How do you keep kids entertained and active while maintaining social distance you ask? Our experienced curriculum team came up with a long list of fun, exciting, challenging ideas for summer camp activities while social distancing that everyone loves. You can thank us later.

From sports games to crafts, themed days, STEM projects, and more, here is a list of 7 programming activities that allow social distancing and a ton of fun. 

1. Play human foosball with offensive and defensive player zones. Use floor tape or cones to designate zones, limiting equipment sharing and physical contact between campers. 
2. Kick instead of throw. Modify sports games like kickball or dodgeball that require balls to be thrown to be kicked instead. This limits hands touching equipment. 
3. Teach specific sport skills and create individual challenges for campers to practice performing, just like the NBA Skills Challenge! Pick your sport, teach and demonstrate a few different skills, then put them all together in one motion before the big challenge. This limits contact, equipment sharing and encourages skill building. 
4. Themed days at camp are the perfect opportunity to build team spirit, promote inclusivity and foster friendships that will outlast camp. Wacky hats, silly socks, team jerseys and superheroes are a great place to start. 
5. We call it ‘Camps Got Talent.’ Host your own talent show! This gets the camper’s creativity flowing and allows them to work together to achieve a goal. Start with group creation, practice, stage and prop build, then showtime!
6. Let’s have a Building Bonanza. Working in their group cohort, campers will use various materials to create and build their own projects from scratch. Throughout the week groups can create blueprints and collect materials to use for their project. This fosters creativity, resourcefulness, teamwork and completion! 
7. Be Free and Do Like Me. This twist on a classic dance party and Simon Says is the perfect way to get everyone engaged and moving. Campers will spread out in their own space then imitate the different movements your coach does. Put on some music to grab everyone’s attention – we recommend this playlist. 

As we close out the summer and transition back to school, we want to recognize the incredible memories we’ve made and positive experiences we’ve had by reuniting through summer camp. To our 2020 camp families,  thank you for trusting us. We’ve had a blast.

“We are so happy that we decided to brave the COVID summer of 2020 and send our three children to Kids in the Game camp. The staff is vigilant about keeping the children and counselors properly socially distanced and masked. Despite these atypical camp procedures, they are still incredibly successful and motivated at engaging the children in all the different camp activities… Kids in the Game has saved summer for our family.”

— 2020 Camp Parent

The day has finally arrived. Your lunch box is packed full. Your outfit is ready. Your sunscreen is prepped (thanks mom and dad!). Today is the day that you don’t mind that your alarm clock (do kids still use alarm clocks?) is ringing for the first time since school got out. You have excited butterflies in your stomach anticipating the new friends you will meet and the new experiences you will have. Today is the day. Today is the first day of Kids in the Game SUMMER CAMP!

By design, a day at a summer camp run by Kids in the Game looks a little bit different everyday of the week. The general structure, of course, has consistency and fluidity to ensure that our campers and counselors alike know the general routine of camp. However, we want our campers to wake up every morning with the same excitement they feel on day one of camp as they do on day 27 of camp. To insure this we have made it a priority to put detailed thought into activities, themes, projects, and field-trips.

Here is what a one day at KING Summer Camp looks like:

8:00-9:00 Early dropoff begins with main camp festivities beginning at 9am. The most prepared camper will come with a refillable water bottle, a lunch with extra snacks for throughout the day and a ready-to-go attitude!

9:00-9:15- Camp Rally! This an important time of the day to welcome all the kids and give them a run down of what the day will look like.

9:15-10:30- First sports/movement activity of the day. This section could be tennis, basketball, soccer, baseball… you name it we probably do it. We keep our instructional blocks to small groups so our campers will have fun but also learn the fundamentals of that day’s sport. Our staff includes sport specialists that have the highest knowledge in their particular sport.

10:30-10:45- Snack time! With our campers being active for most of the day, it is key to stay hydrated (water bottles are a MUST!) and fueled up on snacks. We will have a snack shop full of nutritious snacks if you want to send your camper with a couple extra bucks or pack some extras into their lunch box.

10:45-11:45- Each of our camps is located next to a beautiful outdoor park. We get special permits at each location to use these parks to their fullest extent. At this time during the day, we will be playing special, larger grouped activities. These activities will be geared towards the weekly theme.

11:45-12:30- For this time frame, we will split the groups into a couple different stations. This could be arts and crafts, a STEM project, or a specialized movement group. We have specialists working with each of these groups and again the activities will directly correlate to the weekly theme. Let’s think about through the decades theme for a second… the kids will travel back in time and learn different dance movements (sock hop, the twist, etc) and explore decade-old, classic craft activities (flower crowns, pet rocks, making play-dough etc). Our activities in these sections are design to cater to specific age groups, so every camper will get the most out their camp experience.

12:30-1:00 – Lunch! Time to sit back, relax and refuel. All our campsites have refrigerators to store lunches from home.

1:00-1:30 – Camps days are go-go-go so it is important to have a little downtime. Our youngest campers might use this time to nap, older kids to read a book or work with a counselor on some academic work.

1:30-2:30- If you were in the arts group in the morning then it is your time to do STEM or creative movement and vice versa. No need to fret, all campers will get to participate in all planned activities.

2:30-3:30- This will be our second stop for a large group activity. This activity will be different than the morning, but no less fun! We have 100+ games in our pockets, so we promise no kid will get bored playing the same thing over and over again.

3:30-4:00- End of day rally with a special treat to boot! Don’t fret that the day has come to an end. There is always tomorrow for more camp adventures. The best questions we get asked at the end of the day are the “what are we doing tomorrow….Can we do this tomorrow?” type of questions. And we can confidently answer… tomorrow will bring new adventures, new friends and new experiences.

4:30-6:00- For those needing a little extra time to come pick up your camper we do offer extended after care from 4:30-6. This is an additional $15 per day and can be added at an at-need basis.

A couple of extra notes: Like we said, we like to keep everyday a little bit different and this schedule will change here and there to accommodate special trips, activities and projects.

Wednesdays will always be our field trip days. Whether you are a Mets fan or a Yankees fan, don’t worry, we got you covered and go to a game of each. We will also be going to Luna park, museums, and a Liberty basketball game.

This year we are also offering swim lessons. Lessons are an additional $45 per week for a 40-minute lesson. Highly trained swim specific instructors teach our lessons.
Already know how to swim? No problem, we take the 1st grade and up campers to the pool for open swim once a week as well!

We truly believe that communication is key to our success. Camp families will receive weekly communication on how camp is going, what to expect and if there is any special items that your camper need to bring (i.e. White t-shirt for tye-dye, swim suit for lessons, wear your camp t-shirt for field trip etc…)

For more detailed information on our summer camps please visit https://www.kidsinthegame.com/summer-camps/ and let’s all get pumped for the BEST SUMMER EVER WITH KING!