Otter Campout

A campout is a little different from a regular meeting. You will have some extended time to work on activities and it's also important to give the kids time to free play. This is a general plan for a weekend campout, but you can obviously tweak it depending on what is available where you are camping.

Friday Night

• Families arrive and set up tents, everyone on their own for dinner
• Encourage Otters to help their families set up their campsites before dashing off to play with their friends

Saturday

• Flag & Morning Announcements
  • Go over general schedule
  • Review camp safety
• Breakfast
  • Otters love to help with breakfast! They can help crack eggs, cut fruit, etc.
  • This is a great time to teach Otters how to help clean up and do dishes
• Group Game
• Morning Activity Time
  • During a weekend campout, you generally have time for 2 Saturday activity blocks, or you can opt to do a longer mid-day activity like a hike. Some activities are also good multi-section activities where you can have the older sections work with the otters.
  • I always like to start off the first activity time with a review of camp safety guidelines
  • Some big hits with Otters:
    • Orienteering
    • Tide Pooling or Exploring a Creek
    • Blanket Forts (this is a great tie in to working on knots!)
    • Archery
    • Canoeing/Kayaking
    • Rockhounding
    • Hiking
• Lunch
  • Often time we will have the kids cut stuff up for lunch when they are doing the breakfast prep so all that needs to happen is laying out sandwich stuff then cleaning up.
• Afternoon Activity Time
  • This can be a continuation of the morning activity or another activity. Sometimes it's nice to keep the activities somewhat themed, either to where you are or to a type of activity. For example, if you did orienteering in the morning, you could have the kids make their own maps in the afternoon. Or if you did tidepooling in the morning, you could draw pictures of what you saw or go fly kites on the beach in the afternoon.
• Free Time
  • Free play time is important for the kids. Otters may need some down time after a busy day, or they may want to play. You can also use this time to work one on one with kids who want to do some badge work.
  • Another suggestion is to remind the kids that the campfire will be this evening and they can spend some time putting together a skit. If you have a scout MCing the campfire, they can ask people to sign up during this period.
• Flag and Evening Announcements
  • This is a good opportunity to get everyone together after free time and remind everyone what is happening for dinner prep and campfire.
• Dinner
  • Again, Otters love to help chop! They can also peel carrots or potatoes or make a fruit salad.
• Campfire
  • Otters can help carry wood for the campfire. We have a lot of otters who also love to participate in skits.
  • This is also a good opportunity to get the kids singing songs. We always end our campfire with Scout Vespers, and repeat after me songs are always huge hits.
• Night Hike
  • Campouts are a great opportunity to fit a night hike in! This may be more appropriate for older Otters depending on what time you start. Encourage the kids to keep their lights off as much as possible and let their eyes adjust. It's also really fun to try to be quiet and listen to the night sounds as much as possible. Stargazing on/after night hikes is a big hit as well.

Sunday

• Flag and Morning Announcements
• Breakfast & Lunch Prep
  • On Sunday, we send people home with sack lunches so we prepare the lunch stuff at the same time as breakfast, then have everyone make their lunches right after they eat. That way we only have to clean up once and parents can pack up the kitchen during activity time.
• Morning Activity Time
  • Generally this is a shorter block of time so that people have a chance to pack up their stuff. You can use it to review the weekend's activities and ask the Otters what they liked.
  • Ask the Otters what they did to be helpful this weekend. What are some other ways they can help at camp?
• Flag and Final Announcements
• Families Pack Up
  • Encourage Otters to Help!
• Group Sweep of Camp & Clean Up

These are the requirements we cover at nearly every camp out. Other badge requirements will depend on what activities you do.

• Camp & Hiking Safety

• Three ways to help at camp
• Be helpful at home or at camp

• Night hike
• Sing Three Songs

• 2 Nights of camping with your raft