Anyone who's been to summer camp knows that a huge part  of the camp experience is group singing. Blasting out silly lyrics at the top of your lungs is not only a rousing good time (for adults too!), but also helps create bonds between campers who may have little else in common. Classics such as Boom-Chicka-Boom resound across living rooms long after kids return camp, and are often remembered for months or years afterward. And no camp would be complete without a good collection of games.
As garden camps and camp gardens sprout up throughout Wisconsin, these traditions carry on, and can be molded to fit the growing theme. Below is a collection of garden-themed songs and games. We'd love to add more to the list! Please send your favorite garden-themed songs and games to wsgi@communitygroundworks.org - we'll compile the list, and post it to our Resources page!
Songs
Games
In addition to the games listed below, almost any garden activity can be made into a game! Try longest root competitions while weeding, create plant "characters" while planting, name the worms, and when you water your plants in July, don't forget to water yourself, too!
Farmer in the Dell
Similar to "Shark and Minnows" or "Park Ranger." Create a rectangular playing field. All students stand at one end. Choose two people to be the "Farmers." Everyone else chooses a vegetable or fruit. Farmers stand in the middle of the field and call out a veggie characteristic. Example: "If your vegetable is the leaf of a plant." Then, everyone whose veggie or fruit has that characteristic has to run to the other side, while the farmers try to tag them. If you get tagged, you become a "plant" rooted to the ground where you were tagged. Plants can still move their arms and tag other runners! Farmers can also say "Harvest Time!" and everyone must run. After the first round you will end up with students running in both directions. Run out of bounds and you automatically become a plant. Play until the majority of people are "plants." Good for large groups.
A Big Wind Blows
A good icebreaker. Make a circle with one person in the middle. Everyone in the circle needs a "marker" such as cone or a garden glove behind them. Person in the middle says "A big wind blows if you...(something they like in the garden)" Anyone else who also likes that must run into the middle of the circle and find a new spot by an empty marker. One person will be left without a marker. This person is now in the middle. If kids end up in the middle multiple times, you can have them "bump" to another person. Good for groups of 10-20 people.
Pepper-Pepper Corn
Sit in a tight circle of 8-12 people. Assign each person a different vegetable, or have them choose. Everyone must cover their teeth completely with their lips. The point of the game is to get other people to laugh and show their teeth. On your turn you must say the name of your vegetable twice, and someone else's vegetable once. For example, the "Pepper" person could say "Pepper, Pepper, Corn." Now its is "Corn's" turn. If you show your teeth, you are out. (Alternatively, assign one point in the circle to be the "sun" - if you show your teeth, you move away from the sun. The point of the game is then to get closer to the sun.)
Simon in the Garden
Similar to "Simon Says" or "Ship to Shore." One person is the caller - everyone else must follow his/her instructions and try to not get eliminated. Here are the commands and the actions that follow:
 "Farmer's coming!" - Stand "at attention" with pitchfork in hand. Do not move until you hear "Water break" - then you may relax or follow other commands. If you move before you hear "Water break," you are out!- "Garden!" - Run to the left side of the field. If you run the wrong direction, you are out.
- "Shed!" - Run to the right side of the field. If you run the wrong direction, you are out.
- "Worm!" - Everyone wriggle like a worm.
- "Wheelbarrow!" - Two people group up and one holds the other's legs to make a wheelbarrow. Find a parter fast or your are out!
- "Harvest!" - Form groups of three. One person stands with their arms out to be the plant, the other two pick "fruit" off the branches. Find a group, or your are out!
- "Chow down!" - Form groups of four. Pretend to be eating a giant salad or other yummy garden snack. Find a group, or you are out!
Students who are "out" can help the caller watch for other students who should be "out."
Funding for this project was provided by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health from the Wisconsin Partnership Program.
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Every day this summer, a group of teens will gather in the garden at Lake Valley Camp. They discuss what they will be teaching that day, and then prepare for the younger campers to arrive. Each morning, they host two groups of campers in the garden; each afternoon, they lead two cooking classes in the camp’s learning kitchen, constructed from a renovated barn. These gardening teens are in their third and final year of the Lake Valley’s Leadership Training program. Many will go on to be camp counselors, mentoring and caring for the campers who are tracing their path from just a few years before.
The year three Leaders in Training – known as Garden Assistants or GA’s – are under the tutelage of Sara Tedeschi, an experienced Farm to School specialist and garden educator. Even so, Tedeschi remains very much in the background when the younger campers come around. “I literally teach just one cooking session at the beginning of the month the GA’s are at camp,” she said. “After that, each GA takes a turn being at the head chef’s table, teaching the day’s menu.” The other GA’sassist small groups of campers at their cooking stations, monitoring knife skills and guiding students around the garden so they can see the produce they are cooking with. This summer’s menu has included stove-top pizzas with sautéed veggies and herbs in place of sauce, breakfast burritos, and homemade butter. The GA’s will culminate their summer kitchen experience with an Iron Chef competition using garden produce.
The skills that GA’s can learn in just one month translate far beyond the garden, the kitchen, or even Lake Valley Camp. GA’s who have gone on as counselors have reflected back on their experience in the garden as a place that increased their self-confidence, changed their perspective on nature and food, and motivated them to help younger kids learn the same things. One former GA is now employed as a cook at a college in Milwaukee, a job he attributes to his summer experience as a Lake Valley in the garden and kitchen.
For those new to WSGI, we couldn't leave out these amazing resources. "Got Dirt?" will walk you through starting a school garden, while "Got Veggies?" will help you implement a garden-based nutrition curriculum. "Cultivating Childhood Wellness through Gardening" is an online training that will help you establish and utilize a school garden. You can watch the entire training or select specific chapters.