Elementary: Week 4
July 31 - August 4
Earth Skills
Day 1:
To start off the week strong, each group came up with team names, The Super Falcon Explorers and The Savage Snakes! The Snakes fed the nature center falcon, and the Falcons filled the bird feeders. After going over the rules and expectations for having a fun and safe camp, each group headed on their hikes for open exploration. The Snakes went to the log cabin to swing, play with the water pump, and the seesaw. The Falcons went to Hawk field where they played in the lookout tower and created lifts for different supplies, made natural food, and played house. After lunch, open exploration took place at the wood chip pile where campers created their own countries (Bermudia), climbed trees, and searched for insects/snakes. The last activity of the day was shelter building. Campers chose an animal of their choice and then created a home for it!
Day 2:
Day two began with animal feeding; The Super Falcon Explorers fed the Falcon and the Savage Snakes filled the bird feeders. The morning nature lesson was about shelters. Campers worked on shelter building using large branches and sticks to create their own homes. After a quick morning snack, the hikes took the Snakes to Hawk Field for open exploration where they ran around playing various games, and the Falcons went to the log cabin to swing, seesaw, and play tug-of-war with ropes! After lunch, open exploration was in the sugarbush and campers got to build forts, play house, and draw in their journals! The final activity for the day was building survival kits. Campers filled a small tin with survival necessities like needles, thread, fishing hooks/lines, and more!
Day 3:
Day four began with knots! Campers played a game called the human knot where they work together to untangle their intertwined hands! After the Falcons fed the owl, and the Snakes fed the falcon the nature lesson began with a hike. As we hiked down trails the group leads pointed out and collected edible plants for the campers to try! For the morning open exploration the Falcons headed to the old tennis courts and the Snakes went to play in the mud kitchen! After lunch, everyone went to the locust trail! Campers worked together to tie ropes to trees making swings, finding grasshoppers, drawing in journals and more! The last activity for today was about knots. Campers got string and a stick and worked to learn three different knots! To end the day we spent some time running around, climbing trees, and discussing how “Superhero Sadie” (one of our leads) would act as a hero!
Day 4:
Day 4 began with the Snake group feeding Autumn the deer, and filling the bird feeders; the Falcons fed both birds of prey, the falcon and the owl. The morning nature lesson was on fire building! Campers got to try and start their own fires and then after roast marshmallows, making s’mores. The hike then took the Snakes to the old tennis courts, where many sat for their caricature portrait to be done by another camper! The Falcons went to the mud kitchen where they got to play with the preschool campers, the owl group. After lunch, open exploration took us to bridges briefly before the hot weather gave us a new activity… sprinklers! Campers got to run around in the sprinklers to cool down and eat some popsicles before heading home!
Day 5:
Our final day of camp started with a group photo! The Savage Snakes fed both birds of prey, the owl and the falcon. The Super Falcon Explorers fed Autumn the deer, and fed the bird feeders. After learning about how to make a map and use a compass, for the morning nature lesson, the campers headed on a scavenger hunt. They followed the clues to the woodchip pile, where they had morning open exploration. After lunch, open exploration was at the log cabin, where a “water purifying team” was hard at work. Our afternoon nature lesson was on animal tracks and campers worked together to figure out who the tracks belonged to. They then used model magic to make their own animal track models. The final activity of the day was awards! Each camper received a wood cookie award for a trait they demonstrated at camp such as camp chef, wagon wrangler, and nature explorer! We then said goodbye to all our campers!
