Welcome Junior Camp Counselors
The Fun Begins today!
What is Camp?
• Camp is a Place
– hiking trails, climbing tower, campfire, cabins
• Camp is a Program
– citizenship, appreciating nature, teamwork
• Camp is an Experience
– memories, close living, new skills, friendships
• Camp is You, the Counselor
– your attitude, your leadership, your helping
The Four Needs of Youth
•B
Belonging: Feeling a sense of
connection to others
•M
•I
Mastery: Trying and Learning new
things
Independence: Making decisions and a
chance to lead
•G
Generosity: Caring about others and
how I can help
Success of a Camping
Experience
• Begins with you as Counselor
– Ideal Camp Counselor Activity
• Draw on newsprint a picture of a Super Successful
Junior Camp Counselor….and what skills they need to
carry around in their backpack of camp skills
The 3 Rs of
Camp Counseling
Counselors have the responsibility to help
each camper to gain the most that is possible
from their camping experience….
• Roles of the Camp Counselor
– Leader, Participant, Friend, Analyzer, Cabin
Leader, Activity Helper, Resource Person,
Good Listener, Teacher, Organizer
The 3 Rs of
Camp Counseling
• Responsibilities of the Camp Counselor
– Keep Campers Safe, Keep Campers involved,
Provide Leadership, Work as a Team Member
• Relationships of the Camp Counselor
– Develop Good Relationships with Campers,
Other Counselors, Camp Directors, Camp Staff
and with Parents
A few Extras….
• Language Issue
– no profanity tolerated by Directors and Staff
– no profanity tolerated by Counselors
– How to Handle?
• You are there for the campers--make good
friends of all in your care
• Act as someone your campers will want to look up to
• You need to help each other
Success of a Camping
Experience
• Continues with understanding your Campers
– Ages & Stages for Junior Campers Activity
• Pair up and on newsprint, draw a Junior Camper and
list things you know about them at this stage in their
life….interests, likes and dislikes, relationships
A Junior Camper is...
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Very active and likes movement
needs opportunities to share their thoughts and reactions
enjoys making and doing things
relates best when they can do or experience with their
senses when learning
• someone who still looks for adult or older teen approval
• often surprised at what they can accomplish
• someone who has very little middle ground in their
attitude… things are fun or boring, right or wrong,
fabulous or disgusting
A Junior Camper is...
• Someone who identifies with peers but still looks to adults
for guidance
• someone who likes to be in groups of others that are
similar to them
• someone who prefers sex segregated groups but starts
showing short-duration interest in opposite sex---often a
group of guys showing or goofing off for a couple of cute
girls
• someone whose success or failure is still very self-centered
so comparison to others may not be preferred
Special Situations
• Homesickness
– Let the us know right away if you find a
camper that is struggling with this—especially
the first night
– Be careful not to make any promises
– We will try to connect them with someone else
at camp that they know
– Many times they just need some assurances and
reminded that they will be home in a short time
Special Situations
• Fighting among cabin mates or in activity
groups
– Again let us know as soon as you find it is a
problem
– We will try to work with individuals first to
resolve issues
– We will mediate between those that are
struggling and at last resort call parents
Special Situations
• Bullying
– What is Bullying?
• Bullying may be physical, verbal, emotional
or sexual in nature. For example:
• Physical bullying includes punching,
poking, strangling, hair pulling, beating,
biting and excessive tickling.
Bullying
• Emotional bullying includes rejecting,
terrorizing, extorting, defaming,
humiliating, blackmailing, rating/ranking
of personal characteristics such as race,
disability, ethnicity, or perceived sexual
orientation, manipulating friendships,
isolating, ostracizing and peer pressure.
Bullying
• Verbal bullying includes such acts as
hurtful name-calling, teasing and gossip.
• So What Can we Do…..
– Post and make sure you cover clear behavior in
some ground rules on poster board including
rules against bullying.
– With any observation of a youth teasing or
using name calling that does not respect another
youth, do not tolerate it.
Bullying
– Remember to be careful that you can get to the
bottom of what is going on between two youth.
– It is best to pull a child aside to stop a behavior
and not to try to draw attention to the child’s
behavior in front of the group.
– It is great to encourage specific good behavior
praising youth for positive actions and catching
kids doing good.
Bullying
– One of the best preventions is to have good
supervision for all youth throughout the camp
– You may need to take preventive action if you
notice a child not fitting in right away to help
them make friends and connect to others in the
group as a strong prevention against bullying.
– If a youth is not able to change their bullying
behavior and it becomes a consistent problem,
you may need to share the problem with a
parent.
Bullying
– Bullying behavior being tolerated in camp can
have very negative consequences when a parent
approaches you and shares how their youth was
harmed and not inspired by their participation
in your program. We want all youth to feel safe
in our care.
Any other Special Situations?
• Do you have any other situations that you
think we should discuss?
Quick Review
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The Three R’s….
Four things that Camp is….
Three skills of a Great Counselor….
Three traits of a Junior Age Camper….
What is B M I G ….