Recreation Guy

Its been raining off and on here in Northern California so I decided to dig up some of my reference books and find some rainy day activities that I knew were good and have used in the past. Below is an excerpt from a book called Camp Program Ideas, edited and compiled by Janet Gibson, Anne Harper and Bob Hanson. This is a neat book with some fantastic ideas. Unfortunately, it’s out of print. However, it was published by San Diego State University so they may still be selling them. I don’t know, it’s a pretty old book. Anyway, this activity called “Flashcards” can be used in after school programs. The kids really enjoy it.

Equipment: About 100 4×6 or larger cards with large letters drawn on them…one Z, one X, two Ys, two Ws, five As, five Bs, etc.
The leader turns over one card at a time, while telling a little story, “On our last canoe trip we noticed many interesting animals, the first one was…At this point he turns over the first card. All of the campers try to be the first to yell out the name of an animal beginning with the letter, for example if a “B” was uncovered…Bear, beaver, bobcat, etc. The first one to be heard with the correct answer gets the card. The leader then continues, “later on that afternoon, we paddled by an island where we noticed a…,” turning over another card. The object is to see which camper or cabin can collect the most cards. An animal cannot be used more than once, if the same letter turns up again, After a while, the leader changes the category to perhaps birds, fish, trees or flowers. The activity works best with 15-40 campers.

Credit: Camp Kooch-I-Ching
International Falls, Minn.

Even thought the above game was written as a camp game, using it for an after school rainy day activity would work great.