1. To easily divide campers into two teams or groups, split down the middle of the bus, so that the campers on one side of the aisle are one team, and those on the other side are the second team. But if you have all older kids sitting on one side, you might have to divide the bus in a different way so the teams will be equalized. 2. Setting up a batting order. Many of these games require campers to do certain things in a specific order. Before you start, create a bus batting order. The simplest ways to do this is to go in the order in which the campers are picked up by the bus in the morning. Before you start a game, practice the batting order once or twice by having the campers call out their names in the correct order. 3. For all games, campers MUST REMAIN SEATBELTED IN THEIR SEATS! The seatbelts must be tight! 1. Develop a bus chant or song you can perform it with your bus at an assembly 2. Sing Off: Counselor picks a common word, such as blue, sun, love, rain. Divide campers into two groups. Each group must think of as many songs as possible with the word blue, and sing at least two lines of the song. The winning group can sing the most songs. If a group sings a song that another group has already sung, they are out, so must listen carefully. Or, you can select a specific topic for each round, ex sports, candy, etc. 3. Indian Chief: 1 camper closes his/her eyes and the bus rider picks another camper to be the Chief. The Chief begins a movement, such as patting the head. All the others echo his/her movement. The chief periodically switches the movement. The camper who had his/her eyes closed opens them and has to figure out who is the chief. 4. Around the World: One camper is selected by the rider as the World Traveler. The rider then starts with the first camper on the batting list, and asks a trivia question. If the Traveler can correctly answer the question first, s/he goes up against the next camper. If any Traveler can answer all the questions before all the other campers, in turn, he or she has gone around the world and wins the game. If one of the campers on the batting list answers correctly before the Traveler, the Traveler is out and another camper is picked for that role. 5. Alphabet Dramatics: Divide the bus into two teams. The counselor picks a letter from the alphabet (ex., R ). The first camper makes up a line of dialogue that starts with the letter R. The next camper says a line starting with the next letter in the alphabet (in this case, S ). And so on. The team has to do a dramatic scene, working their way through the alphabet until they get back to the starting letter.
page 2 6. Virtual Spider Web: The first camper tells something about him/herself and then calls the name of another child. The second child tells something about him/herself and then calls the name of a third child. Continue until everyone has a turn. Variation: After the first camper calls the name of a second child, the first camper tells something about the second child. This is good once the group has gotten to know each other a bit. 7. Pick a topic such as fruit. Each camper names a fruit until someone can t name one. If you can t name it, you are out. The last person who can keep naming each category wins. Do this with other topics like boys and girls names, types of cars, camp activities, etc. Variation: First player s word has to start with A, second player s word has to start with B, etc. 8. Story Telling: First person starts a story and must tell it for a certain amount of time (30 seconds to 1 minute), then the next person picks up and continues. The faster everyone goes, the crazier the story will be. 9. Hands Up: Anyone can hold their hand up whenever they want, but cannot keep it there longer than 5 seconds. Aim of the game is to have exactly four hands up at one time. Campers can t speak to each other to coordinate their movements. 10. Concentration: Everyone hits their knees once, claps hands once, snaps right hand once, snaps left hand once. Keep going with this rhythm. A subject is chosen (food, kinds of cars, etc.) and you go around with each person naming something in that category in the rhythm of the beat. 11. Team Spelling bee. Set up a batting order (see above) Counselor chooses an ageappropriate word. The first camper says the first letter of the word, the second camper says the second letter, etc. If a camper says a wrong letter, s/he is out. When a camper correctly says the last letter of the word, the camper after him/her has to say the entire word. Then, the next camper says the word sparkle. Then the next camper is out. Continue until only one person is still in the game. Variation: set up two teams and have each team designate a speller. Ask a word of both teams. The first team to spell it correctly gets a point. Continue until each camper has a turn, then total the points. 12. Favorites: The bus rider will call on each child and ask him/her to name a favorite food, TV show, sport, camp activity, etc. If that child can t name something from that category in 3 seconds, that child is out. 13. Alphabet Game: Goal is for campers to find all the letters of the alphabet that objects in the bus start with, in alphabetical order, ex. A for aisle, B for brakes, C for counselor, D for door, etc. Each object can only be used for one letter. 14. Name Game: First person says his/her name with an adjective that describes him/herself that starts with the same letter as their first name (ex. super Sammy ). Next person adds their own name and repeats the name and adjective of the first person (ex.,
page 3 jumping John, super Sammy ) etc. Continue until the last person in the group names everyone. 15. I Packed My Bag: The first person says: I m going on a camping trip and I m going to bring... and chooses something, example socks. Then the second person says I m going on a camping trip and I m going to bring socks and... and chooses something, ex. potato chips. Then the third person says I m going on a camping trip and I m going to bring socks and potato chips and... Continue until everyone has a turn. Variation: Each item has to begin with a certain letter of the alphabet, or subsequent letters. 16. Riverbend Spirit: Pick a popular song and change the lyrics to be a spirit song for Camp Riverbend or your bus. 17. We Love Our Driver: Each camper has to think of a nice thing to say about the bus driver. Variation: Each camper has to same something nice about each other camper. 18. Slap Happy: Set up your batting order. Go down the order, with each camper slapping their seat once at their turn. Two slaps change direction, and a clap skips the next person in the batting order. If someone pauses too long or slaps at the wrong time, then they are out. Last two players in win. 19. (a variation of Slap Happy) Zip Zap: Zip --pass up the batting order, Zap -- pass down the batting order. Campers have to pass it around by either saying Zip or Zap. To make a more challenging version, campers can throw it directly across the aisle by saying Pow. After it is thrown, it must be passed with a Zip or a Zap. This game should be played at a fast pace! 20. Bird, Fish or In-Between: A counselor silently thinks of an object on the bus and notes whether it is high up ( bird ), low down ( fish ), or in-between. Then the campers will ask Is it a bird, fish or in-between? The counselor will give the correct hint and the campers will start looking for the object. When the object is guessed, the game is over. 21. Bust a Rhyme Baseball: Counselor acts as the pitcher. S/he throws out a rhyming word for the batters (campers). 1 syllable rhymes are singles, 2 syllable rhymes are doubles, etc. 22. Wind, Rain and Thunder: The counselor asks the campers to duplicate whatever s/he is doing. The counselor rubs her hands together (wind). After everyone is doing this, the leader begins slapping her thighs (rain). As the group is all slapping their thighs, the leader begins stomping her feet on the floor (thunder). Then the group follows. The leader can speed up the process. If the group is ready for a bigger challenge, they do only the movement that the person sitting on their immediate right is doing, so a motion can be passed around the circle. To finish the game, the leader indicates thunder, then rain, then wind, and then silence, until the whole group is silent.
page 4 23. Animal Alphabet Game: First player has to think of an animal that begins with the letter A. The next person has to think of an animal that begins with the last letter of the first animal. (Example: first person says ant, so second person has to think of an animal that begins with the letter T. If the second person says Tasmanian devil, the third person has to think of an animal that begins with L). Continue the pattern until a player fails to think of an animal. You can use places, fruits, vegetables, cars or any other topic. 24. Two Truths and a Lie: Campers take turns telling three statements about themselves- --two are true and one is a lie. A little imagination goes a long way in this game. Everyone tries to figure out which statements are true and which are not. 25. Choreography: Campers make up hand movements for popular songs. 26. Sing Camp Songs 27. Twenty Questions: The counselor silently picks an object in the bus. The campers can ask 20 yes/no questions to guess what it is. Make sure that each camper gets a turn to ask a question. The camper who guesses the object gets to be the leader and pick an object for the next round. 28. I Spy: One camper picks out an item on the bus and says I Spy with my little eye something (blue, heavy, metal, etc). The other campers can ask yes/no questions to try to figure out what the object is. 29. Green Glass Doors: The rule of the game is that only certain words can go through the green glass door. Example the MOON can go through but not STARS. A PUPPY can go through but not a DOG, a BOOT but not a SHOE (the trick is that words with double letters are allowed, but you want to see if the campers can figure out this rule!) 30. What Am I Holding?: The campers take turns reaching into their backpacks and touching 1 item. (without seeing it or letting others see it). They have to describe it to the group. Questions can be asked by the other members of the group. When the group guesses, it s someone else s turn to pick. 31. Human Connect Four or Tic Tac Toe: Select two campers as players, one as X and one as O. Everyone else is the board. The first player calls on a camper by name, and then that camper makes an X or an O with their hands and holds them up. The players try to get 4 in a row of their mark, either across a row, on the diagonal or in a column. You can also do this as tic tac toe (3 in a row) 32. The Vegetable Game: Each player picks a different vegetable. This is now their name. Take a minute to make sure each player knows every other player s new name. Select one player to start. That person says their own vegetable name, then calls out the name of another player, example, Carrot, Celery. Then the second name player says his own vegetable name and then calls out the name of another player,
page 5 example, Celery, Artichoke. Player 3: Artichoke, Cucumber. And so on. Encourage players to talk quickly and use silly voices this will make them struggle to contain their laughter and it is nearly impossible to laugh without showing your teeth. Variations: Pick another category, like US states, candy, TV shows, etc. for names 33. True or False: Counselor reads off certain statements. Campers hold thumbs UP if they think a statement is true and DOWN if they think it s false. Examples of statements: Is the sky blue? Does it snow in the summer? When you drop a ball does it go up? Do birds have whiskers? Do fish have scales? 34. License Plate Game: Players try to spot license plates from as many states as they can. Whoever spots the most states wins. 35. Alphabet Spotting: Find the letter A on a sign that you pass by, then a B, then a C, etc. See how long it takes to complete the whole alphabet. 36. The Question Game: Ask open-ended questions such as "If you won a million dollars, what would you do with it?" "If you could pick only one food to eat forever, what would it be?" What do you want to be when you grow up?