Things To Do/Not To Do Your Break

10 tricks you didn’t know you could do with your food.

By Blossom

What I want to teach my CITs

This is the earliest post in my drafts, started way back in September of 2015, when I first started this blog. And I wanted to share it with you now, with some new additions. 

There are some things I want to teach my leadership girls while they’re at camp.

1. Camp is where girls go to escape the real world. Let them.

2. It’s ok if you are at camp to escape the real world too.

3. It’s ok to be overwhelmed. Just try not to let your girls see.

4. It’s ok to be confused, to need to ask questions. You will learn something everyday, no matter how long you have been at camp. 

5. You will wonder what you are sending your kids home to. Is it the same love and acceptance of camp? Is it ambivalence? Is it something else entirely?

6. You will wonder because children say things. They trust you and so they tell you things. And because you see things, you watch how they act. And you will wonder.

7. You will never forget your campers. I remember campers from when I was a program aid, ten years ago, and I remember the name of every CIT from this summer (2015). 

8. You will want to share life lessons with your campers, things you wish someone would have told you at their age. But then you realize that it’s camp and you can’t tell them. And so you hope they will learn on their own.

9. You will make mistakes, at camp and in life. I’ve made mistakes, I still make them. You just have to learn from them. 

10. You will change while you are at camp. It is our experiences that shape us and camp is an experience with a shape that isn’t found anywhere else in the world.

11. Camp songs will be stuck in your head forever. 

12. You will work with girls from all walks of life, all different experiences. Learn compassion.

13. You are loved and you are valid. Being a teenager is hard. Being a young adult is hard. But you’re not alone in this world. 

14. Camp is an amazing place. Cherish it while you can because one day, not as far in the future as you may think, it won’t be in your life but will instead be a memory.

What to pack for camp: backpack/daypack

*These are things that I carry with me everywhere. Some of these things might overlap with stuff from previous posts, but that is because I have two of those items, one for the cabin and one for when I’m not in the cabin

*FYI I use a North Face Recon backpack. It has a nice mesh front pocket and large mesh side pockets.

water bottle

sunscreen

bugspray

after bite

first aid kit

schedule

2 extra pairs of socks

flashlight/ headlamp

lighter

paper for fires

hairties

feminine hygiene products (small opaque bag i.e. pencil case size, with a couple of what you need)

sunglasses

playing cards

pens and pencils

hand sanitizer

travel pack of clorox wipes

cell phone (i keep mine in a life proof case)

scissors

friendship string

duct tape (optional)

face paint for team games (optional)

portable speaker (optional)

small, lightweight towel (optional)

DO NOT keep things like your wallet, or keys in your backpack. they could get lost or stolen. Instead, keep these things tucked away in your cabin. I tend to bury them in my clothing drawers, so nobody can find them.

Hey y’all!

Please share with me your favorite all camps, I’m looking for some new ideas!

Ways to teach a skill

Just as there are many ways to learn, there are many ways to teach. Here are some ways to teach skills at camp:

Say it. Tell the kids what the skill is, describe it.

Show it. Show pictures, diagrams, or other visual aids.

Model it. Do the activity yourself, such as tying a knot.

Learn by doing. Have the kids do the skill, alongside you or after you (or both). This is a great way to engage kids on multiple levels, as you often also need to incorporate some of the earlier techniques (say, show, etc) and this engages multiple learning styles.

Learn through play. An example of this is a simulation game, such as that deer game where you simulate resources (called Deer, Deer, Deer in Ultimate Camp Resource). This can be existing games, or one you made up. Another example is that I made up a simulation of holding hands in different formations to explain how colligative properties work in ice cream in a bag.

Engages the senses. This works well in conjunction with other techniques, but basically bringing in as many of the senses as you can, especially touch/kinestetic.

Since kids learn differently, ideally teach with multiple methods. Teaching is a learned skill that you develop as a camp staff, and everyone does it with their own flair. But these are some suggestions to get you started as you develop your own way of teaching.

How to Annotate Literature

Many times language and literature classes require students to annotate the books that are given to them, but in many cases tips and advice on how to do so is lacking. I will be sharing my personal strategy for efficient and successful annotating that will not only help your understanding of the text but also gain the love of your teachers! The tips have been divided into 5 components, each with their own explanation. Sticky Tabs are Your Best Friend

I don’t know how I would manage to annotate without my sticky tabs. They help me organize and navigate the book before the reading, remind me what to look for while i’m going through the text and help me find whatever I may need once I get to further analysis for the class. 

Create a key for your tabs, personally I use five colors each having a few specific purposes based on where I place them in the book. Most stickies are accompanied by a specific note that will remind me of what I wanted to point out, these stick out of the right margin. 

Pink- Anything to do with characters, be it development or certain traits to remember. It can also be used for when you have questions about character related aspects of the text.

Orange- Refers to setting, in plays it is also applicable for stage directions.

Yellow- Is used for literary devices and use of language (tone, diction, patterns) and syntax, if there is a particular word the author used or a structure you want to take note of, this is the color to use. 

Green- Applicable to any important plot events, notable scenes or things that you think will be significant later in the story.

Blue- Themes and context of said ideas, anything to do with time, place and space in which the text takes place. It can also relate to how your context (a student reading a book for a literature course) impacts your perception of the text.

These are the things teachers usually look out for and it is certainly useful in any kind of further task! 

The top and bottom margins can be used to divide the book in to sections, such as chapters or scenes, mark the most important pages and to also highlight text to text connections. These colors you can pick yourself! I do not recommend having more than 5 sticky tabs per page, otherwise it gets too crowded and they lose their purpose! (but you will still need to buy aaa lloootttt)

This is my key for the book I am currently annotating, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. 

Don’t Overdo it With the Highlighter

Find one color highlighter that you like the most and use it to mark explicit words or phrases that catch your attention, you can also use them in correlation with you sticky tabs!  I prefer to use a yellow highlighter because it seems to bleed the least, and I usually use it in relation to the the yellow and blue tabs because those are the ones that relate to the most detailed and minute parts of the text. Once again you can find your own preference! But don’t overdo it, otherwise, like the tabs, the highlighter will lose its function to highlight important points. 

This is an example of how much highlighting I usually do. For non-fictional texts or parts of a book (like in the introduction you see here) I reserved highlighter for dates and names. 

Have a Conversation With the Author

This is one of the first tips that my high school teacher gave me and it’s really one of the most important ones to remember. And I know, it may sound kinda silly, but I find that it really helps me in developing my ideas and remembering exactly how I felt about a certain aspect of part of the text. 

Whether the text is fiction of non fiction, anything in between, you can always do these few things

Ask questions- As if you were going to get an answer, ask questions, write them down and write down as many as you want. Writing things down helps people remember so then it is more likely that in a class discussion you will be able to recall your queries or wonders. 

If you don’t like something, or you’re surprised by something, write it down! Use exclamation marks, use words that you would use in a regular conversation. I always write ‘WOW!!’ or ‘OMG’ when i’m especially impressed, and having such vocal- well written vocally- emotions will bring you closer to the subject of the text. 

Talk to the characters as well, if you are questioning a character’s actions ask them and provide an explanation as to why you speculate they may have acted a certain way. Not only does that further contribute to your involvement (also making things more entertaining) but it also deepens your thought!

What i’m trying to say is write down anything that comes to mind, your first response is your true response, and it is a valuable addition to your notes! And if you want to write a whole essay in between the lines… Actually, i’ll come back to that later! 

Pens, not Pencils 

I used to make notes completely in pencil but my approach changed when I realized that overtime the pencil would rub off and get illegible. I think it was because I used my book so much, but having switched to pen I realized that it helps me in quite a few other things as well. 

The good thing about pen is that you can’t erase it and let’s say you started writing down a note, scan down the page and realize what you are taking a note of is completely wrong. That’s ok! That’s actually really good! Don’t scribble out what you just wrote down, but instead continue and explain why you may have thought a certain way and what your understanding is now. That relates really closely to the previous note.  Evidently pen also appears darker on the page, then there’s no possibility of it ever disappearing. It also won’t smudge or bleed as long as it’s ballpoint! That’s a good thing when drawing arrows between lines, underlining in addition to your highlights and circling/boxing whatever you deem necessary.

Time, Effort and Commitment

It’s clear that this post took me a while to make, and it took me a while to develop this system with all of the things that I have considered. So it must be self evident that using this type of annotation won’t be quick. It might get tiring at some times, and for me it really does, but at the end I find that it always pays off! You have to stay committed to this technique, you have to put in the same amount of effort for every page, which means you need time. So here are a few final general tips I will leave you with.

Don’t procrastinate! As goes for any task, and this one more than any, don’t waste time getting to it! I advice you check how many pages you have in total and make sure that you do a certain amount per day (usually 5-10 pages a day is good!)

If you go off on massive tangents in the side bars, make sure that you don’t get too distracted by them because they will take up a lot of your time. But one now and then may be good! Be sure to mark it for later reference!

Play mind games with yourself. This one is actually pretty interesting but it personally gets me a long way. If you have 20 pages left, don’t look at it as 20 pages but instead as 4 times 5, then the amount will seem a lot more manageable! It’s a kind of self encouragement!

That can also be said by looking now and then at how far your bookmark has moved through the book and giving yourself a pat on the back for all of you hard work!

That’s all I have for now! If you have any further questions for advice or explanation please message me and I will be more than happy to help! And I hope that this helps some people out too! (I’m counting this as 21/100 days of productivity as all I did today was related to annotating.)

Any tips for taking initiative? I’m always worried that I’ll make a wrong decision, especially because I’m on under-18 staff

Hi friend,

That’s a great question. Taking initiative can be little things that fit easily into your job but put you ahead. Always make sure that you’re doing your job and prioritizing it before your go above and beyond. Some easy ideas for taking initiative:

Be enthusiastic! 

Help tidy the dining hall a little after meals with your kids if you’ve got time. Make it fun by singing songs or playing games.

Talk with the quiet campers.

Walk with the slow campers.

Give campers leadership opportunities.

Offer to lead songs or grace at meals.

Offer to help with campfires or all camp games.

Help unload the vans after a supply run if you’re in the area and have time. The kids can help too.

Help carry heavy things when you see someone struggling.

Make sure your kapers are always done and on time.

Come up with exciting games and activities for your kids beyond the regular camp activities. Play canoe tag or go all out for the color war.

Make sure that you’re always doing your job to your best ability. 

Best of luck and have a great summer!

Somewhere between adolescence and adulthood there occurs in human development an age which is physically and psychologically impossible. It is that unfathomable stage known as the camp counselor, a creature undefined by psychologists, misunderstood by camp directors, worshiped by campers, either admired or doubted by parents, and unheard of by the rest of society. A camp counselor is a rare combination of doctor, lawyer, indian and chief. She is a competent child psychologist with her sophomore textbook as proof. She is an underpaid babysitter with neither television nor refrigerator. She is a strict disciplinarian with a twinkle in her eye. She is referee, coach, teacher, and advisor. She is an example of humanity in worn out tennis shoes, a sweatshirt two sizes too large, and a hat two sizes too small. She is a humorist in a crisis, a doctor in an emergency, and a song leader, entertainer, and play director. She is an idol with her head in a cloud of woodsmoke and her feet in the mud. She is a comforter under a leaky tarp on a canoe overnight, and a pal who just loaned someone her last pair of dry socks. She is a teacher of the outdoors, knee deep in poison ivy. A counselor dislikes waiting in line, cabin inspection and rainy days. She is fond of sunbathing, exploring, teaching new games, an old car named Mrs. Beasley, and days off. She is handy for patching up broken friendships, bloody noses, and torn jeans. She is good at locating lost towels at the waterfront, fixing stopped up toilets, making friendship bracelets, and catching fish. She is poor at crawling out of bed on rainy mornings, and remembering to fill out forms. A counselor is a friendly guide in the middle of a cold, dark, wet night on the long winding trail to the TLC. Who but she can cure homesickness, air out wet bedding, play 16 games of 4-square in succession, whistle “Dixie” through her fingers, carry all the cook-out food, speak Pig Latin in Spanish, stand on her hands, sing 37 verses of “You Can’t get to Heaven”, and eat four helpings of Sunday dinner. A counselor is expected to repair 10 years of damage to Jill in 10 days, make Julie into a woman, rehabilitate Judy, allow Joan to be an individual and help Gertrude adjust to a group. She is expected to lead the most prized possessions of 16 adults much older than she. She is expected to lead them in fun and adventure, even when her head aches; to teach them to live in the outdoors, even though she spends 9 months a year in the city; to teach them indigenous activities when she can’t even spell the word; to guide youngsters in social adjustment, when she hasn’t even reached a legal age; to ensure safety and health, with a sunburned nose, a band-aid on her thumb, and a blister on her heel. For all this she is paid enough to buy the second text in psychology, some aspirin, some new socks, two tires for Mrs. Beasley, and some new tennis shoes. You wonder how she can stand the pace and the pressure. You wonder if she really knows how much she is worth. And somehow, you realize that you can never pay her enough when, as she leaves at the end of the summer, she waves goodbye and says, “See ya next year!”

 Phyllis M. Ford, 1970 (via colours-light)

This is what I aspire to

Logic Games for Camp Counselors

Counselors love to use these logic games as a way to pass time and keep campers engaged and having fun during down time. All of these are mind games in which the rules are ‘hidden’ from the players, that is, until they figure it out! Make sure to instruct them not to yell out the rule once they figure it out (unless the game calls for that), so as not to ruin the game for others. Depending on the game, make sure that you let campers ‘run it,’ state the phrases, try the actions, etc. once they begin to figure it out so they don’t get bored. If no one is figuring it out, try telling a person or two to get the ball rolling. Have fun!!

STICKS

Sitting in a circle on the floor, grab a bunch of sticks or wood chips. Tell campers that you are going to do something with the sticks and they have to guess the number your are thinking of based on your actions. Make a picture with the sticks (a house, a number, a letter, a pile, etc.). The number you are guessing is revealed by how many fingers you are holding out once you complete your stick picture. I like to sit criss crossed apple sauce and then place my hands on my knees. If I hold out two fingers in each hand, the number is 4, or one hand with five fingers and the other with none is five, etc. Have campers guess the numbers and tell them if they are right or not. If you think they have figured it out, let them try being the one with the sticks. 

MAGICAL UMBRELLA

Start by saying the riddle “um. I have a magical umbrella. It’s *insert color or pattern here* and when I spin it around it turns *insert different color or pattern here.* What color does it turn next?” The key is to say ummmmm before saying the riddle (magical UMMbrella) Have campers guess, and tell them if they are right or wrong. Then let them try ‘holding the umbrella.’ Play around with crazy patterns like purple with green dinosaurs on it, orange polka dots, etc. 

GREEN GLASS DOOR

Campers try to guess what can or cannot go through the green glass doors. Say “I can bring puppies through the GGD but not dogs.” The key is that words with double letters can go through (kittens but not cats, apples but not oranges,  boots but not shoes, etc.)

FOUR IS THE MAGIC NUMBER

This game starts with a certain number that eventually breaks down into the number four. The goal is figure out how the numbers are being broken down. “twelve is six, six is three, three is five, five is four.” The next number is the # of letters in the previous number. The word twelve has six letters, six has three letters, three has five letters, five has four letters. Every beginning number eventually breaks down to the number four. 

PICNIC

This is a simple game, but can be difficult to catch onto the rules. Can also be fun to play as a name game as you get to know each other and remember names. Start by saying “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing a *insert object that starts with the same first letter as your name*.” (Emma and eggs, Courtney and cookies, Samantha and sandwiches.) Have campers try this one and tell them whether or not they are able to bring the object the say until they figure it out. 

THE ROSE 

This game can be played many ways with different objects. Say “If I have a rose and I give it to Courtney and she gives it to Samantha and she gives it to Emma, who has the rose?” The person who has the rose is the first person to speak after you finish saying the question. So if you ask the question, and Courtney says “it’s _____,” then you could say “no it’s you Courtney.” This one can be a little slow at first until a few people pick up on it, but then it’s super fun! One of my favorites!

PAY ATTENTION (or LISTEN)

Say “Pay attention. If those (point to them) are shoes, and those are shoes, and those are shoes, are these shoes?” Point to a few pairs of shoes, and then for the last object, you can either point at shoes or anything else. The key is to say the phrase ‘pay attention’ before you speak. If you do, than the answer is yes, if not, the answer is no. So if you finish by pointing at a real pair of shoes, but you don’t say ‘pay attention’, then they are not shoes. But if you point at a tree at the end and say ‘pay attention’, then the tree is shoes. 

GHOST CHAIR

This one is a bit difficult. Set up chairs like musical chairs. Pick a chair to assign as the ghost chair, but don’t tell anyone. Explain that there is a ghost in the room. Have everyone sit in a chair. Mentally note who is sitting in the ghost chair. Have everyone move to a new chair. Ask who the ghost is standing in front of. Let them guess, and tell them if they are correct or not. The ghost is standing in front of whoever was sitting in the ghost chair before you all moved chairs. 

JOHNNY WHOOP 

Hold your hand up. Make a specific pattern of touching your fingertips and sliding your finger along the curve between our forefinger and thumb. When touching the tips of fingers, say “Johnny,” but when sliding along the curve say “Whoop.” When you are done, drop your hands and clasp them together.  Remember the pattern you made, and do it the same way every time. Have campers try to copy you and tell them if they did it right or not. The key is not to correctly replicate your patten but to clasp your hands after finishing it. 

RIGHT PARTY 

Say “I’m throwing a party, but it’s not just any party, it’s the right party at the right place at the right time with the right people and the right snacks and the right clothes.” Then explain what you will be wearing to the party. Have campers try and tell them if they are allowed to wear it to your party or not. The clothes allowed to the party are whatever the person to your right is wearing. 

ONE UP ONE DOWN 

Only one of three phrases can be said. But only one of them is correct at a given time. Both up, one up one down, and both down. It depends on how your arms are positioned when the phrase is being said. So if the person’s arms are both hanging down, the correct phrase is both down, etc. Have campers try and guess which one to say and tell them if they are allowed to say it or not. 

WITCH WRITING 

You have to have at least one friend playing that knows the rule to get the ball rolling. Tell campers a story that explains how you met a witch and learned the secret language.Send the friend out of the room. Decide with the campers which word you are going to write and try to get the friend to guess. Call them back in. Use the secret witch writing to write the word and have the friend guess. She will get it right, keep playing until campers begin to figure it out. It involved random scribbling and pounding your hands against the table/ground. Vowels are represented by the number of pounds. 1 pound=A, 2 pounds=E, 3 pounds=I, 4 pounds=O, 5 pounds=U. Consonants are represented by the first letter of the phrase in-between pounds. The random scribbling is just to confuse people and has no meaning. Example: the word is ‘guide”. Say “Going to start now” Random scribbling with a pencil. Then pound your hands 5 times.  Random scribbling. Pound your hands 3 times. Random scribbling. Then say “Don’t get confused.” Random scribbling. Then pound your hands 2 more times. 

CROSSED/UNCROSSED (or OPEN/CLOSED) 

This game can be played with sticks or pencils (scissors for open/closed). Have everyone sit in a circle. You are going to pass two sticks to the next person either crossed over each other or just parallel to one another. The person receiving them has to say if they are receiving the sticks crossed or uncrossed. The position of the sticks does not matter, only wether the giver is sitting with their legs/ankles/arms (pick one) are crossed or not. This game works better when siting on the ground than at a table. 

MAN IN THE MOON 

Grab a stick and draw a picture in the dirt while saying “This is a man on the moon. He has a face, a mouth, a nose and two eyes.” (Draw those things) Before doing/saying this, do a small action such as touching your ear, flipping your hair, scratching your knee, etc. Have campers try and tell them if their man on the moon is correct. The drawing does not matter, only that they repeat the same small action beforehand. 

PLATES/CUPS Grab a few cups or plates and a small object that fits underneath it. You need a friend who knows the rule to get the game started. Decide on a code word with the same number of letters as the number of cups you have. (if you have four cups, use the word corn, which has four letters) Share this word with everyone, but don’t explain how to use it. Lay the cups out in a horizontal line. Only the friend will understand at first but the plate to the far left (the friend’s point of view) corresponds to the first letter of the code word, so C. The next cup is O. The next is R. The next is N. Again, the campers do not know this. Send the campers and the friend away or have them close their eyes. Put the small object under one of the cups. Call them back. The friend will guess which cup it is under. She will know because the cup it is under corresponds to the first letter of the first thing you say when they come back. So if the first thing you say is “Really think about it, and tell me which cup,” then the object is under the cup that is R, or the third cup. 

PSYCHIATRIST

This game is fun, but once the participant figures out the rule, the game is over because they have to say it out loud. That is…. until someone new wanders up and wants to play and doesn’t know the rule. Pick a participant and send them away. Explain the rule to everyone else. The person is going to come back and ask them questions. The first person to be asked  a question is to answer with the words “i don’t know” no matter what the question is. After that, the next person to be asked a question is to answer with the answer that corresponds to the last question. Call the person back into the group. Explain to them that they are a psychiatrist and this group has a problem and they have to figure out what it is. They are to go up to people and ask them simple or yes or no questions. When they think they know the problem, guess it out loud. Example: Psychiatrist to person A: Is the sky Blue? Person A: I don’t know. (this will confuse the psychiatrist, tell them to move on to next person) Psychiatrist to person B: What color is a cow? Person B: yes. Psychiatrist to person C: What is  my name? Person C: black and white. and so on. 

ROAD TRIP 

This one is difficult and takes a while to figure out. You are going on road trip and going to tell your campers where you went and how long you stayed there and they are to figure out where you are going next. The answer is revealed by the pathway of your trip. Letters are the first letter of where you went. Vowels are how long you stayed. (A-1, E-2, I-3, O-4, U-5) Example: I started in Delaware and stayed for 2 days, then I went to Nebraska, then Vermont where I stayed for 2 weeks, then I went to Rhode Island. Where do I go next? Answer= Denver. 

BLACK MAGIC

One person is sent away. The rest of the group decides on an object among them to be the magic object (a hat, shoe, shirt, backpack, water bottle, etc.) Call the person back. Explain to the person they are to pick an item from a list you give them that is the magic object. They are to figure out that the object is whichever one comes after a black object. The other objects can not be black, because that would disrupt the game. Continue to list off a bunch of items among you, pointing at each, one of them being the object chosen after a different black object. Example: “Is the magical object her shoe, his sunglasses, my foot, his hat (which is black), that water bottle, or the sky?” Answer= the water bottle because it came after the black object.

HOW MANY BEARS?

Make up a story about bears, and finish by asking how many bears there are (have it make sense with the story). The answer is dependent on how many words are used to ask the question. Ex: How many bears are there?-5, What number of bears are there?-6, How many bears?-3, etc. 

THIS CAN HAS FIVE SIDES

This game follows the same rules as the bear game. Grab a can and pass it around, having campers tell each other how many sides it has. The number of sides is dependent on the statement. Example: This can has five sides-5, Two sides-2, I think that this can has 8 sides-8, etc. 

DOES THE BOAT FLOAT? 

This game is similar to the umbrella game. Here’s how it works. Say “Okay,” then grab a stick or use your finger to draw an imaginary boat in the air. Ask “Does this boat float?” Let campers guess yes or no and tell them if they are correct or not. The key is wether or not you say ‘okay’ before you draw the boat. Let them try drawing boats once they think they have figured it out. 

WHOSE TRIANGLE?

This game is almost identical to the boat float game, but draw a triangle between different people as your stand around in a circle. You can also play this game like the rose game, where whoever speaks first is the owner of the triangle. 

FLASHLIGHT DANCE Again, similar to the boat float game. Pick a phrase or acton (saying okay, clearing your throat, flipping the flashlight in the air and catching it, etc.) that must be performed before the dance. Grab a flashlight (this game is obviously for night time) and perform (or don’t) the action and then proceed to do a dance with the flashlight. Ask the campers if your dance was real (performed the action) or made up (did not perform the action). 

What is your favorite thing to do with campers to pass time?