Read this first
Hi! This is your first time as full time Camp Twin Lakes staff. That’s a wonderful thing and I am so so excited that you’ve agreed to take this journey in all of its magic and complexity. I created this guide for you because I remember feeling overwhelmed during training. I know it might feel like this is just another thing that’s being thrown at you – trust me, these two weeks will be crazy in terms of information – but the good news is that this one is extremely simple and only includes things that I wish I had known. Hopefully that means it will address some of your concerns/questions/fears without being too full of information you might not necessarily need. So without further ado, here is the document I have titled “The Not Very Concise (Sorry) but Very Necessary Magical Paper That Tells You Everything I Wish I Had Known During My First Few Weeks”. Clearly I need a shorter title. But you get the idea. I never said I was good at naming documents. I can only promise that the information is better than the name. I really tried to make it short and sweet but there’s just so much I want to tell you. Now go on, you majestic antelope. You have lives to change and things to learn about.
What I Didn’t Know That I Wish I Knew Camp Vocab Fellow: At Will-A-Way, you are going to have two Program Fellows which basically means extensions of Kara, our program coordinator. If you’re getting cross-eyed, just check out the hierarchy chart. Anyway, you get the privilege and pleasure of working beside the beautiful Devon Dasher and the selfless Cameron Sizemore. You might not know who they are yet – but you will. And I promise you that you will fall in love with their beautiful hearts. They will guide you and lead you through the confusion and stress that your first few weeks will inevitably bring. You will be okay, it’s not as scary or daunting as it seems at first. They will be there for you, *cue Friends theme song*. TP Time: It’s my favorite time at camp because we debrief the day and sometimes dig a little deeper to debrief what’s going on in our lives and the world around us. It sounded like a lot of pressure to facilitate these when they first told me about them, but the truth is, they come naturally and the kids guide the discussion themselves. We call it TP time because theoretically these sessions happen in the 4 TPs we have around camp, but the location isn’t as important as the meeting itself and the bonding that these kind of sessions naturally bring. Ask any returner if you still feel nervous. Ceelo: Our camp mascot, a mischievous turtle who seems to go missing every week. (Read more about this in the Mystery night section.) Each of his 4 legs represent one of our values at camp that we try to reflect on as the week progresses. RAGA - Respect. Attitude. Growth. Acceptance. This year we’ve also added Courage to the list so now we have 5 values that we try to encourage and talk about. Camp Values/Colors/Cabins: So each of those values I just mentioned are assigned to a color. It’s not completely necessary that you know which color goes with which value, but it will help you understand the different colors around camp and why we have 4 different colors of cabins. Red = Respect. The red cabins are located close to the gym and archery. Yellow = Attitude. The yellow cabins are located across from the Center Green and next to the pool. Green = Growth. The green cabins are located close to our rock garden and the amphitheater. Blue = Acceptance. The blue cabins are located on the opposite side of the center greens that the yellow cabins are located, near arts and crafts. We also occasionally use orange cabins (although we only have 2), and when we do, I attribute our new value of courage to that color. As you can see, the values expand past just our camp mascot and they flow into one another across camp. We try to encourage pride in our color units in our campers during different times of the day with the hope that the values also get as much attention. When we are proud to be a yellow cabin, for example, we can discuss in TP time how to show off the value of having a good attitude as well. Discovery: This is one of the vocab words that was actually explained to me during training but I still felt confused because I felt like it was talked about with the belief that I already knew some things about the program. That was incorrect. I knew absolutely nothing. All I knew was that telling me I would be in charge of running a two hour program by myself with no guidelines or help was terrifying. I kept thinking how the heck am I supposed to fill two hours with lesson plans for kids I’ve never met? Take a deep breath. First of all, you are way more prepared than you think you are. It comes naturally after a week or two and during that time Devon and Cameron are more than willing to pair you with a returner or give you some advice and help. There are also resources that have been created in the office to give you some ideas for exactly how to use up two hours in a cooking discovery, for example. These resources are your best friend. Ask for them. These sessions sound scary at first – and trust me, we were all terrified the first time – but you will feel proud of yourself and you will get better at coming up with things to do. If you get completely 100% flustered, you can open up this tumblr and watch some youtube videos for some ideas for group games or time fillers. It will be okay. Mystery Night: The first time I heard this phrase I had no idea what to expect. We use the same story line every year (although that might soon change) but it changes depending on our camp’s theme. Stick with me here. For my first summer, our theme was western. So our mascot Ceelo became a Sherrif. Makes sense right? I’m not sure what next summer’s theme will be yet, but you can assume that Ceelo will become a character that fits into your theme. For our western theme, we also have a “Sherrif Bob” and a “Deputy Rick”. So…the storyline goes that Ceelo goes missing and a ransom note is left for him! Oh no! The whole camp has to band together to find him because we can’t have camp without him. Sherrif Bob comes running in during our first dinner and explains the situation and then runs out again to look for him. When dinner is over, each cabin gets a folder with instructions and a map. They then follow the map to find pioneers (this will change with your theme too) that have clues. But in order to get a clue, you have to do a task, which is usually used to help the cabin get to know each other. Think icebreakers and name games. So in one simple flow, we now have an introduction of our theme, icebreakers to get to know our cabin mates, plus costumes and exploration of camp by following the map so that you know where everything is. What a beautiful combination. As a staff member, you’re most likely going to be one of the pioneers at first. You will dress up in a costume (we love costumes at camp) and then be given an assignment for who you are and a box that has everything in it you need to give out your clues. You will love it. It is a brilliant transition into Opening Ceremony. Opening Ceremony: After we figure out who took Ceelo and we get him back, camp can officially be started. The campers will head to the amphitheater for opening ceremony, which is honestly one of my favorite things we do at camp. It’s a lesson that explains each color and why we should be proud of them, the values they represent, and the tribes and animals that they are associated with. It makes camp come alive for the kids and it is an excellent way to get into the spirit of being a giant tribe what we are here for besides just having fun. The campers also get the opportunity to create goals and this is the time that we reflect on them before the week begins. And at the end…smores. That’s always a big hit. You will be a pro at making hundreds of smores by the end of the summer, I promise. Passports/Totems: One of the first things they do is sit down and paint a piece of their camp's totem, which sits against the office walls. when you go there next time, look around. I didn't notice them at first. Each camp gets a whole totem and each cabin at the camp gets a piece to paint. It's a really cool experience to leave their mark on camp. They then get a passport from their cabin buddy which basically helps with the whole "I don't remember what I did at camp" phenomenon that seems to happen with kids when they go home. It has a place for stamps and places for them to write their goals and cabin mates' names. It's a pretty cool booklet. Evening Programs: so we always have discovery or Dan-Nu-WAW in the morning time block and 3 sessions that we run in the afternoon. After dinner, we have TP time (explained above) and evening program. This is the time for things like our dance, the talent show, or whatever the camp sets up for themselves to do. Sometimes a movie or board games. It can vary, but it's always the whole camp together and it's always a good time. There's not much to prepare you for with this one, you'll learn as you go. Everything will be explained when it's needed. Area 1 Program Areas: OA (outdoor adventure), Waterfront, Horseback/farm. I'm assuming you know these pretty well because you're about to do two weeks of training under your director. But the cool thing about area 1 stuff is you will be the expert at Will-A-Way. WAWsome: This is our version of the word awesome. We have to rep Will-A-Way (WAW). Remember kids, where there's a will-a, there's a way-a.
Camp Songs/Dances/Games
Scroll through the videos to find some video resources. There are tags/categories at the bottom of each. Click on a category to find more videos like it.