The Mini-Camp consists of five activities including crafts, exercise, a Food Guide Pyramid activity, a maze and a yogurt station. The mini-camp can be held on a Saturday morning in an auditorium, gym or park. The five stations should be organized so there is plenty of room for each activity.

1. Crafts Station
The crafts activity is centered around a skeleton drawing given to each scout. Straws, crayons, yarn, string, and glue are available at the crafts station. The scouts will use these to paste a skeleton on the drawing. The scouts will locate the different joints of the body. The scouts may use crayon, yarn or string to show how the bones are attached to each other at the joints.

This is a hands-on activity that allows the scouts to demonstrate what they have learned about skeletons and their muscles. A picture of a skeleton with all the bones on it should be posted for the scouts to look at while they are completing this task.

Other crafts can take place here. The scouts can make a placemat (see Calcium Counts - Make a Placemat) or a poster (see Bone Busters and Builders Poster).

2. Exercise Station
The exercise station will allow the scouts to exercise to popular music. They will perform range of motion exercises (including stretching). They will identify which joints they are using while engaging in a particular exercise. They will be told the benefits of the exercises.

While the scouts are at this station, they will also discuss which exercises are weight-bearing exercises, and which are not. This is an easy station to stage. It requires open space, an adult familiar with exercises and music!

3. Food Guide Pyramid Station (or the Calcium Dash)
The food pyramid station is an activity designed to test the participant's knowledge of calcium-rich foods. It is a race and a contest. Empty boxes or packages of food (50 items at least) are scattered on the ground fifty feet from the scouts.

The scouts are divided into teams of two. They compete 3 teams at a time. When the leader says "Go", one scout from each team runs to get 4 food items and brings it back to her teammate. They write the calcium in each item on a sheet of paper and the other teammate takes the items back to the "pile" and gets four more items. They each do this twice. Each team totals its per serving calcium. The fastest team gets an extra 20 points. The second an extra 10 points. The team that has created the meal with the most calcium points (plus extra points) wins.

You can also add a requirement that scouts collect one item from each food group.

This is another easy event to stage. In addition to open space to run, the leaders should find food containers with a wide variety of foods that contain calcium. The scouts also need pads and pencils to write down their items. A calculator might be useful to total the calcium per serving in each item.

4. Learning Station
This activity requires the scouts to find answers to a list of questions given to each scout. Before the activity begins, the scouts are handed a list of questions about diet, exercise, and healthy living. The leaders will have to make up these questions. Fifteen to twenty questions should be sufficient - a question may have multiple answers, like list three calcium containing dairy products.

The answers are placed on the inside walls of a maze. The maze is constructed on plastic sheeting and poles standing about four feet high. The scouts must find the corresponding questions on their list. This activity becomes a timed competition for answering the questionnaire and getting through the maze first. (Building a maze can be difficult. As an option, the answers could be spread around the park or gym and the girls must go around the park or gym to find the posters with the correct answers, much like a scavenger hunt. Some posters could have clues where to find other posters or information rather than answers. This would require more adult volunteers to be posted around the park or gym to supervise the activity.)

5. Yogurt Station
The yogurt station provides participants with a chance to rest and eat a tasty, calcium-rich snack. It also gives them the opportunity to listen to a speaker explain the importance of strong bones, good nutrition, being active and making the correct lifestyle choices. The speaker can read the We Will Make an Effort! pledge and the scouts and adult volunteers can make the pledge. Your speaker could be a dietician, nurse, physical therapist, physician or anyone else who is knowledgeable in this area.

The speaker will discuss how the concepts presented are important and will benefit the scouts throughout their lives. Ask the Arthritis Foundation to help you find a speaker. Try to get the yogurt donated!

6. Game Station
You can also have a game station. The scouts can play Bone Builders Bingo at this station and participate in the Bone Building Contest.