3 kinds of games

Games was our officially unofficial theme for our juniors camp. We thought we'd prime the pump on the first day by having three different pretty compelling (hopefully) games to rotate through on the first day. At my station, I had four puzzles that I flat out stole from Gever Tulley's 'Tinker Your Way Out of This!' project he has brought to the last few Maker Faires. I'm pretty sure he doesn't mind my idea-burglary, and the kids loved them.

At station #2, Rashid challenged the kids to make 'flinkers'.... objects that neither sank nor floated... by combining different objects they scavenged from the outlying area. That was lots of fun, and a good opportunity to get a little wet and refreshed (don't know if you've heard, but it's been mighty hot in Austin, TX this summer).

At station #3, Matt took the kids out into the world for a scavenger hunt. I thought he designed a mind bogglingly cool one.... they had to read signs, get a rubbing off of a fire hydrant, and even go to Mr. MC's, the local convenience store, and write down the price of a few items. They then had to tell the guy behind the counter the secret password ( "Pumpernickel Pickle") to receive the secret clue from him. That Matt is a pretty creative dude sometimes.

The games were really fun. Later on in the week we got so involved in our other building projects that I was worried we had wasted that first day and that it didn't relate as much to the projects as I had thought it would, but then it really did end up flavoring the outcome in a wonderful way. In my humble opinion.