Embedded Files
Piano Keys
Piano Keys
Type: Active/Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 5 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Have campers arrange their kayaks in a line side by side (not nose to tail), holding onto the boats to the right and left of them. Campers take turns (1 at a time) trying to run across all noses of water craft. Campers can run down and back and re-enter their boat, or run down and back and jump in the water! Team tries to ensure boats stay together.
Stinky Fish
Stinky Fish
Type: Active/ No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: Sponges
Instruction: To play stinky fish, give a couple of sponges out to the group and declare them to be stinky fish. Try to flick the stinky fish from your boat into another person’s boat. You do NOT want a stinky fish to land in your boat. If you throw a stinky fish into another campers boat, you get a point. Play for however long you’d like and the camper with the most points wins! Set boundaries before beginning.
Parts of the Boat Relay
Parts of the Boat Relay
Type: Restful/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Have participants break into two groups and line up away from the boats (on shore). Name a part of the boat (ex: bow, stern, hull, etc.) and the first person to touch it wins a point for their team (you don’t necessarily have to keep track of points).
Follow the leader
Follow the leader
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 2 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Tell the campers that they must copy every movement that the instructor does and follow them wherever they go. The Instructor should take the campers through a number of different paddling techniques and travel around the waterway practicing their motions. Examples of movements to have the campers copy: spin kayak in a circle using sweep strokes, moving laterally with brace or draw strokes, reverse strokes. You can even include wet exits in here if you’d like.
Variation: You can turn this into a ‘Simon Says’ game where campers have to copy the stroke that the instructor is performing every time “simon says”.
Lunch on the Water!
Lunch on the Water!
Type: Restful/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 2 or more
Supplies: 1 Throw Rope
Instruction: Make sure you find a shady spot along the shore and/or make sure all campers have reapplied sunscreen well and are wearing their hats if they have them. Have all the campers bring their lunches in their kayaks (protecting them as best they can so they don’t get wet) and instruct them raft up. In order to free their hands, have them run the throw rope through the front handle of their boat and connect all the boats.
Captain’s Coming
Captain’s Coming
Type: Active/ No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: To play captain’s coming, identify one instructor as the captain of the ship and everyone else as a shipmate. When the captain calls out a command, everyone on the ship must follow their orders. If you can’t or don’t follow orders, you will walk the plank (jump off your boat). Basic commands: Stern (touch the back of the boat), bow (touch the front of the boat), port (touch the left side), starboard (touch the right side), attention (stand and salute). Feel free to add in whatever other commands you’d like.
Wet Exits
Wet Exits
Type: Active/Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 2 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Demonstrate how to properly do a wet exit in a kayak and how to re-enter their boat with help from another camper. Share with them how these are important safety skills to learn and are incredibly useful when out on the water. Allow them to practice and spend time with each camper one-on-one helping.
Relay Race
Relay Race
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Set boundaries and split the ground up into 2 teams. Have one person start paddling from each team with a certain technique to a turnaround point and then return back to their line. When the camper on their team returns and tags the next camper in line, that camper begins paddling using a different technique than the first (determined by the instructor before the relay begins). Example: First paddlers paddle around the buoy using a traditional forward stroke, the next paddlers paddle backwards around the buoy using a reverse stroke, the 3 paddlers in line paddle around the buoy standing up in their kayak, etc.
Kayak Basketball
Kayak Basketball
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: Some sort of ball, sponge, croc, or anything else that can be thrown into a kayak.
Instruction: Use an empty kayak (or 2) and arrange a point system where every time someone shoots the ball (or other item) into the kayak, they get a point! You can break the campers up into 2 teams, or play every camper for themselves shooting into 1 kayak. Get creative and have fun!
Blindfolded Paddling
Blindfolded Paddling
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: bandanas
Instruction: Have the campers pair up and have one partner blindfold themselves. Challenge each pair to get themselves to a certain destination. You can make it more challenging on the campers by removing more abilities from the campers. Example: The blindfolded camper cannot speak. The camper who is not blindfolded can only instruct with one word instructions. Feel free to be creative and use the blindfolds/sensory deprivation techniques in other games as well.
Sinking Boat
Sinking Boat
Type: Restful/Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Share a story with the campers (instructor feel free to make up whatever story you want) about how one of the campers boats (or more) has sprung a leak. As a group, the campers need to figure out how to get the camper whose boat is sinking back to shore without being in their boat, and also get their boat back to shore without the boat touching the water. Feel free to increase the difficulty by increasing the number of boats that are ‘sinking’, removing the ability to speak from some of the campers, and/or whatever other additional challenging elements you’d like.
Sharks and Minnows
Sharks and Minnows
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 2 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: This game will allow your campers to practice their paddle strokes without really thinking about it. Create a square boundary and have the group raft up facing you. The Shark says ‘fishy fishy come out to play!’ then the minnows will attempt to paddle past you to the opposite boundary without their board being tagged. If they are tagged they become a shark. The game continues until there is only one minnow left. Instructor should start as the shark, if the group has a camper who is able to safely be the shark that can absolutely be done!
Parts of the Boat Relay
Parts of the Boat Relay
Type: Restful/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Have participants break into two groups and line up away from the boats (on shore). Name a part of the boat (ex: bow, stern, hull, etc.) and the first person to touch it wins a point for their team (you don’t necessarily have to keep track of points).
LNT Kayak Game
LNT Kayak Game
Invasive Species Tag
Invasive Species Tag
Objective:. At the end of this game campers will come away with a better understanding of invasive species and how we can best prevent the spread of invasive species in our waters.
Materials: boats, campers
Time: 20-25 min
Activity:
1. Split the group up into 2 teams.
2. One team chooses a body of water to represent (ex: Atlantic, Willamette River, etc.) and the other team picks an invasive species to represent (ex: Zebra Mussels (animal), New Zealand Mudsnails (animal), Yellow Flag Iris (aquatic plant), Hydrilla (aquatic plant)).
3. The 2 groups will separate (at least 10-15 feet between them) and give themselves enough space to start the game.
4. When the instructors say “Go!”, the two teams will engage in a game of boat tag, where if a member of one team touches the bow of their boat to the stern of a boat belonging to the other team, the person who was tagged switches sides and becomes a member of the team that tagged them.
5. In order to identify which team you are on, each team will establish a phrase, slogan, sound, etc. they yell/make so people know whose team they are on.
6. Team that gets all the boats on their side wins.
Modifications:
At any point in the game- the instructors can call out some phrase, everyone stops and has a chance to answer an LNT water related question. The boat that gets the answer correct either gets some special power (like star power in mario where the person who gets it right can tag any boat anywhere on their boat to switch them to their side for 15 seconds), or they can automatically pick someone from the other team to join their team. Feel free to come up with any other incentive as well!
Example LNT water related questions:
Where would be a good place to go to the bathroom at this paddling location?
How many feet away from a water source should we go to the bathroom? (Answer: 200ft)
If we cooked a picnic lunch, can we wash our dishes in the water here?
Can I feed the fish my leftover PB&J?
Wrap up questions:
Why are invasive species a concern?
What are ways we can prevent the spread of invasive species while boating? How about on land?
What are some things we did today already that were a part of practicing LNT on water days? (PFD talk, sharing wind considerations, cleaning up after lunch, respecting other users, etc.)
Page updated
Report abuse