Counselor Ben tells everyone at Camp Adventure a story that takes us zooming through the trees. Plus, join us for a sing-along, joke time, and a game of Gator River!
Counselor Ben tells everyone at Camp Adventure a story that takes us zooming through the trees. Plus, join us for a sing-along, joke time, and a game of Gator River!
We’d love to feature you and your fellow campers on our next episode. Share your camp space and your new camp flag for Camp Adventure on social media using #AKBAsummer or write to us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com.
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Camp Adventure: A Kids Summer Camp Podcast
S1 E11 Flying in the Woods
[INTRODUCTION]
[bugle plays a welcome]
Ari: Welcome to Camp Adventure! Camp is in your living room. Camp is in your car on the way to the store. Camp is under your blanket fort. Camp is everywhere. And Camp Adventure is for everyone, no matter where in the world you are. And camp counselors Ben and Hannah are ready to welcome you.
It’s week number eleven at camp, and this week we’re going to hear a story that takes us zooming through the trees. And maybe even into some trees!
I’m camp counselor Ari, and I’m so glad to be here at camp with you every week. It’s a beautiful day at Camp Adventure. So, let’s say hello to our wonderful friend Counselor Ben to kick things off.
Ben: Ari, thank you and—can you believe this? Just one more week of Camp Adventure?! I’m honestly a little bummed…. Getting together like this for stories and songs and games and the mail bag—it’s all so good.
Campers—can you believe this? That it’s already week 11? We better make the most of it…. Which means that this is going to be a good week for a story about flying through the trees…. Crashing into the ground, getting scrapes and bruises… and having the police get involved—yes! We almost got in trouble…. But only “almost” because it really is a good story…. Have you ever heard of a “Zip line”? Let me see a show of hands if you’ve ever heard of a zip line… two hands up if you have ever ridden on a zip line? Uh huh… oh… Ok! I see a few hands…
Well, I’m going to tell you my story about flying through the woods pretty soon, here, but we’ve got to check in with the mail bag and see what you campers have been sending, and we’ve got to spend a little time with our wonderful Hannah before that—don’t you think?!
I think so… don’t know about you, but I think that Hannah Glavor has made this whole camp awesome. She has a big heart, and she loves all of the counselors and campers. I can hear it in her voice when she’s singing—don’t you?! … And I find myself singing the songs during the week, when she’s not even around. I love it!
So, as we prepare to sing our Camp Adventure songs together on this—the eleventh week of summer camp—please give me some clapping, and some cheering, and some THANK YOU-ing, and some good old celebrating—so we can welcome together, the great and knowledgeable, the one, the only—CAMP-ADVENTURE-MUSIC-LEADER HANNAH GLAVOR!!
[CAMP SONG]
Hannah: Oh wow thank you counselor ben - and thank YOU campers! I have loved every minute with you fancy friends!
And boy do I LOVE ziplines. I love a good bird's eye view, and what's best is you get to soar over everything like you are flying! The only thing I don’t like about ziplines is how short they last. I wish they could go on for hours!
And fun fact, Counselor Ben passed me a note this week and he took a crack at writing his own words to the camp song he titled “ZIP ZIP ZIP”… and you know, I’d like to try singing it, would you like to hear it? OK…. Herrreee goooeesss
*ehem*
When you’re flying through the woods, the whole world will seem brand new,
You will zip past squirrels and rabbits, as they run away from YOUuuuuuu…. (oh my goodness)
Just remember on week 11 that to zip, zip, zip is good,
Let’s all ride a speedy zip-line, and go flying through the woods…
That was pretty good. Excellent writing skills! You know, I think it would sound even better if Ben actually sang it himself. Hopefully we can hear him joining us as we sing nice and loud our favorite camp song….
[Sings]
Adventure
We venture
Together with courage
We learn and grow STRONG
We learn from
Each other
So lets discover and uncover
Great adventures bright and new
Hannah: That sounded great, friends! You are really getting the hang of this! And just in time to teach all your friends in the fall! I love being here at camp adventure with you all.
But for now its time where we get to hear from YOU the campers! Maybe you’ve sent an email, or a letter OR MAYBE you’ve sent a song! There’s only one way to find out… its time for (drumroll please) MAILBAG!
[MAIL BAG]
AKBA Counselor: Hi everyone! It’s Camp Counselor Matthew and I’m here with the Mail Bag. It’s where I keep all the mail we receive for our campers. Let me just unziiiiiip it here.
Oh my goodness we’ve got a stack of mail! Amazing! Stupendous! Glorious! Glor-amaz-upendous!
Looks like brothers Pablo Andres and Alejandro have been camping up a storm!
There’s smachos (that’s a term they coined for combining s’mores and nachos into a gooey, chocolatey, graham crackery treat).
There’s a brilliant, cozy, one-of-a-kind fort, for which Pablo Andres tells me “no grown-ups allowed except I let my mommy take a picture but she couldn't come in. We have a secret word and only we know it so it's just for us and stuffies. It's just for ArtHubForkids.com and reading and if they let us, I want to sleep here too.”)
AND there’s favorite words! Terrific words like outside, skateboard, margin coffee, ice cream, killer whale (also known as an orca), and Explorer Academy (a book series).
I’ve got a word for you, too. It’s a favorite word because I think it sounds so unique, but, in this case, it’s also kind of a sad word. The word is “penultimate”. Penultimate means “next to last.” And this is our penultimate episode of Camp Adventure this year.
You know that I always ask our Camp Adventure campers and families and friends to send us photos and videos and mail to listen@akidspodcastabout.com or on social media using #AKBAsummer.
Today I want to ask something a little different. If you’ve had fun at Camp Adventure, could you please share the podcast with a friend or a classmate or a teacher or a neighbor? I want to make sure they get to have fun, too. And I also think it would be a really cool connection that you both could share and talk about. Future adventures await.
I’ll be back in a minute with a game, but my friend Camp Counselor Duke wanted to share some more great jokes with you! See you soon!
[ACTIVITIES]
Duke: Howdy, campers. It’s Camp Counselor Duke.
Wondering if you’ve heard about the Australian bear that was searching for a job. He actually applied for the job, but, turns out, didn’t get it. Was turned down because he didn’t have the proper koala-fications.
[Comic Rimshot sound]
Duke: This one’s pretty good and short.
What do you call a lost caveman?
The answer is a meander-thal.
[cringes]
[Comic Rimshot sound]
Duke: What do you call a fish with no eyes?
Tick tock. Tick tock.
Time’s up.
The answer is: fshhhhhh!
[Comic Rimshot sound]
Matthew: Camp Counselor Duke! Those jokes are SO good! I was talking to some local animal friends and the grizzly said your jokes were un-bear-able! The fish said the laughs were off the scales! The wolves said “I don’t know Hoooooowwwww he comes up with them!”
Heeeeeeey Campers! It’s Camp Counselor Matthew, Games Director at Camp Adventure and today our game is Gator River! This is a game my daughter asks to play with me constantly, and if you have ever played “The Floor is Lava”, you already know the basics.
Gator River is about getting from one place to another. We usually play outside, and the “river” is our driveway. We have to cross from one shore to another without stepping a foot into the water, where all the hungry gators are waiting.
You can modify this game and play it anywhere, indoors or out, as long as you have room to stretch your legs.
In order to cross the river, you’ll need a couple of things to step on. When we’re outside we usually grab fallen branches. They work great. But you can also you paper plates, squares of cardboard, discarded paper from the recycling, or we just use some chalk to draw on the driveway (not on your kitchen floor, though).
Lay the items in a path across your river. These are now your footholds that you’ll step on in order to cross the river. At the start of the game, crossing should be easy.
But this is where things get interesting! After everyone has crossed the river, remove one item from the riverbed, leaving a gap where the item used to be. Can you still make it to the other side? Because if you fall in the water, you get gobbled up by the alligators. Fun fact: we usually pretend that an alligator is the one eating our footholds one-by-one as we try to cross the river.
You continue playing, removing one item from the riverbed each time everyone crosses the river, making it harder and harder to cross until, eventually, it’s impossible to cross. Or, of course, the alligators gobble all of you up.
These obstacle course-type games are some of my daughter’s favorites to play and adding the element of imagination always transforms the game into something so much more adventurous.
She also loves making the game harder on grownups, telling me that I can only cross in “two big steps”, or that I can only step on certain branches.
I have been gobbled up by alligators so many times I cannot even begin to tell you! But my goodness do I love crossing Gator River! I hope you and your family or friends enjoy it, too!
Bye, campers!
Ari: All right campers, after this break we’re going to hear a story from Camp Counselor Ben, and I promise, you won’t wanna miss it!
[BREAK]
Ari: Okay, we’re back, and it’s storytime! Are you excited? Me too!
So, let’s get ready for this week’s story! Before we get cozy, let’s move around like our favorite animals. Will you hop like a frog? Swim like a fish? Chase your own tail like a puppy? OK! Now, in just a sec let’s hit pause to get in this week’s perfect listening spot. 3, 2, 1 GO! Where’d you pick? This week I’m listening by a campfire—wherever you go, get comfy!
Are you ready, Counselor Ben?
[STORYTIME]
Ben: Thank you, Ari, and yes—absolutely—I am ready for storytime… at least I think I am. Earlier today, while I was walking around Camp Adventure and thinking about good stories, I wondered: “When are you really ready for a story?”
And I thought: “You know… I suppose it’s when a person is ready to listen, and to think, and to imagine.” Does that sound about right, campers? I’m ready to think and to imagine, and to listen—I really AM ready for storytime. I hope you are, too.
We begin this story back in the deep woods I told you about during Episode 8, the story of “The Peaceful Treehouse.” In that story, I told you about my friend Adam and his gramma’s land on the edge of town, where we built the most amazing treehouse—EVER. If you haven’t heard that story, do go back to episode 8 and check it out. Treehouses are always worth thinking about.
Well, while we were building our treehouse—remember, it took us four years to make it—we also needed to make other adventure rides. So—OF COURSE—we made the most thrilling rope swing possible. We even built a big launchpad that you could jump from and SOAR through the air…. It made my heart stop every time. Really scary, but really fun, too.
One day, I said to Adam—“Dude…. Look at that big oak tree. We could make a zip line from that tree!!!”
I knew it would be possible because I had made a couple of zip lines before. Or, I should say, I ATTEMPTED to make them. I always WANTED to make a zip line. A really good one, but it’s not as easy as you might think.
Remember on camp Week 1, I told you about how I moved to Tennessee, and we had peach trees and a big pecan tree in the corner of the yard?
Well, my dad gave me an old cotton rope one time. And I tried to make a zip line with it—a ZIP LINE is where you tie your rope or cable to one tree, and then tie the other end to another tree a little lower, and then you hang a wheel, or a pulley handle on it, and you can hang from that handle while the pulley/wheel rolls along the line, and WALLA—you are flying!!! Like you’re hanging in the air from a moving monkey bar!!—just ziiiping along.
Well, in Tennessee, I hung my cotton rope from the pecan tree, over the peach trees, and down to another big tree at the other side of the yard. But when I took off—my pulley only zipped about ½ way down the rope when SNAAAP!?!?! POW!?!? CRRRUNNNCH!!! My rope broke, and I fell through the air, and pounded through the peach trees, until I landed all cut up and bruised on the ground. NO FUN.
Then, when we moved back to Wisconsin, I built another one—but this time I used steel cable that would not break. The problem was that I made the line to steep and fast, and when I ziiiiped down it, I went so fast, that I slammed into the tree at the end and almost broke my arm!!! NO FUN.
But now, I had learned many zip-line lessons. Got to use a steel cable—it works best. Can’t make it too steep—that will HURT. And you’ve got to really tie the cable TIGHT.
Adam and I worked all week on our zip line. We used our tools and wrenches to make a handle with not one pulley wheel, but three!! We thought this would help the pulley roll better. And we got the cable so tight it was perfectly straight… Our zip line was complete… And it was beautiful….
“You want to go first,” I asked Adam. But he quickly said, “No WAY. You should go first.”
Since I already knew what it was like to crash a zip-line, HARD, I thought, “Why not? I’ve tightened all the bolts, and it’s as safe as I know how to make it….”
So, I climbed out onto the wooden platform. It was so high up I felt a little woozy. And then I gripped onto the handlebar… and I rolled the pulleys back and forth…. And slowly, I squatted down, lifted my legs up, and “bzzzzsssszzzzsssszzzzz” the zipping sound got louder, and faster.
Pretty soon, it was squealing aloud and I was flying through the air… Over the tops of raspberry bushes and other small trees…. Down, down, until my feet could slide over the dirt, and I slowed down, and WALLA!!! THE ZIP-LINE WAS A SUCCESS!!!
“I WANT T0 TRY!!” Adam said. And he did. And I watched him go flying through the woods, feet dangling, hands holding the handlebar TIGHT!! “WWaaaahoooooo!” he yelled out.
“I want to go again!” I said. And we traded turns, back and forth, zipping down that zip line all day long. It was thrilling, scary, but also safe and about the best flying adventure I’ve ever had.
We invited our friends over, and they took turns zipping down the zip line. And then one night, we were out past when the sun went down. Which was late—I was usually supposed to be home before sundown—but we lost track of time and were having so much fun.
Then it started to get dark. “One more time!” my friend, Laura said. And she went zipping! “I want one more ride, too” said Adam. So he went again. I was getting nervous. Darkness was settling in.
And then it happened—red lights flashing with blue lights flashing, and the sound loud car engines approaching. Two police cars came zooming up to us, and two officers came into the woods!!
“Oh no!” I thought. Were we doing something bad? Something illegal? How could making a zip-line be against the law?
The officers asked us who was in charge and what we were doing, and they didn’t really understand, so I said, “Let me show you.” I climbed back up into the oak tree one more time, and went flying through the woods, and they said, “Oohhhhhh!!! THAT’S IT!!!”
One of the neighbors had called 911, the officer said, “And they were panicking and very scared,” he said. “They told us that something strange was happening in the woods, and they said they saw people flying through the woods!! We didn’t know what to think, so we hurried over—but it is just you kids!!”
And it was… just us kids having a flying adventure through the woods… zipping along on a zip-line that, to this day, is the best zip-line I’ve ever created.
And I wonder if you’ve ever made a zip line? Probably need your grownups to help with that kind of project.
But let me ask you this: Have you ever made a balloon zip line? Uh huh… that sounds like a challenge to me…hang on for a second, and I’ll be right back with our Weekly Challenge!
[WEEKLY CAMP CHALLENGE]
Ben: Ok, campers… it is time for your weekly challenge, and this week—we are going to make zip lines for balloons; it’s really cool. First, I’ll tell you what you need for supplies—they are very simple—and then I’ll tell you how to make it.
First, you need a good balloon or two -- you should totally invite your friends, or neighbors, or brothers or sisters to play this game, too, and you can make zip-balloons with different colors of balloons. You can even decorate them however you want! So, some balloons -- Then, a straw—paper straws work good; maybe you have a plastic straw, too. Then you need scissors, some string, and some regular tape. That’s all—balloon, straw, scissors, string, and tape.
Now, tell me—what happens when you blow up a balloon and then just let it go? Yes!! It shoots out of your hand and flies around the room all crazy and squirrely.
Well, we’re going to do the same thing—but we can make the balloon fly in a perfectly straight line, like it’s on a zip-line, too!
First, find a good place where you can tie your string up from one side of the room to the other. Or between two poles or trees outside. Wherever you can hang a string from side-to side.
Then, tie up ONLY ONE SIDE of the string.
Then, cut your straw so that it is only 2-3 inches long—pretty short.
Then, you have to tape your straw to the side (not the Top) of the balloon.
Then, pull the string through you straw, and tie up the other end, so that when it is ties, you have a straight string hanging like a clothesline—nice and straight and tight.
Now, you should have the balloon dangling from the straw that is hanging on the string tied up on both ends. If that’s what you have, you’re ready for the final step. Fill the balloon with as much air as you can without making it pop—AND—LET IT GO!!!
It should blast air out of the one end and go SHOOTING across the room, sliding on the string, just like a sweet zip-line!
Friends—if you are able to complete this challenge, YES—I’d love to see a picture of your balloon zip line. BUT, this would be a perfect time to record a video clip, too, if you can get your grownups to help you.
Whatever you end up doing, remember to not worry about it, and to not hurry about it—just have fun with the weekly challenge, and send your pics and videos to Camp Adventure.
Here’s Ari, once more, to help you remember just how to do that.
OK—sound good? It sounds good to me, and I cannot wait to hang out with you next week—for our last week of camp—Week 12!!
[CLOSING]
Ari: Thanks, Ben! And thank you, campers for joining us at Camp Adventure this week. We’d love to feature you and your fellow campers on our next episode. Share your camp space and all your weekly camp challenge creations on social media using #AKBAsummer or write to us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com.
Camp Adventure is written by Ben Tertin with help from the A Kids Podcast About team. Original music is by Hannah Glavor. Check out Hannah’s albums at https://hannahglavor.bandcamp.com.
The show is edited and produced by me, Ari Mathae, with help from 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.
Listen to 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 Adventure next week.