"Wildlife-Ologists" at the Birmingham Zoo!

I am ecstatic to say that I f.i.n.a.l.l.y have something to concentrate on other than the 1-800-GOLDBERG commercials that I've been forced to endure for the last month. I have been so bored without having school or work to deal with! My husband even took notice on the fact that I can now recite all of those pesky lawyer jingles that daytime television is flooded with. I honestly don't know how people don't work. What do those people do all the time?! {I TOTALLY understanding being a stay-at-home mom. THAT'S a totally different thing than what I'm referring to.} Anyway...I am teaching summer camp at the zoo and had my training today where I also picked up my curricula for the 3 camps that I'm teaching. Let me just say that this is the most laid back curricula I've ever seen. It's just going to be FUN. For all involved. I think I'm honestly more excited than the kids. True story.

My camps are only a week long each, so I don't have much time with the kiddos to build rapport or community. But my community-loving self is sure gonna try. To help develop an immediate sense of community and friendship, I thought it would be fun to break the ice with a little human treasure hunt! I'm sure most teachers have seen these, but I whipped this one up with a treasure-hunt/Birmingham Zoo theme so that I could add the parrot to the map! {The Birmingham Zoo is graced with a huge parrot display right when you walk in. It's AWESOME. Those parrots are so pretty!!} Anyway, here's a peek:

I wanted to share to show that you could take this super simple "beginning of the year" activity and make it work for anything you might be doing this summer. I will definitely be using these for all three of the camps I'm teaching. I think it will be the perfect, quick "Hi-ya!" activity to use for camp.

The other ice breaker activity that I love and will use to introduce names {before the treasure hunt activity} will be a ball toss where I will start with a little Nerf ball {or whatever the kids are calling them these days} and say my name and maybe something about me.

I still don't have many followers on this blog yet {super bummed - so I finally get 60+ followers on my old blog and then I leave it! Dummy me.}  but anyone out there that's reading, leave me what you do to break the ice on the first day. They might be helpful for me during my camps!