp! Some unexpected behaviours could be getting very loud very suddenly, refusing help when frustrated with a task, or throwing things when something doesn’t go your way. We talked about why exhibiting expected behaviours is important, and how our behaviours affect those around us.
Up next was lunch which was taco salad and this led right into our rest hour. This is a time for our campers to partake in more low energy activities in their cabins like reading, playing a board game or just having a nice conversation.
We then jumped into choice, today’s choice activities were archery/itc, tie dye and amicus olympics.
2:6/free time followed as we took some time to check in and see how we were all doing at camp. It was then time to head back down to the chalet for dinner, which was chicken nuggets with fries and veggies.
Everyone headed outside as we got set up for our camp dance party!
Following some ferocious dance moves it was time to hand out steps, grab a snack and head to bed for another night of rest. It’s almost the middle of the week already, time is just flying by! See you all tomorrow for more exciting adventures.
ON 6 - DAY 1: Welcome to Camp!
Hello everyone and welcome to camp! It’s our final overnight week of the summer, and what an absolute blast we are in for. We have an incredible week of fun, friends, and learning ahead of us, and we can’t wait to share it all with you.
We began our day with loading our stuff onto the bus at foothills, and leaving for our campsite this summer, Pioneer Lodge!
Once we arrived, we immediately jumped into our community meeting, where we introduced our counselors, leadership staff, and the wonderful pioneer lodge site to our campers. We then moved all of our belongings to our cabins, and spent some time settling into our new homes for the week.
Lunch was up next, and it was PIZZA… with veggies. Everyone ate it up quickly as we then moved into our choice blocks for the day.
Choice is where we give the campers the opportunity to decide what two activities they would like to participate in during our choice blocks. Today’s choice activities were improv games, rock climbing/canoeing, and spa day!
We had so much fun climbing, canoeing, improvising and relaxing. It was then time to move on to our 2:6/free time, where our camper groups could work on their group contract for the week. This document outlines what kinds of behaviours we do and don’t want to see at camp, and how we want to treat and be treated by others in our groups. We then enjoyed some free time to do whatever we wanted before heading back to the chalet for dinner.
Dinner was burgers with tomatoes, lettuce and pickles as well as pickle chips!
It was time for our opening campfire, we danced and sang our hearts out, until it was time for “steps in the right direction”. Steps is how we like to build a sense of community at camp, here campers and counselors can give out steps to other campers, for a plethora of different reasons. This can range from having a nice conversation to just because they are a positive person to be around.
After steps it was time for a quick snack and then our bedtime programming. Getting setup at camp for the week is tiring, and we all needed to get some good rest, so we can have lots of fun tomorrow! See you then.