5 Fun Valentine's Day Camp Activities
Valentine’s Day is upon us! We’ve put together a list of 5 fun Valentine’s Day activities you can use at your camp or church.
1) Valentine’s Day Cards Valentine's cards are a staple of the holiday. But this year, instead of having your campers make cards for each other, give them a person to make a card for that isn’t in your group. This might be a staff member, a member of the local church, or a senior at a local facility. Jazz it up by giving some fun supplies for campers to make the cards with, such as glitter, beads, or whatever extra supplies you have lying around. Go beyond the standard “markers and construction paper” cards if you can. 2) Who Loves Ya? This getting to know you game is fun and uses a love theme. Arrange the chairs in a circle. The player who is “it” stands in the center of the circle, and the other kids sit in the chairs facing center. “It” approaches one of the seated children and says, “Who do you love?” The player who is approached must come up with an answer, such as “I love everyone wearing pink” or “I love everyone who has a dog,” and then anyone wearing pink or who has a pet dog must stand up and scramble to find a new seat. Players cannot shift to the seat next to them, should it become vacant. They must move at least two chairs away from their original spot. In the meantime, “it” should try to sit down in one of the vacant chairs. Once everyone finds a spot, the one player left standing becomes the new “it” and must then approach a seated player and ask, “Who do you love?” Keep playing until everyone has a turn. 3) Valentine’s Cookies Decorating heart-shaped cookies is a fun Valentine’s Day tradition. Have the campers decorate the cookies with sprinkles, icing, and sugar. If you have a preschool program, have the older campers decorate a cookie for themselves and one for a younger camper as well, or for staff members. Encourage campers to think about love not just as something that’s for them—Jesus came to bring the message of God’s love to everyone.
4) Heart To Heart In this math game, campers will try to match the outer ring of a heart (with the number) to the inner ring of the heart (that has a number of hearts). Flip all the hearts over upside down, and arrange them in a grid, like a regular matching game. On their turn, campers flip over two hearts, an inner one and an outer one. If the two hearts match in number, the camper takes the pair and assembles them, keeping them as a score. If the hearts don’t match, the camper flips them back over. Play goes to the next camper whether or not a match is made. After all the hearts have been paired, the camper with the most matches wins. This activity works well with younger campers. For older campers, reformat it with solutions on the outer ring and math problems on the inside. You can find the pattern for Heart To Heart here.
5) Tic Tac Hearts Create a tic-tac-toe board, and use little hearts as the X’s and O’s. Have campers play a normal game of tic-tac-toe. The winner of the game tells the loser one thing they love (such as a movie, a type of candy, a food, etc.) Give campers lots of ideas about what they could say they love. If there’s a tie, both campers pick a category (such as place to visit). Both campers then say something they love that fits the category. After a couple games, switch partners, so that campers play multiple people. For more great camp ideas or to get started with your own camp, visit us at www.thespot4kids.com.
