Reading to campers

[runrachrunn]

For those of you who sleep in the bunks/cabins with the kids, do you read to them at night? I can distinctly remember my counsellors reading to us when I was a kid. If so, do you read a different short story everynight or do you start a chapter book and try and get through it by the end of the session?

What books/stories have you read to the kids that they enjoyed?

[Melk]

when I really need the kids to go to bed I will read the most un exciting book ever..... it puts them to sleep like that!

but if not I read Dr. Susse, where the sidewalk ends, last summer one of the male counsleors read his cabin the lion the witch and the wardrobe. This summer I want to try the Giver.... such a good book

[runrachrunn]

Mel, I love "the giver". It's definetly one of my favs. I actually like all of Lois Lowry's books.

I will see if I can steal my sister's "The Best of dr. seuss" book that I gave her for her high school graduation.

When you say "boring book", what do you read them? I'm thinking like politics textbook or something?

[Melk]

ha ha I read the book CAMP to them... I thought it was interesting.... it put them to sleep.

[runrachrunn]

Camp by Michael Eisner? I read it - I thought it was an excellent book

Also, do any of you know of any good counsellor/camping guides for staff? I think I want to buy one before I go up north for the summer.

[camper]

i'm about to start camp by michael eisner! i'm glad you guys liked it now i'm even more excited...my cousin just had to read the giver for school and i read it a little bit with her, some of it was creepy to me but i liked it for the most part. i remember being read to as a camper too...but i don't really remember what anyone read! if i end up having the younger kids this summer, i'll need some suggestions too.

[Melk]

I thought so too... but it put my 11- 12 year olds to sleep

I did a search for books and I found some.... I dont know if they are good or not though:

Camp is for the camper by kathleen henchey and connie coutellier
Camp Counseling: leadership and programming for the organized camp by joel meier and A Viola Mitchell
Dynamite Counselors Don't Explode by Michael Pastore
What Do I Do Now?: Challenges and Choices for Camp Counselors and Other Youth Leaders by Doug Magnuson, Connie Magnuson, David E. Beker, Jerome Beker

thoes are just a few.... im sure if you google searched you would be able to find stuff.

[runrachrunn]

when I was a camper, the staff used to choose different parts of Chicken soup for the soul. Now they have chicken soup for the kids/teens soul.. Maybe that will work.

[Melk]

I use chicken soup all the time too. They also come in handy when kids have nothing to do and dont want to sleep during rest hour and on sleep in days when kids wake up early. I just put them on the ground and tell them they can read them during rest hour/when they wake up, as long as they are quiet.

[KiwiCRB]

I read to the kids when I have the youngest ones. Just general kids books like "When you give a moose a muffin" and Dr. Suess stuff. They like it and they also like to be given a choice between several a lot.

[rockinsmiles]

Reading to the campers wouldn't really work with the way the cabins are designed at my camp. Because there are 2 sides to the cabin and an upstairs it would be a bit difficult. However, we do tell stories sometimes before bed. I've been taking a mythology class and am thinking of using some of the stories from there for this summer.

[audur]

I usually don't read to my campers, although I try to do it at least once a session if I have younger kids. Most of the time I sing to my campers before bed, but I like to read to them at least once because I bring an Icelandic book (translated to English) with me to read to them.

[who_stole_my_loofa]

I was about to say chicken soup but someone else already said it. I would go with chicken soup for the teenagers soul or the preteens soul- they are pretty camp appropriate!

[campnerd99]

Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul is good too, if you happen to work at a camp where christianity is part of the the program. A few times we would read a story from the book and then discuss it the next morning in C.E. or during Morning Watch.

[speedx5xracer]

I dont read to them but i usually tell a story/joke once in a while i may read them a part of a book but usually i retell olld camp stories that i heard when i was a little kid

[collissimon]

I read to the younger ones, and as I'm acting Unit Leader during orientation, I'm going to be insisting other bunks read to their kids, I think it's such an important part of bedtime. If they're not comfortable with reading, I'm bringing a couple of tapes.

I read Roald Dahl George's Marvellous Medicine; The Witches; Fantastic Mr Fox; The BFG and the Twits. I'm especially excited about the Twits, because Mr Twit has a new voice this year!

I'm also going to try out Horrid Henry books and Super Fudge...

[collissimon]

Smiles, you have an upstairs?!? That's soo cool! How does that work in terms of supervision etc?

[runrachrunn]

Colli,

If you go to Robert Munsch's website, you can download him reading his stories... I may just take my CD of stories with me to camp (I listen to it while I run :P)

[collissimon]

Thanks rach,

Who's Robert Munsch?

[tajarbud]

I didn't know either--so I typed in http://www.robertmunsch.com and went to an interesting site. He writes children's books and poetry. take a visit to the site. :D (sorry if I'm stating the obvious and you've already taken a trip to his site.:speechles )

[collissimon]

No you're not: I'm having a looksee now! I'm listening to Boo! I might be able to stick it on my MP3 Player! That would be soo cool!

[Indigo]

I have one of the oldest groups, so they're not really story-reading kids, but they actually think it's really cool sometimes. ^_^ The assistant camp director came by one night before bedtime (at their request) and read them Little Critter Goes to Camp, and they got a huge thrill out of that. We're always doing things until pretty late at night, but I plan to do things like that now and then this summer!

[Sparkes]

The Witches went over huge with my 11 year old girls.

And Munsch is a Canadian author who write awesome childrens books. "I have to go", "Murmel, murmel, murmel", "the paper bag princess" and "thomas' snowsuit" are all funny ones that I loved loved loved as a kid. Oh, and "Love you Forever" is also a greta one but its a little sad.

Defiently defiently get your hands on some Munsch is you can. Their well worth it.

[Kerrbear]

When I'm with the jr cabins, I usually read Robert Munch (I love that guy!!!). With the srs, I usually read a chapter book that they'll pick as a group in the reading room.

[Kerrbear]

OMG! I just went to the Munsch website, it's amazing!!! Oh I'm so excited now! Haha, I used to have some tapes of him reading his stories, it's incredible. When I read them I try to do the voices like he does, but he's just the star!

[collissimon]

Hey,

I thought I'd do my own little story-time, as Sparkes wondered about my British accent (plus it's a great distraction from reading boring journals!). It's just a little bit from the Twits, hope it works! It's soo sad about how excited I was to do this! :P

[KiwiCRB]

Uh, Collissimon I'm gona need you to come on speaker phone every night and read to my campers... hope that's not a problem.... your accent is way better than my Texan one!

[prettysocks]

Oh Simon... Now I can't sleep because I'm smiling at your silly accent. How about I just go ahead and blame being tired tomorrow on you. Thanks. Simon's da bomb! (Well... his accent. :P)

[Sparkes]

Oh my god Coliss!! That is freaking awesome! :) Your my new favorite UKer!
And your Mrs. Twit sounds like the guys in Monty Python when they play women.
And I love that story - I've heard it before, though not with the awesome voices!

[Melk]

boo... I cant hear it :(

[tajarbud]

:confused: ....I can't hear it either

[Kerrbear]

OMG that's AWESOME!!! I wish I had an accent! Although, people that live in Ontario and the states have said I have a bit of a French one (quebecoise I'd assume), but I don't hear it.

[Melk]

:confused: ....I can't hear it either
our computers must not love us...

[powers]

Hehe... i'm very amused by storytime. Can it be a daily event?

I need to work on my posh British accent... I sound like a farmer!

[collissimon]

Thanks! :clown:

Sparkes, I never made the link with Monty Pyton, but you're right! For the Brits, it's a little bit Kat Slater from EastEnder's as well.

I suppose that's why I love storytime: it's a total egotistical thing: it's the one time of the day when I have the kids attention ;)

powers, there's nothing wrong with sounding like a farmer! My co was from Dorset last year, and the kids loved his accent!

[powers]

but there are no farms in Nottingham!!

you have just branded yourself as an ego-tistical Kat Slater :D

[collissimon]

There must be an urban farm or two... do the stone lions on City Hall count?

I'd rather be Mr Twit, but I didn't actually do his 'new' voice... I've been toying with a new voice: Papa Lazarou from League of Gentlemen, but I couldn't do that, because I was worried it would be all shouty using my headset... plus I'm not sure if it would scare the kids too much! :eek:

[rockinsmiles]

Smiles, you have an upstairs?!? That's soo cool! How does that work in terms of supervision etc?

Well I guess it is more like a mix of a loft and an upstairs because the walls are only about 3 ft (dunno the metric measurement) tall. So people downstairs can see the people upstairs and vice versa is they are close enough to the bunks. Supervision wise one at least one staff member sleeps upstairs, which happened to be me this year!

The perks of being the upstairs counselor is you get your own sink and you have like a mini cabin up there. The not so great stuff about it is that it is hotter, smaller, and since the staff memeber doesn't have their own "room" so to speak...however if there isn't a lot of campers in the cabin and no one is upstairs you do get more privacy. Sorry if that was a bit long...I've been away for a few days and i have to catch up! :D

[Pooka]

I'm thinking of bringing my copy of Eloise McGraw's The Moorchild this summer. Great story and great messages about bullying and treating people who are different nicely-- the dedication is to all the children who have ever felt different.

Anyone ever tried reading this one? I think we could get through it, but I'm worried about my ability (or lack thereof) to do a Scottish accent.

[collissimon]

That sounds cool Pooka!

For older kids, I love Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, though it may have a couple of inappropriate bits, it's an amazing book for 'outsiders'

[AshleyJane]

Haha! I've tried reading to our kids, sometimes it's ok with the little ones, but mainly they prefer when we sing to them, which is really funny becuase I sure can't sing, but they think it's great anyway, they really like slow quite songs like Last Kiss and Cats in the Cradle and The River, things like that. It's so cute how quickly they fall asleep, even the teens.

[happy_camper]

I think reading to my campers (If i get the little ones again) is something I am going to implement in my cabin this year. I think it will work well if I tell them to close their eyes and visualize what is going on in the story. They will fall asleep while their eyes are closed, and they won't have time to be homesick.

Do you think it will work?

[Pooka]

Reading to combat homesickness? Definately! It was the only thing that worked on a tent of homesick campers I had two years ago, and my co-counselor/friend used it last night at winter camp. After seven pages, the camper was dead to the world.

[techgirl]

Do you think Harry Potter is too long or too controversial to read to them?

[Pooka]

Most of my campers have read Harry Potter before. Jeez, camp is insane during a summer when a new HP book is coming out-- kids are getting it shipped to them at camp, counselors are borrowing it off each other...

Too controversial: Maybe. If your camp is religious, you might want to clear it with your unit leader and then emphasize to the campers that it's just a story for fun.

Too long: Quite possibly. It depends how long you read each night and how long your sessions are.

Right now, I'm considering bringing Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. I know the camp library also has J. M. Barie's Peter Pan and The Wind in the Willows. What do you all think about those?

[JJ-14A]

I think reading harry potter would be too long, well at least at my camp. I would suggest picking a book from one of the campers, usually kids from the same age group like the same stuff. It work out great at my cabin cause we picked a book that was popular among all of our kids. And it was a book that neither my co or I had heard before.

[facade1138]

The wayside stories series works great for kids aged 9-12...sometimes even for older kids. We started reading it to the kids and they made us promise to finish it by the end of the week. We ended up spending a lot of our free time on closing day finishing up the book.

[Thumbelina1988]

I am thinking about reading them The Famous Five or The secret Seven as they were a favourite of mine as a child. They are exciting enough but not scary for little ones and not too long.

[Smudge]

I read my campers Dr Suess, Aesops fables and The Giving Tree , and have read them Harry Potter.

Have also read them from Chicken Soup and from a collection of inspirational stories I had collected up over the years.

Have had units were the kids would rather we sang them a slow song like Circle game or similar.

[Cat]

That Robert Munsch website is amazing!! I love hearing his stories... It almost makes me wish I was going to be a counselor this year! I think I'll still burn them to a CD and let counselors borrow them... or maybe keep them in the sick room for kids who are too sick to do anything, but are bored? really, I'll prolly just listen to them myself!! :-p