Camp Happenings!

I'm right in the middle of the first of 3 summer camps - Music Olympics.  We've been having a blast!  It's been really sunny, but also really hot and humid!  On the first day, we made use of this area for lots of hydrating!

Since we all melted on the first day, I changed up the camp a bit last night to use games that included lots of water!  And of course, there's always the hose for a quick cool off!  All the kids know to wear a bathing suit this week!

We've been taking loads of pictures which I'll put together after the camp, but for now, I thought I would show you a couple of fun things we've been doing...


There are 12 kids attending this week and most of them have minimal or no music experience, so I did a quick game to reinforce the musical alphabet.  This was actually one of the most hilarious races I've done yet. I was laughing so hard, I could barely take pictures!   I pulled out the flags that I used in another camp (found here)  and staked one set out for both teams.  Then, I supplied them with an extra large pool noodle.  That's it for supplies!  The first team member had to put the pool noodle between his legs, run down to the flags and pick up the "A" flag.  Then run back, drop the flag and pick up another team member!  Now they both had to run down with the noodle between their legs and grab the second flag or the "B".  As the game progressed, they picked up flags and picked up team members!  It was SO funny to watch!

We actually had so much fun with this race, that we did it twice - once to pick up the notes in order and once to pick them up in reverse order...and of course we had to race down backwards to pick them up in reverse!

As a way to help eliminate the heat, I made these fun sponges last night:

There are super easy to make.  There are actually lots of sites showing you how, such as this one.  They're inexpensive to make and really quick to put together.  I used them to drill note values.  Each team member was shown a note and had to tell me the name of the note/rest and how many beats it represented.  If they got it right, they got to grab a sponge (loaded with water, or course) and throw it at a leader.  You can imagine the motivation to get the answer right! 

Of course, the leaders got to retaliate...and we were the only ones allowed to use the hose...