What are the first steps in planning to host a camp?
1. Location: Where are you going to host camp? In your basement? At a school? In your church hall? The location will determine the number of kiddos you can accommodate. We just did a science camp in our basement with nine kiddos ages six-ten. We had extra teens and adults. Our basement space is about 1000 square feet. Twelve kiddos would be about the maximum. (Our Co-op classes might have 14-15 teens. But camp and younger kiddos are more active.)
2. Theme: Pick a theme. It is so much easier to create a camp when you have a theme. Is it more educational? Creative? Bookish? Here are some Science Camp themes: Maker space, Chemistry, Anatomy Academy, Weather, Earth, Forensics, Coding, Forestry or Nature, Water, etc.
3. Enlist help around your theme. For example, if you are doing Forensics or Anatomy, contact the police, local nurse, and Rescue Squad for volunteers. Could they bring an ambulance and do a demo? Could the nurse teach kids how to take pulse and blood pressure? Try to schedule different volunteers for different days.
4. Select activities which go along with your theme. Anatomy could include mini first aid kits, paper skeletons, brain hats, spine, skin, and eyeball models. Print out Human Body bingo, too. Have a themed bingo available. It is a good tool to calm down at the end of the morning.
5. Plan a themed snack. We made edible aquifers and moon phase snacks. Have a few little trinkets: tiny skeletons, nature stickers or tattoos, syringe pens, and magnifying glasses are all big hits for kiddos.
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