3rd Round Of Summer Camps at The ROC

This week has been a busy one for me as it was my turn to lead one of our biweekly summer camps held here at the Resource Opportunities Centre. The following novel should give you a basic idea of what went on.

Camp Report
“Sports! At The ROC”
Duration: August 4-5, 2010 10:00am-3:00pm Daily
Submitted By: Brian Berry

Background Info

“Sports! At the ROC” is the third instalment of 4 biweekly summer camps held at the Resource Opportunities Centre in the summer of 2010. Advertising for this camp took place in the form of a brochure that was sent out to all the elementary schools in the area which the Resource Opportunities Centre serves. Accompanying this brochure we also advertised on our website www.prospectcommunities.com .

How It All Went Down

As the title suggests the camp was most obviously sports themed. The target audience was children ages 6-11. We were hoping for a group of six kids as we had set that number as our target number of kids. We had six kids sign up, but then two backed out at the last minute.

The First Day (Aug. 4)

The skies were angry that day and the weather was not in our favour for outdoor activities. It basically rained as hard as possible all day which kept us inside. We started off with colouring sports related pictures so the kids got to explore their artistic side. This was followed by a shoot out which went as well as could be expected. This was followed by lunch, which also went well. The rain continued to pour after lunch and we substituted the reality of outdoor sports for the fantasy world of Wii Sports Resort and Mario Kart. The kids enjoyed this. The day was ended with the sports related movie “Air Bud.”

The Second Day (Aug. 5)

The weather was better than the previous day, although it was overcast and foggy...at least it wasn’t raining. We braved the fog and went outside for some outdoor sports, consisting of Basketball and Soccer. This was followed by a spontaneous trip down to the SS Atlantic Heritage Centre. The kids enjoyed this trip and were eager to read each information podium along the boardwalk. We had lunch down at the Gazebo and then preceded leisurely back to the ROC. The kids then played a few sports tournaments on the Nintendo Wii. During this time while they were occupied we prepared the water balloons for the epic battle royal that would happen out in the baseball field across the street from the ROC. This would prove to be the climax of the day as the kids had a great time getting wet and throwing water balloons at each other and myself. (They mostly threw them at me...). We spent the last 20 minutes of the day playing a popular local game called “Grounders” in an attempt to dry off. All in all the camp was immensely enjoyed by all the participants.

Important Things to Note for Future Camps

• If you have a plan that you think will cover the entire day...it won’t. Plan twice as many activities as you think you will need because kids of that particular age group will go through your activities much faster than you yourself might.
• Movies work for a certain amount of time, but don’t assume the kids will sit through the whole thing.
• Water fights tend to work really well...but if you’re the only person of authority who is participating in the water fight then the kids will target you. (I got soaked!)
To sum up, if you can keep your campers busy with a good variety of activities then the camp should be a success.
The moral of the story...Keep them busy!

That’s all for now,


Brian Berry