Theme-of-the-Day is a daily post where we ask readers to leave their summer camp ideas, using the day’s theme, in the comments section. What ideas and suggestions do you have for the Theme of the Day? What game, craft, apparel choice, theme meal, evening activity, special event, song, skit, or anything else would you do at camp if your theme was…
Space is the Place
As always I will kick off the theme with five suggestions. Then it’s your turn to leave your awesome suggestions and ideas in the comments area below.
- Create spaceships as a craft with sticks, foil, paint, paper and beads. The campers will come up with all kinds of interesting space “crafts”.
- Water rockets can be made from 2-liter soda bottles or you can buy the kits. Either way, they are a lot of fun and educational too.
- Alien Hunt – This is a counselor hunt where the counselors hide and the campers try to find them, earning their team or unit valuable points. Have the counselors dress up as aliens and send the Space Frontiers (campers) in search of the aliens that have specific intel on this new planet.
- Star gazing – need I say more?
- Have campers dress their counselors up like aliens from a distant galaxy.
During space week we play Cosmo Dodgeball in our multi-purpose room. We turn off the lights and have a couple of DJ lights light up the room with cool effects.
We also do a treasure hunt for moon rocks. Actually, it’s more like an Easter egg hunt. We take rocks and color them bright neon colors with spray paint.
Our themed space meal is popular with the campers. We put those glowing stars on the ceiling and dim the lights enough to see them. We also made table tops out of cut acrylic for our round tables that look like planets. We had someone who could paint really well a couple of years back and he made them for us. Then we just put clear table cloths over them. For dessert we have our food distributor bring us “astronaut” ice cream. They’re just like Dippin Dots. The campers love it.
Great ideas, Don. Dodgeball is always a favorite, isn’t it. My staff love to work in a game of dodgeball anytime they can. I love the Cosmo idea, and so will they.
We put up black posterboard over the windows and hung black sheets from the ceilings. We put up glow in the dark stars and painted with glow in the dark paint. Then we turned on black lights for the ultimate in Star Gazing (We are a day camp only!)
We also went to Nasa’s web site and downloaded directions for making a rocket launcher and we made two and had the campers compete.
For the spaceships, you can put two foam plates together and tape the edges together, makes a great saucer shape. Then let the campers decorate using a variety of supplies: tin foil, slurpee lids, pom-poms and wiggly eyes (to make alien).
Thanks for the great ideas, Lori. Ever since I was a kid I have loved the glow in the dark stars.