15 Fun Camping Activities And Games For Teens

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Teens love camping but finding fun and engaging games can be challenging. So, here are a few exciting camping activities for teenagers that you can try out. These activities help them bond with their peers and have great experiences that they will cherish forever. Many families go camping during summers and as you spend most of the time outdoors, it is important to have a few fun games in mind to keep everyone happy and entertained. So, take a look at the options below and add your twist to them. Read on to know more.

Camp Games For Teens

1. Air Raid:

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• Make a start and a finish line, fifty meters apart.

• Find at least five or six obstacles, which are big enough to be used to hide. For example, you can take up items such as tables, fences, wheelbarrows etc. Arrange these articles in a zig-zag pattern all across the ground, between the start and the finish line.

• Two people would be the bombers who will throw sponge pads. Using sponge pads is better than water balloons as it wouldn’t hit the gentle skin of the teenagers.

• The bombers will be placed ten feet past the finish line and also halfway across the lines respectively to play the game.

• The bombers will have to hit the runners, and the halfway bomber is supposed to be alert. He has to make sure that he hits only the runners when they have passed by him and the bomber will have to cease fire. Every time the runner crosses an obstacle, he or she gets an assigned point or reward which has been decided earlier. The total points collected by the runners will be their final scores.

• The objective of the game is to finish the race without getting hit by the bombers. The obstacles can be used as hiding places to prevent themselves from getting hit.

2. Ten Pin Knockdown:

• The campers are divided into two separate groups and then a square playing boundary is established for the purpose of the game. The field should be divided into equal halves, which resemble a tennis game field or something similar to it.

• The teams are assigned the task to strategically place their pins in the area given to them.

• As they get the command ‘go’ they have to knock down the cones or pins of each other’s sides. It is done with the help of the ball that can be rolled only towards the opposite side. The team that can keep all the pins intact wins the game.

• The objective of the game is knocking down the maximum number of pins or cones of the opposite team to win the game.

3. Alaskan Baseball:

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• One camper is given a throwable object, with his team then forming a circle around him. That person throws the object.

• After he has thrown the object, he goes around the circle taking everyone’s name in order of the circle. Every time he makes it around the circle it counts as a run.

• Meanwhile the other team is chasing the object. Everyone forms a line behind the first person that has the object. They then pass the object between their legs until it reaches the last person, where it is then passed overhead back to the first person in line.

• When the first person gets the object, the team yells out, and the other team stops counting runs. The first person in line that retrieved the object now has a circle formed around him and he throws the object and the process reverses.

4. Back To Back Tag:

• Two players are involved at first who hold each other’s hands and tag themselves with a name. After that, they are required to tag other players but they can only use their free hands to tag the person.

• The next tagged person joins a side with the ones who have tagged them, and thus, a chain is formed. The chain runs to tag the players who are yet to be tagged. In such a situation the untagged players can find the ones without labels and be can back away from them to prevent being tagged. The game goes on till all the players are tagged.

• The objective of the game is to tag all the players, and the last one standing is the winner.

5. Birthday Line Up:

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• It is a great game that works perfectly as an ice breaker and gives the players the scope to interact freely with each other during the camp time.

• In this game, the players are asked not to talk to each other about anything till they get the permission to do so.

• After that instruction is given, the players are asked to line up by their heights. The order can further break into arranging them on the basis of their birthday dates, alphabetical order, etc. This works as a perfect icebreaker, letting them interact freely.

• The only objective of the game is to break the ice and let the campers interact with each other.

Quick tip

Camping lets teens disconnect from fast-paced city life, connect with nature, and experience peace.

6. Play The Dead Fish:

• The campers are asked to play as ‘dead fish’ that are not supposed to anything and be completely still. One of them will act as the invigilator and make rounds to check on the kids so as to make sure that no one laughs or makes any movement.

• The ones who are able to stay still all throughout the game without flinching a little will be declared winners.

7. Hide To Scare:

• In this game, the campers are divided into four or five groups and are given names based on particular colors such as red, blue, yellow, or green. Each team is given some chips as points. The idea is to spread out around the entire area and scare the players of other teams.

• Every time someone succeeds in scaring members from other teams, they collect a point from him or her. In this way, after forty or fifty minutes, the team with the highest number of points stands to win the game.

8. Flashlight Catch The Flag:

• The campers are divided into two groups and the field is also established in two halves representing two sides. It is a game that is best played in the dark and the teams will be given glow sticks of some unique color and flashlights. The team members will hide their glow sticks carefully in their assigned fields making sure at least one inch of the stick is out and visible.

• The members of the opposite team are assigned to find the glow sticks using the flashlights and hunt down all of them within a fixed period. The team which collects the maximum number of glow sticks from the opposite field wins. The invigilators have to extremely careful about the safety of the kids due to the dark.

Camp Activities For Teens

Apart from the games, teenage kids can also indulge in some entertainment and relaxation during the break hour and enjoy each other’s company. Some innovative activities to spend a great time together are:

1. Play The Twig Castles:

One thing that all kids love while on a sandy beach holiday is to make sand castles. But what if you are in a jungle? Well, you can also make twig castles with the dry branches and leaves and enjoy your creations.

To make the twig castle properly, instead of buckets and panes, you will need some strong glue, tape, and scissors. You can also take the help of the camp leader or supervisor for some inspiration.

2. Group Storytelling And Sharing Experiences:

A field consists of a vast number of kids who come from different backgrounds and cultural spheres, making the camping environment culturally rich with varieties of ethnicity.

In this activity, the campers are grouped in small numbers, and one player from the team is asked to start a story with one line inspired by the scene around them. The next player catches up with the last few words and adds one more line to let the story go further. Ideas and thoughts are distributed and various groups come together to share the same space. This activity is very good for bringing various kinds of people together.

Point to consider

As a night camp activity, ask the students to share something interesting that happened during the day. If there are too many incidents, divide the campers into groups and ask them to select one incident that can be shared with everyone else.

3. Catch It Or Do Not Catch It:

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The game involves the players to stand in a circle with one person in the middle.

A ball is given to the players which they pass around, with one person in the middle saying catch or don’t catch. The one who does not follow the instruction goes out from the game. The last man standing is the winner.

4. Murder In The Dark:

One of the most exciting and adventurous camp games popular among the teenage kids, a murder has to be solved in this game. A fake murder is planned, and one player is the victim. The clues are given with the help of which a team of ‘detectives’ has to find the murderer. This game can be played by a small group of campers, and tests their reasoning, logic, and, capacities to imagine.

5. Noah’s Ark:

It is nothing but an enjoyable memory game which can be played with a small or large group of campers. In this activity, all the members are asked to sit in a circle and take turns to utter the names of animals that could be found in Noah’s Ark, in alphabetical order. Each player has to remember and utter the last animal named and add one more name to it.

A sequencing game, one member is responsible for writing down the correct sequence and invigilating if the players are correctly uttering the names or not. Every person who gives a wrong sequence is thrown out of the game. The game is on till one person is left with the right sequence.

6. Singing A Song:

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Best played at night beside a softly glowing campfire, the campers are supposed to sing a song.

The last letter of the song is what the next singer has to sing a song with. The one who fails to think of a song in ten seconds loses the game.

7. Spud:

A multiple player game, each player is assigned a digit that begins with one and goes on. All the players make a circle with one person in the center, who holds a sponge or softball. He or she has to throw the ball and shout a number randomly.

The one whose number is called remains standing while the rest of the players scatter. The player whose number is called catches the ball, and as soon he or she gets it, can cry out “Spud” and everyone freeze in their positions.

The camper now takes three giant leaps to reach the nearest player and throws the ball at him or her. The targeted camper can dodge the ball without moving from his or her place. If that is done, the next round is played, or else, if the ball hits the camper, he or she is declared out of the game. The last person standing is the winner in the game.

Infographic: Fun Camping Activities And Games For Teens

Camping is a fun activity that helps forge bonds and allows friends to catch up with each other. So, are you planning a camping trip with your teen gang but don’t know what activities to include? We bring a list of activity suggestions to help you guys have an unforgettable experience.

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Harshita MakvanaB.Com, PG Dip

Harshita is a graduate in commerce and holds a PG Diploma in Patent and Copyrights Law from NALSAR University. She has also pursued CA and has more than three years of internship experience in auditing. Her love for travelling has taken her to various parts of the world, and writing the travelogues was what brought out her love for content...more