Today was another hot day here at Camp Taiwan. We are making sure that the campers drink lots of water, wear a hat, and put on sunscreen. It was also our first entirely rain free day, so that was nice.
It was a big day for the teens (Purple team) today. They made their trip to the beach to try out kayaking. This is one of the special events that separate Teen Camp from the Youth Camp. The water was clear and it was a beautiful day. In addition to kayaking, there was time for a bit of beach dodgeball and swimming. They managed to catch a few small crabs and make some sand castles. All in all, it was a fun morning.
The teen campers returned to camp for a late lunch around 1 pm, so they had one long activity period this afternoon, in which they got to try the Giant Ladder. This is a series of horizontal "logs" suspended from cables about 5 feet apart. They climb to the top in pairs. It is a great activity because they have to cooperate and communicate to get to the top. It is very much a team effort.
The youth campers had the following schedule today:
Red team: river tracing, climbing, and crafts
Pink and Orange teams: ecology, crafts, and climbing
Green team: Giant Swing, cooperative games, and archery
Light Blue team: Sports, archery, and cooperative games
I didn't explain cooperative games the other day. They are a series of short games that challenge the teams either all together or divided into smaller groups to complete a task. Each team counselor chooses their cooperative games to suit the age and personalities of their team's campers. Our goal is to get the campers to communicate with each other and to strategize in order to finish.
For the last activity period of the day, we played a wide game. Wide games are games that all the campers play together. Today we played Rainbow tag. Each camper is given a bandanna that they must hang from their pocket. They then have to catch the other campers by grabbing their bandana. However, they have to catch them in the sequence of the colors of the rainbow. So you never know who is trying to catch you. It is a lot of fun. Pictures from the wide game will be in a special folder called "whole-camp activities."
Tomorrow, we will begin our free choice periods. All of the campers (except Green team, who will make up climbing that they missed because of rain) have tried all of the activities. On Thursday and Friday, they will get to sign up for their favorites and do them again.
Tonight is movie night for the youth campers, and the teen campers are going to play a nighttime wide game called Bigfoot. That one is a little complicated to explain, so I will let you ask them about it when they get back.
That is all for now. Here is the link to today's photos.