Top 10 Cali Camp Circle Time Activities to get your kids talking!

If your kids are anything like mine, you struggle to get any insight or information out of them! I can’t tell you how many times my kids come home from school or even Cali Camp and when asked “What did you do at camp today?” I get a big fat “Nothing.” Now, being the director of Cali Camp, I have the advantage of knowing their schedules and say, “Oh, really?!? So Archery, Arts and Crafts, Swimming and Horseback Riding are nothing?” I usually get a little giggle, but still not much more information. Especially during what can be these scary times for our kids, we want to know what they are thinking!

Your Cali Campers are very familiar with the idea of Circle Time. This is a time in the mornings at camp where every voice in the circle gets a chance to speak, and be heard. Some groups use a “talking piece” that they pass around, and each person gets to share their answer to the prompt! With younger kids, it can be helpful for an adult or older sibling to go first to model what an answer may sound like. Once you get the idea, I’m sure you can come up with many more prompts. 

I have been using these “Circle Time Prompts” in order to get a bit more information out of my kids, without them even realizing that they are sharing! When we as parents make things a game, kids are more inclined to “play” than they are to “talk.” You can do these around the dinner table, driving in the car, sitting in a circle on the floor, or any other space that works for you. Try some of these “games” with your kids over the next few days and weeks and be amazed at how much they have to share. Let us know how it goes! 

Top 10 Cali Camp Circle Time Prompts 

1. Extreme Emotions

Everyone close their eyes, and think about a time today that you felt a strong emotion. Maybe you felt extremely happy, or maybe something made you feel sad, or even mad, frustrated or concerned. Think about that moment. By passing the talking piece, share what moment of extreme emotion you felt today. 

2. Birthday Memories

Share one of your favorite memories from one of your birthdays. 

3. Animal Prompt

If you could be any animal, what animal would you be? Why? What would be the best and worst part about becoming that animal?

4. Rose, Root and Thorn

Share the parts of your day that symbolize your Rose, Root and Thorn. Just like the parts of a Rose Bush, there are parts of our days that are full of beauty, challenges and connections. The thorn of your day was something that was challenging, or made you sad, mad or frustrated. Your root is something that makes you feel connected, or grounded (this can be a hard one for younger kids, sometimes you can explain this as something that is always there for them that makes them happy). The Rose was the BEST or most beautiful part of your day!

5. Sweet and Sour

This is similar to Rose, Root and Thorn, just a bit simpler. Your sweet was your favorite part of the day (or activity, past hour, game, movie, etc) and the sour was the most challenging or worst part. 

6. FOOD!

If you could only eat one more food for the rest of your life, what would it be? What would be the best part of eating that food everyday, and what would be the worst part?

7. Favorite Things

If you needed to pick only three toys to play with for the rest of the year, what would you choose and why?

8. Pass around…

Pass around a container of rocks, M & Ms, sticks, beads, whatever you have around. Tell each person to take between 2 - 5 of the things (or more depending on ages and number of people in the circle). Don’t tell them why yet!! After everyone has picked their number of items, tell them that for every item that they picked, they will share that many interesting facts about themselves! So, if they took out 3 beads, they share three facts. 

9. Hopes, Fears and Dreams

During this exercise, each person will share a hope, fear and a dream. The hope should be something that they are hoping for in the near future, something that is most likely to happen or is obtainable. A fear is something that they are cornered about or scared might happen. A dream can be anything that they dream of having, seeing, wanting. Their dreams can be extravagant or unrealistic as they would like. 

10. Two Truths, and a Lie

Every person will say three things that happened to them today (or in their life, the past week, etc). Two of the things they share should be true and one should be a lie. Then the group will decide together which they think is the lie, and which are the truths. 

We hope you are able to enjoy some time connecting with your family while you share these Circle Time Prompts with each other. Don’t let the fun stop here… make up your own prompts together, Kids are really good at coming up with fun questions to ponder for the whole family! Don’t forget to add your own prompts to the comments below so we can all learn from each other.

~ Kassandra “Blaze” Wilsey is a mother of 3 children Blake (9), Cole (8) and “Baby” Rose (5). She also is the Co-Director of Cali Camp and a professor at Cal State University Northridge. You can read more about her at calicamp.com.