This Week was Magical!
Another magical week of camp has ended! This week’s theme was mishpacha, or family. We are so lucky to have a wonderful camp family that has grown this summer with long time staff members and campers being inviting and welcoming to new counselors and families. Over the years, my fellow camp staff have become like family, spending meals and life events together, even beyond the camp season. It has been hard this year since we can’t see each other as much, or in the same ways. We are staying safe, but it has taken a toll on our “family” dynamic. However, these past few weeks have been wonderful since we are able to chat more often, and we have the technology to be silly and social.
Some activities that we did this week at camp included cooking egg cups, making lion masks, drawing crayon resistance art, creating lava lamps and exploding “volcanos,” and building instruments. And we continued with a lot of dance parties, virtual Pictionary, charades, mad libs, and music. Camp in a Box had some awesome activities like tradition Japanese tie dye with turmeric, air dry clay, and making our own bouncy balls.
We learned that the shaving cream sneak was Danielle, the last Camp Director. She became the shaving cream sneak because she wanted to participate in the shaving cream fight. Answering phones was not her favorite thing to be doing while everyone was outside having fun. Who knows what will happen, hopefully there is a happy ending?
On Wednesday, Michael the magician put on a Zoom show just for us, Camp Rodef Shalom. He used audience participation and proved to us that magic shows can be just as good virtually. Although we didn’t see any real rabbits (he was allergic, ha!) we saw some awesome card tricks, hat illusions, and weird magic with floss. Maybe he inspired some campers to perform magic next week at the all camp talent show!
For Shabbat we tried something new, maybe even the first of its kind. We did a Kahoot! Service and played a game while we worshiped together. It was a great way for everyone to interact, especially with a larger group. We learned that most of our campers like their challah with honey, enjoying camping outdoors, and have had many traditions passed through their families over generations.
I can’t believe we are about to go into the last week of camp! We plan on having a lot of activities to recognize the end of our summer and celebrate being able to do a virtual option for this summer.
