This year at Outdoor Ed we went to Snake River Adventure Center in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. We would have been going to Camp Algonquin, but it closed down. This lasted 3 days, 2 nights, and we had numerous classes and activities for us to do. I think my favorite part of this was when we had time to be in our dorms, just chilling with our friends.
The 6th grade at the end of camp
On Monday afternoon, we did team building activities with our group. I was in group three, along with Matthew Kim, Aiman M, Elena Tinto, Greg Greening, Alex A, Ryan Yoseph, Christie W, Angela Lee, Vincent Samuel, AJ Louis, and Jason Lee. Our leaders were Mr. Thurston, and Mr. Kolcz. With our group, we did a blindfold walk, where we walked the blindfolded partner somewhere and they had to listen, but we couldn’t touch them. We also did a spider web maze, where we had to go through a big spider web and if we touched it with any part of our body, we lost that part. We also did a jump rope game where we had to go through a moving jump rope in different patterns. The last activity we did was a lock game, where we had to move in a pattern corresponding with a lock to unlock it.
Our first class on Tuesday was Entomology (the study of insects) In that class, we learned about the different parts of an insect, looked at dead bugs in cases, did questions with bug pictures attached to our backs, and we made our own bugs out of candy that we ate. I liked it because we got to look at dead bugs and we got to go into an old building.
Right after Entomology we went to Orienteering with Mr. Ogden. Right next to the New Games station in the Big Field, we were using compasses to find points in the field. What Mr. Ogden made us do was get a coin (he said if we lost it, we owed him a case of Diet Coke) and place it somewhere in our area, and he would give us points and the closer we end up to the penny, the better we are. We also went into the woods with a partner and had to find letters nailed into trees with a sheet and we entered the degrees into the compass and took the necessary steps.
Right before lunch, we did survival. I think this was the best class because were near a fire the whole time, and be actually got to build things. What we got to build was a shelter. We build this with 3 other people using the materials around the area. It was also really fun because we got to learn survival skills. In one point in the class, our chief, Jason, and me were carrying a tree to our shelter, and when we put it down, he dropped it on my foot! But it didn’t really hurt, but I couldn’t feel all the toes on my right foot.
Our next class after lunch was Nature with Mrs. Wright. We would have been outside to do this, but it was raining, so we went into the upstairs lounge in the boys cabin. The first thing we did was a game where we had our thumbs taped to our hands so we couldn’t use them. She did this so we would learn how to be like animals because they don’t have thumbs. When we didn’t have our thumbs, Ms. Wright, Mr. Kolcz, and Mr. Thurston were throwing candy at us and in the air and we had to stockpile it. We also did a tree-hugging activity, where, with a partner, we were blindfolded and we went to a tree, and the blindfolded person had to remember the tree.
Our second to last activity, now my new favorite, was New Games with the P.E. teachers. We played many different games like Ultimate Nerf where it was like football, except if you had the ball you couldn’t move. We also played CTF (capture the flag) where we had two different sides, and you had to steal the other side’s bandanna (flag) The last game we did was kickball, where you have to kick a rubber ball coming towards you as far as you can. Unfortunately, the team I was on all the time lost in kickball but won the other two.
And our last class at Lake Geneva was Archery. I really liked this one a lot because we got to use compact bows instead of the old bows. I like those bows because you can shoot faster and farther and it’s easier to pull back. What we did first was go over what the bow and arrow was used for in the early days and what the Indians did with it, and we went over how to shoot it and the different parts. Next we just shot the targets which attached were pictures of animals. Then he put up balloons that we had to shoot. The only person who hit a balloon was Ryan at the very end.
The next day on Wednesday, this was our last activity; we did the high ropes course and the climbing tower. I didn’t do the ropes course because I’ve done it before, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it because it was inside, and it was literally hanging from the ceiling, so I didn’t feel like I was supported. But I did do the climbing wall, and it was really fun. It was 50 feet tall, and it had a zip line going down from it. Liked the zip line the best because it was really fast and it was relieving just to go down and get over with it.
So that’s it for my Outdoor Ed journal. This was really fun, and most of the teachers said it was better than Camp Algonquin but the 7th graders said that Algonquin was better, but they didn’t go. On Tuesday night, at the Johnson Activity Center, I beat Mr. Schnurlein in pool and he might have won.
Me playing pool with Mr. Schnurlein
