Making everyday at summer camp special

Last fall I received a great email from a listener.  Ange wanted to ask us about ways to organize summer camp programs and activities.

In this episode (joined by Ange!) we talked about ways to set expectations and be able to pass on the “lesson plans” at each activity area.

Here’s Ange’s original email:

Hi Travis,

Thank you for all the work you do with CampHacker! I love listening to the podcast and reading your blog.  I have a question I'd love to pose to the CampHacker world:

Do you provide your staff with written material to run an activity? Do you use written lesson plan? Do staff write their own lesson plans?

Currently I provide staff with what I call 'Activity Guides', which provide them with a general structure of the activity for each day, must have content, and flexibility for the staff to mold it to their own teaching style.  We encourage our staff to take ownership and be flexible with their activities, so we provide them time during staff training to plan their activities based off the provided guides.  The two main challenges from this summer for our staff were time management and actually using their Activity Guide.  I would love to hear what other camps provide their staff with in regards to lesson plans.

Thank you and Happy Trails!

If you have questions please email them to travis@socialcatalyst.ca - I’m happy to focus on the topics that you need the most!

Ange was kind enough to give us a sample of her program - download it here. 

What do you do to help your staff plan amazing summer camp programs?

Tool of the Week – Make yourself a better Camp Director

Travis: Visual Teams book by David Sibbet
Joe: - https://www.cloudkafe.com/home - Bring the cloud under control
Laura: Creativity in Play Podcast http://www.blogtalkradio.com/creativityinplay
Ruby: Google+ Hangout!
Ange: Training Terrific Staff by Michael Brandwein

Your Hosts:

• Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.org
• Joe Richards, Executive Director - Pearce Williams Christian Centre
• Ange Atkinson, Program Director atCamp Lantern Creek 
• Ruby Comption, Summer Camp Program Director - Green River Preserve
  
• Laura Kriegel, Camping Coast To Coast

Thanks for the evening, friends.