shoe-chuck and much much more

Pinawa, Manitoba

As day three is nearing a close there is a general consensus that people are tired here in our group. This is a great thing... because it means that we as leaders have been keeping our 37 new students busy enough that they haven't had time to think about either being bored or homesick.
Usually the way this program works is that the students arrive and are immediately whisked away for a 5 day canoe trip. Since there are already two other groups doing that at present, our group was left with "alternative options" (aka: 4 days of free time to be filled). Now free time in and of itself is great, but in short spans of time, and not all together at once, and certainly not as the beginning of a program.
The four of us as leaders put our heads together and came up with a list of seemingly random activities to fill our time. It was quite a challenge; after all it's not a week of camp or a conventional university experience, in which case the first four days set the tone for the year to come.
I feel as though we did a good job. In case you ever find yourself in a situation like this here's some ideas...
-play lots of get-to-know-ya games, but keep them fun and fast paced
- do a photo scavenger hunt (if nothing else it buys you more time to plan the next activity)
- have a movie night (censor the movie first though!)
- get them to do team cheers (they ate it up!!!)(We were shocked yet pleased)
- get them to draw pictures of what they are excited about for the year to come (they also ate this up) (We were once again pleased, although less shocked)
- play lawn-chair beach volleyball (trust me it's FUN!)
- play blob tag

and last but not least
-play the "Shoe Chuck" game... which is exactly what it sounds like it would be... take your shoe and see how far you can chuck it (it's brilliant, and once again they loved it)

So far I am thrilled about the group of students I get to hang out with for the next eight months, I'm pleased with the tone that has been set and looking forward to lots of fun times. And most of all I’m amazed that we’ve been doing one lame activity after another for three days now and they’re still seeming to have fun!