Enliven your camping trip by performing skits to entertain the whole family. Walk away with two ready-to-use scripts right here, as well as ideas for how to write your own.
Two Printable Skit Scripts
Here are two original scripts that you can print and have ready for your camping adventure!
The Milky Way
A father and son enjoy a beautiful evening outside their tent. They are gazing at the clear night sky as the father is pointing out different star constellations to his son. Download this script here and for some help, here is a guide for Adobe printables.
Camping for Nothing
Three friends agree to go on a camping weekend with their fourth friend who is quirky, annoying and unreliable. They quickly regret it as the weekend goes downhill. Download this script here.
Writing Your Own Skits
There are a number of different ways you can quickly write your own skits for your family to perform and enjoy.
Your Favorite TV Show
Camping for Nothing was inspired by the characters and a few episodes of the popular TV show Seinfeld. You can play some of your favorite characters by taking an episode from your favorite show and translating it into a short script.
Your Kids' Favorite Story
You can write a script quickly if you base it on your children's favorite story, and you can ask them to pick the story. Assign everyone a character and have fun with it by putting your own twist on the performance. For example, have the adults play the kids and the kids play the adults.
A Ghost Story
You can also use ghost stories that you enjoy around a campfire with s'mores. Take your favorite ghost story and turn it into a script. Adding a narrator not only makes the story more fun, but also gives another person a role in the skit.
Act Out History
Take a piece of history that the kids recently learned in the past school year and turn it into a skit, such as the story about Paul Revere, or Benjamin Franklin and the Committee of Five who drafted the Declaration of Independence. Even give your kids a chance to write the script. This is not only great fun but a great way for them to remember the information.
Campground Songs
Not all performances on the campground have to be skits. Some common campground songs can be made even more entertaining by adding physicality as you sing them. "Up in the Air Junior Birdmen" is a very famous and funny song that can be sung with lots of funny animation. Pair up a parent and child to act this out and brace yourself to howl with laughter!
The song was created in the early 1930s by the Junior Birdmen of America. This instructional video provides a bit of background on the song along with the hand gestures that make it fun. The lyrics are:
Up in the air junior birdmen,
Up in the air upside down
Up in the air junior birdmen,
Keep your noses off the ground
When you hear the grand announcement,
That your wings are made of tin,
Then you know that junior birdmen,
Have turned their box tops in
For it takes: 5 box tops,
4 bottle bottoms,
3 coupons,
2 wrappers,
And one thin dime!
Up in the air junior birdmen,
Up in the air upside down
Up in the air junior birdmen,
Keep your noses off the ground
Write Your Own Story
You can improvise your own story and then write the script for it; The Milky Way was actually improvised by students during an improv class. There are two phases to this method, which means twice the fun! The process is really simple:
- Designate a scribe who will write down the lines as the story is told.
- Sit in a circle.
- Someone starts by saying a very simple line, such as "Sally was riding her bike to the store."
- The next person acknowledges this and adds to the story by saying something like "Yes, and, she stops at a red light."
- The next person acknowledges this addition and then says "Yes, and she notices a piece of pizza in the grass next to the road."
- The next person says, "Yes, and Sally says 'Oooo, pizza!'"
- Then the next person in the circle says: "Yes, and she thinks 'That pizza doesn't look that old or dirty.'"
- Continue going around the circle like this with each person adding just a little more to move the story forward.
- Go around the circle as many times as you want or until the story comes to a natural end. Trust the process -- if you keep it simple, and honor and use the detail the previous person added, the story can end in a delightful and unexpected way.
- Pair the characters with actors. In this example about Sally, someone can be Sally, someone else can be Bike, and another person can be the Piece of Pizza. A large part of the fun is in acting out inanimate objects as well, just like in an improv show. With this example, Bike could give Sally a piggy-back ride to simulate her riding the bike.
Go Ahead, Put On an Act
Add some fun and humor to your camping trip by performing skits. Not only is it a chance to enrich your trip and laugh together, but also a chance for your family members to express their creativity.
