When going camping with kids, games should always be a part of your trip to make the whole camping activity more fun and exciting! The whole camp is going to be bustling with activities and there a few more camping games for kids. They are great icebreakers at night when most grownups are already tired but the children are still brimming with energy.
Aside from letting the kids help in preparing food for dinner, which is one of the ways kids can participate and enjoy the camp, here is a short list of the seven most popular camping game for kids that will help them to use up all their excess energy and tire them out before bedtime.
1.) The Guessing Game – In this game, somebody will describe a thing, person or whatever he wanted others to guess. You have to set some categories for this game. For example, anything that can be found on the campground, stuff you brought on the campsite, or even the kids’ favorite Cartoon characters. Anything under the sun as long as it is within the bound of knowledge of the kids.
2.) Sing and Dance Time – It’s quite common that there’ll be singing around the campfire and to double the fun, show off some of those groovy dancing steps too. There are no rules just freestyle. It will make kids feel carefree about themselves. Don’t forget to give rewards to those who actively participated and make sure no one is left out.
3.) Let’s Make A Story Game – In this game, all campers will make a whole story. Everybody should participate. You may start with a sentence like that of children’s story books, this way, kids can easily let their imagination take over. After that great start, kid campers can now start contributing one sentence at a time to make the whole story. There should be also one person, preferably an adult, assigned to write down all the kids’ contributions. After everyone has thrown in their pieces, the writer will then read the whole story. You’ll be quite surprised how much of a good story it turned out to be.
4.) Artist, Model and Clay – There are three players are required each round. That is, one to be the Artist, another the Model, and another the Clay. The Artist is blindfolded and the Model strikes a pose or puts his body in an unusual shape or position. Then the Artist feel what the position of the Model is and make the Clay do the same position. So here comes the fun part, the Artist will “mold” the Clay into the same shape as that of the Model. Once the molding is done, the Artist can now remove his blindfold and check what he has done. Everyone can change and take turns on each role. Give a time limit too, so that the kids will move faster with the molding.
5.) Make Shapes Game – This game resembles that of the Shadow Puppet, but here kids will have to work using their hands. Keep a flashlight handy when playing this game to make sure that you will be able to produce shadow shapes. You can use a tent wall to project the shadows. Lead the kids in making shapes of animals, for example is a rabbit as it is one of the easiest to make.
6.) Number Off – This game requires an area that will allow all the kids to do a little bit of running. The game master will call out a number (that depends on the size of the campers), and whatever that number is will be the size of the group that the kids will have to group themselves. And those who were left out and were not able to group themselves in the number of group required will be out of the game. The game master usually use the line “Group yourselves into…”.
7.) Star and Cloud Gazing – This activity may be used to cool down everyone, that is, when it’s almost time to go to sleep. Make the kids lie down on the ground in their sleeping bags. Make them look up to the sky and see what shapes stars and clouds can make. This is another game which tickles the children’s imaginations.
To give kids a fun camping experience, especially if it’s your first time taking them out on a camping trip, be ready with several camping games for kids. A great start on camping will make them love it as well as other outdoor activities! Don’t put too much pressure on competition and the prizes, just let the kids have fun, it’s what these games, and camping, is all about after all.