NEW CANAAN YMCA

Y@ home FAMILY ACTIVITIES Bringing the fun and engaging Y family experience right to your home! VIRTUAL CAMP WEEK 8: Core 4 This week’s edition of Virtual Camp revolves around the Y’s Core 4 values: caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility. Spread some positivity around your home and in your community by participating in our Core 4 activities! Don’t forget to share what you do with us! Feel free to email George Bennett: [email protected] NEW CANAAN YMCA

Y@ home

Writing

Free Write While we take this week to look at the Y’s core values of Honesty, Caring, Responsibility, and Respect let’s remember all the fun times we had at the Y!

Write or draw about some of your favorite memoires you have had at the Y or the last memory you had at the Y!

IMAGINATION CHALLENGE

Grab your Legos and get ready to build! Challenge I:. Construct the Y logo using your Legos! Challenge II: Replicate your favorite part of the Y using your Legos! Nature Creation: Create one the Y logo using items found in your back yard! NEW CANAAN YMCA

Y@ home

Did You Know

Fun Facts: Famous YMCA People

• Lindsay Benko was a member of the Elkhart YMCA swim team before winning three medals in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. • learned to swim at the Portland YMCA in Maine and has won 4 medals in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. • One of the most decorated Olympic swimmers, , earned 12 medals in the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 Olympics and was a member of the Merrimack Valley YMCA when she was a kid. • learned to swim at the YMCA, and went on to win three gold medals in the 1988 Olympics for , and was amateur athlete of the year in 1989. • Mark Spitz learn to swim at the Sacramento YMCA in 1958. • Greg Louganis learned to dive at the YMCA and went on to win 5 medals total at the 1976, 1984, and 1988 Olympics. • Ronald Reagan learned lifesaving skills and played the drum in the band at Dixon (III.) YMCA. • Wilt Chamberlain was on the national YMCA champion men’s basketball team when he was just 16. NEW CANAAN YMCA

Y@ home

Did You Know

Fun Facts: Famous YMCA People (continued)

• When bad weather forced him off of the baseball diamond, Frank Robinson was in the YMCA playing basketball. • George Bush played basketball at the YMCA as a young man and later help found the YMCA in Midland, Texas. • Christian Laettner of Duke, “The Dream Team”, and the Atlanta Hawks, and Cliff Robinson of the Portland Trailblazers were on the same YMCA basketball team. • Curly Neal of the Harlem Globetrotters learned to play basketball at the YMCA. • Aaron Spelling, TV producer, said the YMCA was his one escape from the streets.; the chance to be part of something—the family of the YMCA. • Bob Newhart said the YMCA was a, “very important part of my childhood.” • Senator Bob Kerry’s YMCA youth program leader said Kerry was a “YMCA rat” growing up. • Vic Mitchell, world-class bridge player, was taken to the Brooklyn YMCA by a policeman. • Supreme Court Justice Steven Breyer said that the San Francisco YMCA’s NEW CANAAN YMCA

Y@ home

FUN FITNESS CORNER

CORE 4 ACTIVITIES: This week we take a look at activities based on the YMCA’s 4 Core Values of Caring, Honesty, Respect, and Responsibility. Below you will find one activity for each value. The games require teamwork and fun, but there is always an underlying value that should be learned throughout play. Hopefully these activities will spur your own ideas for learning through play. Give them a try and feel free to share with us!

ONE STEP BACK (Caring) Supplies: a soft ball or object that can be tossed between people.

How to Play: The object of this game is to work as a team and keep the ball from touching the ground as best as possible. Participants will start in a circle equally distant apart. One person begins with the ball and passes it to the person next to them, who passes the ball to the person next to them and so on.

Every time the ball gets back to the beginning, everyone takes a step back and play resumes. Try and see how far apart you can get without dropping the ball. If someone does drop the ball, everyone steps back in to the starting position and the game starts over.

Be sure to spread positivity and let participants know that it is alright to drop the ball or make a bad throw. Be encouraging and help each other throughout the game to see how far you can make it! NEW CANAAN YMCA

Y@ home

FUN FITNESS CORNER

TELEPHONE (Honesty) Work on your honesty skills with a game of Telephone. All you need is more than 2 people to play. One person will start the game by whispering a “secret message” to the person next to them. That person then whispers the secret to the person next to them until the secret makes it to everyone who is playing.

When it gets to the last person, they say the secret out loud to see if the message stayed the same from start to finish. Be creative and have fun, tons of fun and laughs are sure to happen!

SIMON SAYS (Respect) All you need for this game are multiple people. One person will be designated as “Simon.” That person will call out commands for the group to perform, such as, jump up and down, sit, clap, squat, run in place, etc.

Participants who are not “Simon” are to listen and perform these commands only when Simon says so. If Simon says a command without the phrase “Simon says...” then participants should NOT perform that act.

If Simon does not say to do something and it is done anyways, the person performing the act will be out. Play until there is only one winner. Take turns being “Simon” or try playing with no outs for endless fun. Make sure to be respectful and listen carefully so you know what to do without getting out! NEW CANAAN YMCA

Y@ home

FUN FITNESS CORNER

TIDY TIME (Responsibility) Tidy Time is a great way to transform any household chore into a fun game that helps teach responsibility. Make picking up dirty clothes a game by playing “Laundry Basket Basketball” where you need to shoot your dirty clothes into the clothes bin before bringing it to the washing machine and shooting your clothes into the machine to be cleaned. Sort clothes or put away groceries as a race against time: give a time limit and start the clock to beat the time, or see who can perform a task in the fastest time.

Organize toys by type and making sure everything has its own place. Turn sweeping, mopping, or vacuuming into a dance party. By turning “boring” chores into fun games it will show that being responsible is easy to do and can be fun, making it a value they’ll keep with them throughout their lives. NEW CANAAN YMCA

Y@ home

CRAFTS CORNER & MORE

CARDS FOR LOCAL FRONT LINE WORKERS Sending a card to those people in New Canaan who are working the front lines is a great way to show how much we appreciate all that they are doing for us! The residents at Waveny Health Care are not able to spend time with their family, a happy picture or note would add a smile to their face. Waveny Care is not accepting mail at this time, please email a picture of the card or drawing to [email protected] and it will be printed and given to the residents. We would love to see your creations so send a picture before you mail them!

New Canaan Police Department New Canaan Volunteer Ambulance 174 South Ave 182 South Ave

New Canaan Fire Department Walter Stewarts 60 Main Street 229 Elm Street

Waveny Care Center AMCE Markets email to: [email protected] 288 Elm Street Subject: NCYMCA

MOTHER’S DAY COUPON BOOK Make a coupon book for your mom! Print out the graphic on the last page of this packet and write down coupons to show your mom how much you care about her. Choose from some ideas on the next page! Choose from some coupon ideas below!

• free hugs, anytime

• a drawing made by me

• a self-portrait made by me

• snuggles

• unlimited kisses

• all of the toys being picked up by me

• sweeping the floor

• watering the plants

• sorting the laundry

• a day of no complaining

• one chore/task of your choice

• a device-free day

• a video game-free day

• unloading the dishwasher

• walking the family pet

• feeding the family pet

• the entire house vacuumed

• a cleaned-out garage

• my bed made for a week without having to be asked

• my room stays clean for a week