Welcome to Camp Adventure! Today, we are learning what it means to experience wonder. We will also hear a fun joke, express our feelings through art, and more with our fellow campers.
Welcome to Camp Adventure! Today, we are learning what it means to experience wonder. We will also hear a fun joke, express our feelings through art, and more with our fellow campers.
* 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 E07 Experiencing Wonder
[INTRODUCTION]
[bugle plays a welcome]
Louis: Well, hello there. My name is Counselor Louis and welcome to Camp Adventure. The camp in your bedroom or living room, the camp that's in the bus or in the car. Camp Adventure’s for you, no matter who you are.
This week's theme is “Experiencing Wonder”.
So I wanna pass it over to counselor Ben so you can hear more about experiencing wonder.
[WELCOME]
Ben: Louis, thank you so much.
Yes, it is great to be here with you this morning with all of the campers. We're checking in. We're waking up.
Campers, how are you doing? How are things going in your neck of the woods?
My name is Counselor Ben and it is wonderful to be with you for another day at camp. I love camp. I love being outside and I love to wonder. I don't... I don't doubt that. That's true for you as well. You ever wonder about stuff? Wonder how things work. Wonder how things get made. Maybe wonder about why things are the way they are. There's a lot of things to wonder about in this world there's no doubt about that. So we'll be thinking about that today.
You know, you could, you could be walking down the street and see a pine cone or a leaf, and you just say, “Ah, it's a pine cone. That's just a leaf who cares?”
You pick up that leaf and look at it really carefully and look at all the different veins in it. And wonder how did this leaf grow and how does it turn different colors in different times of the year? How do leaves help trees? There's a lot to wonder about just from a dry old leaf on the ground that fell from a tree, isn't there.
There's a lot to wonder about. So we're gonna talk about experiencing wonder today. And one thing that I always wonder about is how great musicians are able to do music. That is not something that I'm very good at. I'm sure that some of you campers are very good at music and practicing. I'd love to hear some of it. Maybe you could send in recordings of the music that you're playing at home.
Anyway, we're, we're, we're at that place now where we've gotta do some singing together and we're gonna pass it off to our Counselor Aimee who has done such a beautiful job leading us in these songs.
Aimee please take it away.
[SINGALONG]
Aimee: Hello campers. It's Counselor Aimee.
It's so great to be together again today. Counselor Ben, thanks so much!
Today we're gonna be singing a song about the bay. Have you ever been down by the bay? Do you know what a bay is? A bay is an area of water by some land, and usually it leads to an ocean.
So today we're gonna go down by the bay where the watermelons grow.
Now, this is an echo song, if you wanna repeat right after me, when I sing the phrases and it's a rhyming song, so let's get started. And look for those watermelons and some silly animals down by the bay.
Down by the bay where the watermelons grow
Back to my home. I dare not go
For if I do, my mama will say
Did you ever see a goose kissing a moose?
Down by the bay
Did you ever see a whale with a polka-dotted tail?
Did you ever see a fly wearing a tie?
Did you ever see a bear combing his hair?
Did you ever see a llama wearing pajamas?
Did you ever have a time when you couldn’t make a rhyme?
That was so much fun. Campers. Thanks for joining me down by the bay today. And now we're gonna hear from Counselor Louis. See you next time!
Louis: That was absolutely wonderful, Counselor Aimee. But before we move on everyone, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.
[BREAK]
Louis: Welcome back.
I hope you are feeling great after that break.
Next up, we have Camp Counselor Duke and he's got some jokes for you, so I hope you're ready to laugh.
Take it away, Counselor Duke.
[COUNSELOR SEGMENTS]
Duke: Oh, hey there, campers.
It's Camp Counselor Duke. Uh… you kinda caught me at a bad time.
I'm trying to remember this joke I had about a boomerang, but, uh, uh, it'll come back to me.
[rim shot] [boomerang]
Gabby: Hey campers. It's your friend Camp Counselor Gabby, back again for some more fun facts.
Have you learned anything new since we last talked?
Have you shared the fun facts we've already learned with anyone?
In case you've forgotten any of our fun facts, let's do a quick roundup of all the things we've learned.
First, we learned that there are about 1,400 different species of bats in the world.
Then we found out that a group of zebras is called a zeal.
And last time we went to space and learned that Jupiter has a big red spot on it. Now that fact was out of this world.
See what I did there?
But without further ado, I have today's fun fact for you.
Unfortunately, today we are not going to space. Our fun fact is a little closer to home. In fact, it's about you.
My question for you today is: Which parts of your body continue to grow throughout your entire life?
Is it A) your head and feet B) your legs and arms C) your ears and nose, or D) your fingers and toes?
There were a lot of answers there. So I'm gonna ask the question one more time.
My question for you today is: which parts of your body continue to grow throughout your entire life?
Is it A) your head and feet B) your legs and arms C) your ears and nose, or D) your fingers and toes?
Like always, 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 answer.
Okay, are you ready for the answer? Drum roll, please.
The answer is C!
The parts of your body that continue to grow throughout your entire life are your ears and nose. That means that even after you've stopped getting taller, your ears and nose will continue to grow.
But don't panic, they don't double in size overnight. They grow very slowly over time. In fact, you probably won't even notice.
But wow, could you imagine if your arms and legs never stopped growing, we'd all be super tall and could always reach the top shelf. Wouldn't that be nice.
Well, that's all I have for you today. You'll hear from me again real soon with even more fun facts. Until then keep learning and growing that mind of yours.
And I guess keep growing your ears and nose too while you're at it.
Bye campers!
Emma: Hey campers. It's Camp Counselor Emma here, back again for a mindful moment.
I hope you've been enjoying our time together this summer. I know I definitely have.
I'm really excited about our exercise today because it involves one of my favorite things to do. Rain or shine summer or winter, no matter what time of the year it is: coloring.
Do you like to color too? I find that no matter what it is I'm coloring, just making art in this way helps me feel calm and brings me joy. My friends and I actually spend time together almost every month just to sit and color, paint, make art and listen to music or watch movies. Doesn't that sound so fun?
So before we get started, I wanna give you time to collect some coloring materials. Crayons, colored pencils, markers, chalk, whatever you'd like to use and make sure you grab something to color on, too.
Go ahead and pause the podcast while you do that and I'll be right here when you get back.
Are we ready to go? Great.
A big part of mindfulness is acknowledging the way you feel. Some days everything feels so good. The sun is shining. You're wearing your favorite shirt. Your friend said something really nice to you, and you got to eat ice cream for every meal that day. Okay, maybe that last part didn't happen, but still sounds like a pretty good day, right?
But sometimes things don't feel so great. Some days we feel lonely, sad, angry, confused. Sometimes for a reason and sometimes just because that's how we feel.
Well, expressing your feelings, no matter what they are, is a great way to stay in the present moment with how you feel. The more you acknowledge them, the less scary and sad the bad feelings are and the more joyful and warm the good feelings feel.
So I want you to think about how you feel today. Happy, sad, excited, nervous, something totally different. However, you're feeling I want you to imagine what that feeling might look like as a shape. Is it big in square with pointy edges? Is it a small, teeny, tiny circle, just barely visible to the human eye?
Now, imagine what color that feeling is something bright and bold. Like a sunshine yellow or a strawberry red, or maybe something quiet and soft, like a gray or a light pink. Whatever the shape, whatever the color, however you feel. I want you to color it all. On paper, on the sidewalk on newspaper, whatever feels right to you.
You matter. Your feelings matter and they deserve to be seen.
And the cool thing about this exercise is that we feel different things all the time. Even in the same day, you can start fresh each time you revisit this activity, or just make a huge collage of all the things you feel this summer. Whichever you choose I would love to see the beautiful and complex and powerful art, your feelings make.
If you feel comfortable sharing, definitely send me a picture at listen@akidsco.com or post on social media using #AKCAsummer.
All right campers, that's all I have for today. As always, it's the best to be here with you.
Until next time.
Louis: Well, I don't know about you, but I think I'm gonna have to use that joke and see how my friends react.
It is Counselor Louis and I'm back. What did you think about the song and the fact? I think they were amazing, but lastly, I loved the message that counselor Emma had for us. She gave us the opportunity to explore our feelings and draw a little bit. I loved it. It was so much fun.
So next week, get ready for a campfire episode where Counselor Ben will be telling a story about when the dead return. Now I don't know about you, but that sounds a little spooky to me.
But as always, 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 #AKBAsummer 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!