It was a great day up here at the camp with Ms. Lindsey’s 4th graders!
We’ve had a couple kids working through some homesickness, but have been talking with staff and doing amazing working through it and still engaging with other kids and still trying new things, with The Flames spending this morning rock climbing, while the Napoleon Bunnies learned some wild edibles and tree identification on an environmental education hike.
As part of Renaissance’s progression for each grade, the 4th graders spend the first night in the bunks of our platform tents and on their second day, venture out a bit, learn to set up tarps and sleep out and on the ground. This afternoon, each patrol moved camp to their new primitive and rugged home learning the knots and essentials of setting up a camp from scratch. The quote of the day came from the boys of the “Flames” patrol who at first were not as enthusiastic about the open walls of tarp shelters, until one of them had the realization that without walls, there was nothing to trap in their farts. Much to the jealousy of the other boys, the tarp boys suddenly had the groups preferred accommodations!
This evening we brought both patrols back together for an epic “Challenge Night!” They break up into smaller groups and then are given a series of challenges that they group must talk about, g=figure out how to meet it and then present it to the judges and other kids. Points are awarded for creativity, sportsmanship, character &teamwork, and all around awesomeness. Challenges tonight ranged from presenting some item in an infomercial, to scariest face, to staff impersonations and of course we let Ms. Lindsey judge the smelliest shoe.
The night sky cleared up and the stars and milky way are some of the most vivid we’ve seen up here and while the temperature drops when that happens, the view of it is incredible! We double bagged most every kid to add a second layer of warmth tonight and many of the kids have chosen to sleep outside of the tarps and directly under the stars!
Tomorrow the Bunnies will jump on the rocks while the Flames will head out on an EE hike, and by lunch time we’ll be heading back to Castle Rock! We’ll try to upload tomorrow’s pics before we head down, but those may not get up until later in the evening. Lot’s of pics over at our FB page!
See you all back at the school!
