A Day in the Life of…the Munchies and Leppies

I’m Jessica, a newbie to Camp Robin Hood. This summer I will be shadowing units, cabins, staff, and various activities, and giving you an inside look at what it’s like to spend summers at CRH. I hope you have as much fun as I’m having!

Age Group: Nursery and JK Aged
Section Heads: Jordanna (Munchies) and Daniela (Leppies)
Cabin: Munchies 2 (10 girls)
Counsellors: Ariel and Steph

As the little ones started arriving from their busses, they joined me and their counsellors at the unit picnic table to make fun masks. While we were colouring (and I was making holes for eyes, and crazy mouths), the various cabin counsellors were getting the arriving Munchies settled into their cabins and doing some last minute quick changes into bathing suits. Once everyone had arrived, we all gathered in front of the picnic tables where a few very enthusiastic counsellors started the day off with a morning song…Five Little Ducks.

Before we headed off to our first activity, we still had a little bit more free time, where some Munchies opted for a quick snack, and others played around in the grassed area. I got into a very one-sided game of soccer with a few boys, (by one-sided I mean, they passed the ball around and then tried scoring on me and a very large net…aka a goal was whenever they could get it past me and on to the gravel).

Jordanna: Munchies, waterfall
Munchies: shhhhh

I’ve seen a lot of variations of getting this age group to quiet down and pay attention. But this one was definitely one of the most effective ones, which is why I saw it successfully used a few more times throughout the day.

M2’s first activity of the day was Arts & Crafts, where we had fun writing our names and colouring on a sash. Once they were done drawing flowers and hearts (we start young!) their sashes were tied together and worn proudly for a little photo-op.

Then it was time for the first Swim of the day (which was inquired about all morning from some very eager fishes) where we met up with the rest of our Munchies friends. Despite it only being day 3 of camp, I was impressed with how quickly these little ones got their shoes and hats off and lined up at their designated animal (which coincided with their appropriate swim level). I guess it doesn’t matter how old you are, when it’s a beautiful summer day and there are FOUR pools waiting to be splashed in, you don’t waste any time.

I made my way around to the different groups where I got to see kids wearing magic goggles, swimming through tunnels, and of course, splashing, kicking and floating around with the awesome swim staff. Then came the hard part, getting the Munchies out of the pool, wrapping them tightly in their towels, heading back to the cabins and changing out of bathing suit one and into bathing suit two, and finally, lathering up a fresh layer of sunscreen. My hands have never felt so protected from the sun in my life.

Once M2 was clothed, lathered and ready to go, we headed over to the low ropes where we practiced our balancing skills on a swinging log. The novelty wore off a little quickly for them, but man do these kids know how to make their own fun! A few girls began to dig a very impressive hole, or maybe it was a tunnel? While the others made me a very elaborate birthday cake with sticks, grass and wood chips…they even included candles! (Ps. my birthday was three months ago…but a cake is a cake! So I blew out my candles and we moved on to KidsMusik).

Instruments, puppets, parachutes, oh my! KidsMusik is everything you miss about kindergarten and being a kid. We joined a group of Leppies and played some lollipop drums, sang songs with puppets that represented people we see in our neighbourhoods, AND got to play with the parachute (which was always my favourite as a kid). And it wouldn’t be a successful trip to KidsMusik if it didn’t end in a sing-a-long to…you guessed it, Frozen’s ‘Let it Go’. And let me tell you, these kids not only know every word of this song, but sang it fully in tune with the piano. I was so impressed that I had to get some audio proof. Have a listen at the bottom of the page!

All that singing had us ready for lunch, so we headed back to our unit, and with the rest of our fellow Munchies, gobbled up our lunches before those rain clouds got in our way.

Yes, that’s right, unfortunately our second swim time was canceled by the pesky rain drops, but that didn’t stop us from having fun in our cabin. We quietly listened on as Ariel read us the storybook version of Aladdin (my all-time favourite Disney movie, by the way), and waited for the all clear that we could head back outside and play. Before we headed back out though, we changed out of our unused bathing suits, back into our regular clothes and lathered up with another layer of sunscreen.

Jordanna: Munchies, waterfall
Munchies: shhhh

It was time to head to Dance! We trekked all the way to the other side of camp to get to Dance, but we arrived just a few minutes early, which meant we played a very riveting game of ‘I Spy’. There were only really two colour options, Green: grass, trees, mini-put course; and Pink: hat, shoes, shirt, shorts, hairband…you get the point. We finished off with a game of ‘Simon Says’ and then made our way into the Dance portable, where we shook our little bums.

Since it was the Munchies’ first day at dance, we played an ice breaker game where each girl got to pick their favourite dance move and then we had to remember it when we put them all together for one big dance sequence. I saw twirls, jumps, shakes and even the Egyptian. These girls are talented!

After dance, we made our way to our final activity of the day, SportBall, in the new dome. Frankly, I was impressed with how much energy these Munchies still had in them. They played Train (which is essentially a jogging warm up), Popcorn, where they had to use their teamwork skills to collect tennis balls on the loose, and finally, perfected their basketball skills, and counting skills, while shooting hoops and keeping score at our hula hoop-versions of nets.

Once SportBall was done, we headed back to our unit for a special snack (cookies with sprinkles), a final song and a recap of our favourite parts of the day from some enthusiastic Munchies.

The day didn’t end there though! We still had to pack up our bags and head over to the busses, which from afar I would describe as chaos, but when you’re in the thick of it you realize that Camp Robin Hood has bus time down pat! This is a well oiled machine, folks. And I was one exhausted newbie!