Welcome back to Camp Adventure! Today we meet our new camp counselors, have a singalong, hear some bat trivia, and lots more!
Welcome back to Camp Adventure! Today we meet our new camp counselors, have a singalong, hear some bat trivia, and lost more!
* Share your camp adventures on social media using #AKCAsummer or write to us at listen@akidsco.com. We love, love, love hearing from you.
Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or wherever podcasts are found and check out other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsco.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out Ben’s book, A Kids Book About Adventure.
Camp Adventure: A Kids Summer Camp Podcast
S2 E01 All Are Welcome
[INTRODUCTION]
[bugle plays a welcome]
Louis: Hello everyone. And welcome to week one of Camp Adventure.
The camp in your bedroom or living room. The camp that's in the bus or in the car.
Camp Adventure is for everyone, no matter who you are.
And that goes in line with our theme this week “All Are Welcome”
My name is Counselor Louis, I love music, dancing and science. I love learning all about the
Earth, animals, and about different cultures and i'm so excited to be here at camp with you.
Something else I'm excited about is to introduce you to our adventuring guide, the one and only, Camp Counselor Ben.
[WELCOME]
Ben: My friends, what a great thing it is to be able to get together again for another round of Camp Adventure. I'm totally stoked.
I'm excited about the summertime always.. I think probably because ever since I was young summertime meant camping. It meant getting outside, having adventures running around, climbing trees, the whole thing.
My name is Counselor Ben and I, again, this whole time we're going to be hanging out, I get to tell stories, which is kinda my favorite thing, which some of you are already well aware of.
But yeah... How are you doing? Where are you? I know we're coming from cities, deep in the cities or sometimes on the edges of the cities or out in the country. I grew up in a little town. I know that that's a whole different way than where I live now in a big city. So I wonder how you're doing.
I wonder if things are noisy where you're at, or if they're quiet. I wonder if things are peaceful, maybe they're not so peaceful right now. That can happen. I know life has been very hard for all of us these last couple of years.
Okay. I suppose that's just going to be true at any point.
That's maybe what I love so much about Camp Adventure: it is a safe place for everybody.
That is so important to me. I love coming here for that reason and many others, but I love that everybody is welcome. I feel very much welcome here. I hope that that's the same for you and that you feel very welcomed to welcome everybody else you know.
We're built to live that way with each other: welcoming, loving, caring for each other. All that stuff is really strong. It's good adventure stuff. So I'm glad to be with you.
And I'm really glad that we work as a team of counselors here, because if we didn't, I would probably have to do the singing too, because you've got to have singing for camp, you know, you know what I mean? You got to have singing for camp. It's just part of the deal, but you don't want me to be doing the singing. Trust me. That's not a good idea.
So we have counselor Aimee, who's going to be leading us and songs. And I'm excited to have her take over next.
So Aimee, let's hand it over to you now.
[SINGALONG]
Aimee: Thanks, Counselor Ben. I am so glad we are all together for Camp Adventure.
My name is Counselor Aimee and I am super excited to sing and chant silly songs with you around the campfire today. Let’s find a steady beat somewhere on your body. You could pat your legs, your shoulders, clap, or whatever feels good for you. Remember the beat stays the same. (pat pat pat)
We are going to chant Boom Chicka Boom which is one of my favorite campfire songs from when I was a little one. Turn your listening ears on and repeat after me!
Ready campers? Repeat after me.
I said a boom chicka boom
(I said a boom chicka boom)
I said a boom chicka boom
(I said a boom chicka boom)
I said a boom chicka rocka chicka rocka chicka boom
(I said a boom chicka rocka chicka rocka chicka boom)
Oh yeah
(Oh yeah)
Alright
(Alright)
One more time
(One more time)
Underwater
REPEAT
…One more time
(One more time)
In a Baby voice
REPEAT
…One more time
(One more time)
Like an opera singer
REPEAT
…One more time
(One more time)
In a Whisper
That was awesome! Way to go, campers! Let’s givE Camper Jonah a clap. Alright. Let’s give that kid a clap! You were so great! I hope you love doing that silly chant with me. I really look forward to meeting you again soon.
Take it away, Counselor Louis!
Louis: Well hello again. It’s counselor Louis and we’re just getting started.
Let's take a quick stretch break, move around, wiggle a little, and when we come back, we’ve got a whole bunch of fun planned with other counselors.
We've got jokes, trivia questions about bats, and a mindfulness practice you can use throughout your week.
All of that after this quick break.
[BREAK]
Louis: Hello and welcome back. I hope you're feeling great after that stretch break.
Next up we have Camp Counselor Duke. He's going to get the jokes flowing and laughs going. All right, Counselor Duke. The floor is yours.
[COUNSELOR SEGMENTS]
Duke: Hellooo campers!
I am willing to guess that you’ve been waiting …mmmm… give or take a year just to hear more jokes from your friend Duke. Camp Counselor Duke. (That’s me… Camp Counselor Duke. YES)
Okay. Let’s get to it. Cuz I have a pretty good one for you. It happened to me just last week, actually.
So there I was. I stayed up all night just to see what happened to the sun after it sets.
And then… it dawned on me.
Ya’ll… it dawned on me.
Like, morning came. Like, dawn. It dawned on me. You get it?
Okay. Okay. You get it!
Ahhh… take it away Ben or Louis or whoever. Get outta here. I’ll see ya next time.
Gabby: Hey campers! I'm camp counselor, Gabby, and I'm so excited to join you all for Camp Adventure.
A little bit about me is when I'm not helping run camp, I like to design things and bake lots of yummy treats. I also love learning new things. One of the coolest parts about learning new things is getting to share those fun facts with other people.
Sometimes fun facts are shocking, sometimes they're insightful and sometimes they're just super silly. Hey, how about we learn something new right now. Okay. Are you ready for a little bit of trivia? Let's do this.
My question for you today is: about how many different species of bats do you think there are in the world?
Is it A) 75, B) 10,000, C) 1,400 or D) 820?
Okay. That was a lot. I'm going to ask you the question one more time, just in case. About how many different species of bats do you think there are in the world? Is it A) 75, B) 10,000, C) 1,400 or D) 820?
You can hit pause right now if you need a little bit more time to think. Then, come back and click play when you're ready for the.
Okay. Are you ready for the answer? Drum roll please. The answer is C there are about 1,400 different species of bats in the world. Yup. You heard that right? 1, 4, 0, 0. That is a lot of bats. There's the horseshoe bat, the free tail bat, and one called the gray headed flying fox bat. That one's a mouthful.
There's even a species called the grapefruit eating bat. Hmm. I wonder if grapefruit eating bats like mangoes? I love mangoes, but I guess that's a fun fact for another time. I have loved getting to share today's bat fact with you. Thank you for taking the time to listen in and learn something new with me.
I'll be back in a few weeks and can't wait to share more facts and trivia with you. Until then keep learning new and fun things in that wonderful mind of yours. Bye!
Emma: Hi campers! My name is camp counselor Emma and I am so excited to spend my summer at Camp Adventure with all of you.
This is actually my second year at camp. Some of you may remember doing poetry with me last summer. But if this is your first year, welcome, we are so excited to have you here. When we all hang out together this summer, I'm going to be talking to you about mindfulness.
Have you heard that word before? Say it with me. Mindfulness. Mindfulness is a kind of meditation where you focus on what you're sensing, feeling, touching, smelling, and so on without any kind of judgment or interpretation. You are simply noticing what's going on around you and within you. One thing mindfulness is really helpful for is grounding ourselves in the present moment.
I don't know about you, but my mind has a tendency to race forward into the future, or think way too much about things in the past that sometimes it can be hard to be fully present to all the things happening right now.
I thought for our first mindful practice together, since we are at camp adventure, we could ground ourselves in a moment focused on one of my favorite things to do at camp- stargaze.
Does that sound fun? Let's get all set up and then we can dive in. Before we start, find a comfortable place to either sit or lay down. And I want you to close your eyes, take a couple of deep breaths. And as I'm speaking, let your mind go where it will. Imagine you're in a wide field. It's a summer night, so there's a bit of a breeze, but it's warm and comfortable.
The field is full of tall, soft grass. Maybe you're sitting up and you feel the grass along the backs of your legs or under your feet. Maybe you're lying down and you feel the softness of the grass wrap around your whole body. And in this moment you feel relaxed and safe. Now look up, it's a clear summer night and all you see are stars.
They're sparkling, they're bright and they're creating amazing shapes across the sky. This moment feels so still. And so quiet. You're far away from the noise of the road and passing cars, and there are no other lights anywhere near you. Everything you see is illuminated by the brightness of the stars.
The breeze continues to blow softly across your face. And it rustles the grass surrounding you. The air smells fresh and you take deep breaths filling your lungs with it. What else do you notice? Are there any other smells? What do you hear? Do you feel anything else between your fingers or under your toes?
How's your heartbeat? Is it slow, rhythmic, and calm? Sit with those senses for a moment longer and really just be in this moment under the stars. Well, how did that go? If it felt really easy and peaceful, that's wonderful. If it felt really hard and like your mind kept wanting to pull you in lots of different directions, that's perfectly okay too.
Mindfulness is super tough in a world as busy as ours, but we're going to keep practicing together all summer long and I can't wait. So until next time, campers.
Louis: Oh, wow. What's up, ya’ll? It's Counselor Louis and I'm back.
I hope you enjoyed those jokes and was impressed with those cool bat facts. Did you know any of those? Cause I didn't. I hope with the mindfulness moment, you were able to feel nice and calm.
Before we go, remember the theme this week is “all are welcome”. Tune in next week for our campfire episode where counselor Ben will be sharing a Strange But True story about psychic powers called “Amazing Powers of the Mind”.
It has been super fantastic spending time with you. And before we go, here's a quick message from Counselor Matthew.
[CLOSING CREDITS]
Matthew: Thank you, Louis! And thank you campers and camp counselors for this time together!
Share your camp adventures on social media using #AKCAsummer or write to us at listen@akidsco.com. We love, love, love hearing from you.
Camp Adventure is written by Ben Tertin with help from the A Kids Podcast About team. The singalong music was performed by Aimee Winner.
The show is edited and produced by Matthew Winner.
Audio production is by Chad Michael Snavely and the team at Sound On Studios. Our executive producer is Jelani Memory. And this show was brought to you by A Kids Podcast About.
Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or wherever podcasts are found and check out other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsco.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out Ben’s book, A Kids Book About Adventure.
See you back at camp next week for another adventure!