Activities + Schedule

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A Day in the Life

The quality of the Crane Lake experience is second to none. Each camper receives personalized attention from enthusiastic counselors and expert instruction from passionate specialty staff in in a wide variety of athletic, recreational and creative activities.

Our activities seek to strike a balance between skill development and personal enjoyment, and constant effort is made to meet the needs and wants of the campers. Campers travel throughout the day with their bunk group on a preset schedule, occasionally mixing with other bunks. This ensures group bonding and a well-rounded summer. All campers also get to choose one chug, elective, during the week, and campers 8th grade and up choose a second more intensive elective period called chugensive. This provides our campers with the opportunity to try something new, or pursue what they are passionate about with more time and instruction.

Crane Lake’s highly experienced staff work with campers to promote skill-building, teamwork, friendship, and fun. We constantly encourage campers to take on challenges, explore new interests, and develop talents. Participation in inter-camp games adds to the spirit of camp- Crane Lake participates in over 30 tournaments with a wide variety of sports represented.

Click the highlighted links to watch videos of camp in action!

ADVENTURE AND OUTDOORS

Each camper will have the opportunity to experience our outdoor nature program. Our campers all spend time at our Teva camp sites where they cook dinner and spend some special time in nature with their friends. They also spend time in our active animals program (think sheep, turtle, mini-horse, alpacas, puppies, bunnies, pigs, chickens, hamsters, guinea pigs, and more!). Lastly, each cabin will spend a full day at our ropes course, actively team-building in our low-ropes elements for half the day and questing throughout our aerial adventure course and zipline for the other half of the day. Oh, and do not forget about the Crane Lake garden!

Animal Care
Garden
Hikes & Nature Games
Zip Line & Aerial Obstacle Course
Israel Scouting & Outdoor Education
Teva (Nature Program & Outdoor Cooking)
Low Ropes Group-Building Elements
Overnight Campouts & Hikes

ATHLETICS

Campers enjoy several periods of instructional sports each week. Some campers build on existing skills in a specific sport with an eye towards further improvement, and others begin to develop skills in a new sport.

Sports coaches teach all instructional sports. Offerings include archery, baseball/softball, basketball, volleyball, fitness, flag football, Ga-Ga, gymnastics, lacrosse, soccer, street hockey, tennis, ultimate frisbee, and yoga. Good sportsmanship, fitness, and fun are all important components of our sports program.

Campers must wear appropriate footwear, sneakers and socks, during their sports periods.

Archery
Baseball & Softball
Basketball
Beach Volleyball
Group Fitness
Flag football
Ga-Ga
Gymnastics
Lacrosse
Running & Exercise
Self-Defense
Soccer
Street Hockey
Tennis
Tournaments
Ultimate Frisbee
Yoga

ARTS

We offer a number of arts-based activities at camp. Campers have the opportunity to go to arts and crafts where they work with different mediums, including ceramics, pottery, jewelry making, tie dye and more! We also offer music based chugim (electives) like guitar and songleading. Campers interested in dance can choose a modern dance chug or Israeli folk dance chug.

Artists in Residence
Arts and crafts
Ceramics
Digital Photography
Drama & Musicals (featuring one show per session)
Drawing
Guitar and Songleading
Israeli Folk Dance
Jewelry Making
Musicians in Residence
Painting
Modern Dance
Pottery
Tie-dye

AQUATICS

All campers in Nitzanim and Bonim receive American Red Cross (ARC) swim instruction. Campers are tested during the first few days of each session to assess their swimming ability and to determine appropriate instruction level placement. This is not based on their instruction level of the previous summer. At the end of the session, campers are tested for proficiency, and awarded official ARC certificates. We recommend goggles for campers whose eyes are sensitive to chlorine. We strongly suggest that campers wear a one piece or tankini bathing suit.

At least every other day, campers visit our beautiful lake. There they can sail, windsurf, canoe, paddleboard, kayak, water-ski, wakeboard, enjoy our water playground or just swim. There is a seemingly endless number of activities! All our waterfront staff is American Red Cross certified and prior to our campers’ arrival, participate in a week-long training and orientation on our lake.

Learn more about the lake here.

Canoeing
American Red Cross Certified Swim Instruction
Free Swim
Inflatable Playground at the Lake
Inflatable Trampoline
Kayaking
Sailing
Water Zumba
Wakeboarding
Waterskiing

JEWISH LIFE

B Mitzvah Tutoring
Creative Services Led by campers
Israeli Culture and History
Jewish Culture and History
Tikkun Olam (Community service projects)
Song Sessions
Unique & Inspirational Shabbat Celebrations

CHUGIM (ELECTIVES)

Each week campers choose a Chug, or elective, taught by general counselors and specialists. Options in the past have included painting, ceramics, creative writing, Daily Bubble (Crane Lake’s very own daily newspaper), summer reading, meditation, yoga, Rubik’s cube, balloon animal making, drama, and guitar. Campers may also choose a sport elective during this time. Sports options in the past have included gymnastics, basketball, tennis, soccer, softball, ultimate frisbee, hockey, flag football, hiking, krav maga (Israeli martial arts), boating, and even juggling!

Upper Camp (entering 8th-10th Grade) has an additional elective period called Chugensive (Chugim + Intensive). Similar options are offered as during Chugim, and specialists are able to provide higher level instruction to our older campers.

EVENING ACTIVITIES

Each evening, every unit plans and enjoys its own activity. Sometimes an evening program is social, such as pool parties or wacky Olympics, and other times it is content-based, such as those dealing with peer pressure or social activism. Occasionally, the entire camp community will come together for a camp-wide activity like a special concert or dance, a July 4th carnival or a play.