Spring Break Camp 2018: Part 1: Monday and Tuesday
What a wonderful first day of Spring Break Camp! The weather was a little brisk, but it was pleasantly warm in the sun by lunch time. Before we could even start our day with opening circle, we found some carnivorous plants growing just off a side trail! We saw venus fly traps, sundews and pitcher plants! It was so cool to see how they changed just over the course of a week!
At opening circle, we all shared something that we were grateful for, our community agreements and safety awareness. As we were packing up after our snack at opening circle, we had our first animal find- some scat! It had fur and bones in it and we had a lot of good guesses as to who left it there, what do you think?
After opening circle, we headed out on a wander and didn't get very far before we found the Grass Pond. We explored and some of us got really muddy!
After getting changed we headed over to the Lilly Pond for lunch. We started a Great Blue Heron on the way and some of us got to see the huge bird in flight!
After lunch we decorated our nature journals, explored the world close up with the Discovery Scope and played a few games.
Our final stop for the day was the Cypress Pond. We saw some interesting animal tracks. Were they going to or from the pond? How many legs do we think the animal had? Did it have a tail? So many mysteries!
After exploring the tracks, we all picked nature names. We explored some fun facts about how animal using nature cards.
We finished our first day with a Sit Spot - we each found a special spot along the Cypress Pond Trail and spent a few minutes experiencing the area with all of our senses and noticing as much detail as possible. We shared what we experienced at closing circle and also shared our Highlight of the Day.
Tuesday started out just as cold as Monday, but we were prepared with warm gear and a hike! After opening circle and snack, Ms. Kathryn introduced the group to Friction Fire using our bow drill kits. We had a lot of fun practicing! We got lots of smoke and dust- good signs!- but no coals today. It is harder than it looks!
We then played one of our favorite games - Raccoon Steals Donut! We introduced this game yesterday and today one of the campers got to be the Baker trying to protect their donuts from the sneaky raccoons. This particular baker had excellent senses and the raccoons had to work together to come up with a totally new strategy to get the donut! Lots of fun practicing awareness and body movement.
We enjoyed the longer hike up to sugarloaf and after lunch spent the rest of the day exploring the area and climbing trees. We enjoyed the area and broke up into two groups. One group wanted to stay and explore and the other wanted to go on another hike through an ancient sand dune forest.
We saw some beautiful trees and rolling sand hills! We also saw these strange caterpillars on some long leaf pine needles. When someone would jostle the needles, the would stick their black heads and green tails in the air and stay perfectly still!
We ended the day with closing circle and sharing the stories from our different adventures.
Want to read and see pictures about what we did the rest of the week? That blog post is coming soon!
