• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to footer navigation
  • Skip to home navigation
  • Skip to privacy navigation
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Top 10 Party Games
Facebook Instagram Pinterest Twitter

Play.Party.Plan

Adding fun and creativity to everyday life

  • Fun Ideas by Occasion
    • Baby Shower
    • Bridal Shower
    • Birthday
    • Game Night
    • Movie Night
    • Super Bowl
    • Valentine’s Day
    • St Patrick’s Day
    • Easter
    • Graduation
    • Summer
    • 4th of July
    • Back to School
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas
    • New Year’s Eve
  • Games
    • Adult Games
    • Baby Shower
    • Bridal Shower
    • Birthday Party
    • Bingo Games
    • Board Games
    • Card Games
    • Christmas Games
    • Dice Games
    • Disney Games
    • Group Games
    • Holiday Games
    • Kid Games
    • Minute to Win It
    • Outdoor Games
    • Party Games
    • Scavenger Hunts
    • Teen Games
    • Trivia Games
  • Recipes
    • Appetizers
    • Baked Goods
    • Breakfast
    • Desserts
    • Drinks
    • Main Dishes
    • Party Food
    • Sides
    • TikTok Recipes
  • Free Printables
    • Crafts
    • Gift Tags
    • Kids Activities
    • Party Printables
    • Printable Games
  • Travel
    • Caribbean
    • Cruises
    • Disney
    • International
    • Travel Tips
    • United States
  • Popular Posts
    • Girl Baby Showers
    • Bridal Shower Games
    • Bachelorette Games
    • Diaper Cake DIY
    • DIsneyland Food
    • Dunkaroo Dip
    • Fun Math Games
    • Saran Wrap Game
    • SeaWorld San Antonio
  • About
    • About Me
    • Contact Me
    • Work With Me
    • Privacy Policy
    • Accessibility
  • Facebook Instagram Pinterest Twitter
  • Join the Free Party E-Club!
Home DIY & Crafts Free Printables Kids Activities Girls Camp Certification Ideas: Certification Olympics

Girls Camp Certification Ideas: Certification Olympics

By: Britni Vigil
7/29/2014Updated: 4/28/2022
This post may contain affiliate links. Privacy policy.
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. While I may receive pennies if you purchase items from my affiliate links, I only link to things I use. 

One of the big requirements for girls camp each year is to complete a certain number of certification activities (e.g., tying knots, learning first aid) and honestly, I feel like most of the time certification is one of the most boring parts of camp. This year I suggested that we make certification fun with a big girls camp certification activity – a certification Olympics. It was one of the big activities I planned for the week, and all of the girls absolutely loved being able to incorporate the things that they were learning in more fun ways than just reading them out of a book and practicing them as a group. Even if you don’t do a full Olympics, you could easily just use these girls camp certification ideas as individual activities.

Girls camp certification Olympics activity with free printable versions of everything you need from playpartyplan.com

We set our certification Olympics up by creating eight different stations that were each supervised by one of our level leaders. We then split up all of the young women (including our YCLs) into eight different groups with a specify country name, each group with girls from each of the age groups to help build unity across the camp. Once they were split up, they were sent to one of the eight stations to get started. Once all of the girls completed a station, the leaders reported back to me, and everyone (all eight groups) rotated at once so that there wasn’t a backup at any one particular station. One of our teams was so cute and wrote “Russia” in some way at each event.

Each of the leaders had a timer (iPhone) and a timesheet with team countries on them. At the end of the Olympics, all of the leaders handed over their timesheets, and we gave prizes to the fastest team overall as well as a prize (plastic Olympic medals) to each of the teams for a made up award such as the matching masters for the fastest team to complete the matching game.

We didn’t cover all of the certification requirements from camp but did get quite a few of them, across all of the different age groups. And the girls all agreed that this was a really fun way to do certification! I’ve included a basic description of each of the stations below if you’d like to use this idea, and if you want to make it an Olympics, I’ve also included free printable versions of all of the questions, game pieces, and station signs that I created for the Olympics.

 

Station #1: Table Tying 
Certification: Knots – level 1
Description: Girls were given instructions on various kinds of knots and how to tie them. Once they’d been given instructions, girls each chose a card with one knot on it and were asked to tie their particular knot as quickly as possible. The timer stopped once all girls had completed their knots.
Equipment Needed: String and knot cards

Station #2: Matching Marathon
Certification: Identify plants/animals local to the region – level 1 & 2
Description: Girls were required to play a memory game, matching pictures of animals and plants to their names.
Equipment Needed: Matching cards

Station #3: Freestyle Orienteering
Certification: Compasses and orienteering – level 3
Description: Girls were required to complete an orienteering course using a compass to find flags from various countries along a setup course. I created cards that you can use for the different countries and just add on the steps you need for the course. I purposely left the cards blank so that you can add on the steps that make sense for your course as you are making the course. This is easy to do if you laminate the cards and use dry erase markers.

Equipment Needed: Country cards, compass

Station #4: Recycling Relay 
Certification: Recycling – Level 1
Description: Girls were required to take turns picking out recyclable items from a kiddie pool (could use any container) and sorting them in the right pile then run back and tag their next teammate who did the same.
Equipment Needed: Recyclable items, name cards for recycling piles, container to hold recyclable items

Station #5: Sand Diving 
Certification: Good nutrition – 2nd years
Description: Girls were required to dig through sand to find plastic food items and then place them in the right food group; teams were required to create three plates full of food containing one of each food group.
Equipment Needed: Plastic plates separated into different sections for food groups, plastic food, sand, and a large container.

Station #6: Cross-Country Stringing
Certification: Various – All
Description: Girls were required to make their way through a string maze by answering certification questions at given points throughout the maze. Each of the questions had three different answers that directed them left, straight, or right. If they got the answer correct, they went to the next question; if not, they hit a dead end and had to return to the previous question. As you are setting up the course, make sure to make it tough to see which way is correct (so the girls really have to follow the string to know the way to go). Also, I left the card directions blank so that you can write in directions that go along with your course, not mine. This is easy to do if you laminate the cards and use dry erase markers.

Equipment Needed: 1/4 to 1/2 mile of string (I used bulk twine from Home Depot) and the question cards.

 

Station #7: 3-Man Transport Relay 
Certification: How to Transport Injured Victims – 4th years
Description: Teams learned various methods to transport injured victims. Once they’d learned all the methods, they had to pick one card at a time with a transport method on it, use that method to transport someone to a specified point and back, and then continue until they’d completed all the cards.
Equipment Needed: Transport cards

Station #8: Artistic Constellation Copying 
Certification: Constellations and Stars – 2, 3, and 4th levels
Description: Girls each picked a constellation card and had to re-create the constellation on a paper plate using candies.
Equipment Needed: Constellation cards and skittles or other small food

If you have any questions or want more details about how we ran our Olympics, feel free to email me. Below you can download all of the documents that we used for the Olympics or you can click on the links in the supply lists above.

Certification Olympics – All
Certification Olympics – All Event Instruction Cards
Matching Marathon
Recycling Relay
Cross-Country Stringing
Freestyle Orienteering
Constellation Copying
Table Tying
Sand Diving
3-Man Transport Relay 
 
And don’t forget to check out everything we did for my last year at camp – a certification fair complete with blackout cards, booths with tons of fun activities, and even handouts for the YCLs!
 
<<Download the entire set of Certification Olympics>>
 
 
Tons of great girls camp certification ideas and free printables!
Tons of great girls camp certification ideas and free printables!
 
 
 

Download the Free Printables

If you’re ready to download the free printables to use this idea, simply click the button below or click here.

Download printable now

you may also like…

  • Kids Activities
    Free Printable The Call of the…
  • This roll a first aid kit is such a fun girls camp certification idea or even for girl scouts! Such a fun way to teach what goes in a basic first aid kit certification.
    Printable Games
    Girls Camp Certification: Roll A First…
  • Three of the best Hunger Games party games that are so easy to setup and almost free, including a great Hunger Games trivia printable game
    Trivia Games
    Hunger Games Games and Hunger Games…
  • Disney Games
    Free Disney Matching Game Printable

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Have a question? Use the form below to submit your question or comment. I love hearing from you and seeing what you made!
rate this recipe:




text here

  1. Michelle Pedersen says

    Posted on 7/25 at 1:39 am

    I am SO thankful for YOU!!

    Reply
    • BritniV says

      Posted on 7/25 at 1:42 am

      Aww I’m thankful for you too Michelle!

      Reply
  2. Kimmi says

    Posted on 1/3 at 7:08 pm

    At each station was there an instruction period first and then the activity? Such as; Did you teach all the knots first, they practiced and then started with the activity? OR did they find the answers in their camp manual during the activity?

    Reply
    • BritniV says

      Posted on 1/7 at 8:47 pm

      We actually did some certification training the day before in each of the levels and then the Olympics were mostly practicing what they’d already learned. But you could totally have a few minutes of instruction first!

      Reply
  3. Tressa Woods says

    Posted on 6/7 at 9:55 pm

    Hi,
    I have different flags already for the countries in our ward girls camp. Would it be possible to get an editable copy of this program so I can change the countries on the activities and sheets?

    Reply
    • Tressa Woods says

      Posted on 6/7 at 9:56 pm

      Also, I love all of the work you put into this awesome activity!!
      Thank you so much!

      Reply
    • BritniV says

      Posted on 7/5 at 4:58 pm

      Tressa, I’m so sorry I’m just seeing this. I’m guessing you already had camp?

      Reply
  4. Aubrey Arvidson says

    Posted on 4/20 at 7:29 pm

    Just curious on the String Relay what certifications that you passed of specifically for the girls? And do you by chance have an answer card? Thanks for this great idea!

    Reply
    • BritniV says

      Posted on 5/25 at 9:54 am

      Sorry for the late response Aubrey, the string race asked a bunch of questions related to certification. It’s not so much of passing a certification off but more quizzing them on their knowledge of certification and using their manuals.

      Reply
Older Comments
Previous Post
Young Women’s Activity Idea: YW Value Minute to Win It Games
Next Post
Wizard of Oz Party Favor and Treat Ideas

Primary Sidebar

Hi! I'm
Britni

I love sweet treats, my family, games, and anything fun!

Read More

Ideas By Theme

Baby Shower Birthday Bridal Shower Disney Game Night Holiday Just For Kids Movie Night Outdoors

Popular Party Ideas

Bridal Shower Games

woman blindfolded with her hand in a plastic cup

Party Games

Kids Board Games

Blindfolded blocking is one of the best baby shower games

Baby Shower Games

Top Recipes

slice of chocolate dr pepper cake on a white plate

Best Party Foods

Wooden spoon stirring a batch of homemade Chex Mix

Homemade Chex Mix

cropped-best-buffalo-chicken-dip-recipe-11-of-14-e1609965122832.jpg

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Slice of peanut butter pie on two plates with a blue napkin

Reese's Pie

Free Party Ideas E-Club

Loading
As Featured On
connect
Facebook Instagram Pinterest Twitter
  • Play
    • Board Games
    • Kids Activities
    • Minute to Win It
    • Scavenger Hunts
  • Party
    • Food
    • Games
    • Printables
    • Themes
  • Plan
    • Disney Trips
    • Easy Meals
    • Family Travel
    • Gift Ideas

Disclaimer

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Back to Top
  • Contact
  • Work With Me
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility
© 2023 · PLAY PARTY PLAN · Site Credits Designed by Melissa Rose Design Developed by Once Coupled
Opens in a new window Opens an external site Opens an external site in a new window