Raiders of the Lost Camp Theme Event

The different stations (6 of them) were set up to accommodate about 20 girls at a time, and we rotated through them each hour. Most units had about 10 girls.


1.The hieroglyphics treasure hunt had clues posted in a made-up hieroglyphics alphabet. The girls had to decipher the clue, and then do whatever it said to find the next clue. The youngest units (K-2) got a poster with the hieroglyphics and a key. The 3 & 4th graders got the same thing, but with the vowels missing. The oldest girls had vowels missing, plus the words were scrambled, and had to be put in the right order to read. At the end of the hunt, they found the treasure...bags of m&m's!

2.The Volcano station had kiddy wading pools filled with damp sand. The leader first taught them about the 3 different types of volcanoes, then they had to build one of each type in their "sand box". They worked in groups on them at 4 different pools. They built them around a small paper cup, and placed buttons into the sand to represent houses. They were instructed to place the houses where they felt it would be safest during an eruption. (This is actually an important issue around here, as we live in the shadow of the Cascade mountain range...with several active volcanoes) After they were built, the leader put food coloring, baking soda & vinegar into the cup, and they watched to see if their houses made it.

3.The archeology dig was large boxes filled with little clay artifacts, which the girls had to excavate with brushes & small picks...being very careful not to disturb the precious artifact. Once it was uncovered, they had to make a sketch of it, and measure it, then re-bury it for the next group. They learned how & why real archeologists uncover items, and take notes on what they find.

4.The animal crime scene had drawings of items, separated into groups. They all had to do with a particular animal, and the girls had to decipher the clues to guess the animal. For ex: One area had pictures of tracks, a cave, claw marks on a tree, and an upset garbage can in a campground... A bear was here! Another had pictures of a town, tracks, an empty cat food dish, and a garbage can with the lid off & wrappers around it...a raccoon! We had porcupine, skunk, deer, etc.

5. The t-shirt station was called "mystery shirts". We had made a design, which had a message in hieroglyphics along with a key, and had it screen printed in black on a very dark green shirt. You could barely see it at all. Each girl came up and laid her shirt on a tarp, wrinkled or twisted it up however she wanted, then the PA's sprayed it with bleach. After it sat & faded a few seconds, we dunked them in buckets of cold water & hung them to dry. We made sure they got enough bleach around the design area to make the words show up. They looked like tie-dye when finished. Most bleached areas turned to shades of light green & tan...kind of a camouflage effect.

6. Craft Station. We had posters showing cave drawings, drawings from inside the pyramids, and mosaic tile art. The girls did cave or pyramid paintings on paper, telling a story about themselves, then did a mosaic using small squares of colored paper, and then made a small paper pyramid and coated it with glue & sand. We also had an ongoing time-filler...since some groups will go through stations faster than others. We gave each group a big shopping bag of craft supplies and they had to invent a craft with what they had. It was filled with odds & ends of stuff from years of day camp, etc.  There were beads, google eyes, bits of felt, chenille, sequins, buttons, clothespins, craft sticks, etc. You name it, and it was in there! The only requirement was that they could not return the supplies...we wanted to clean out the camp cupboards! LOL!