Lauren’s Outdoor Education Project
On May 2nd 2011, the whole 6th grade went on a trip and I went on a trip to Snake River in Wisconsin. This fun and exciting trip lasted for 3 days. I learned a lot of stuff while having fun at the same time.
Monday
May 2nd
8:00am-Bus Arrived
Before we headed out towards the camp, we put our stuff together in two piles in the front of the school: one would be the boys’ luggage pile and the other would be the girls’ pile. After that, all the sixth graders met in the community room for announcements and a movie (Finding Nemo) to watch while Mr. Cook’s first period (which I’m in) loaded the truck and bus with everyone’s luggage. Once the luggage was set into the vehicles, the class headed back into the community room to wait for the buses and watched the movie. Finally, the buses arrived at 9 o` clock and everyone started heading into the main hallway. Before we hopped on the buses, we got into our activity groups to be sure everyone who was coming was there. After the teachers did a head count, we headed off into the buses, and hit the road at 9:20am.
10:30-11:25am
The Bus Ride To Snake River-Arrival/Heading up to Play some Games
While on the bus, my friends and I were talking, drawing and taking pictures along the way to Snake River. We all enjoyed the ride, and we were excited about what activities we were about to do. Plus, we were very excited about the food: hopefully it was better than school’s! Finally, we got to camp around 10:30am. Happily, there wasn’t any traffic. Once we got all our stuff, we headed to our dorms to drop it off. I was in Triplet number one. After we set our stuff, down we went back down to the open space by the lake. There, everyone played games while waiting for a counselor, who would tell us what we were going to do and the rules. Finally, at 11:15, the counselor came and told us a lot of important information about the camp. When the counselor was done, everyone headed up to a big field to play some games.
11:30am-12:25pm
Games on the Field-Games over
Before we started our first game, some people that worked at Snake River introduced themselves. Each of them was in charge of one game we were going to play. After they introduced themselves we started our first game, which was called Brawl Ball. For this game, everyone was split into two groups, and everyone was given numbers, 1 through 37, in a line (I was number 7). Whenever the person (who was in charge of this game) called a number(s), the people who had those number(s) went out of the line and tried to kick or throw a ball through the opponent’s line. If someone got the ball through the opposing team’s line, that team won a point. After that game was over, we started playing the next game, “Blob Tag.” This game was really challenging for the blob, because everyone was being stretched and pushed when trying to tag people. Eventually the blob, (Michelle) ended up tagging people, but only managed to tag about 8 people. Once the game was over, we played “Everyone’s it.” In this game everyone is basically it. So it was an easy, simple, and fun. Next we played finger fencing. Here I had partner to play with, my partner was Carissa. To play, both or us had to make a shape of a gun with our finger, the lock them together, then try poking your partner, and also try to avoid being poked. Finally, our last game we played a rock, paper, scissors shoot game, but in this one there is a bear, a hunter and a princess. The bear beats the princess, the princess beats the hunter, and the hunter beats the bear; my partner was Yeji. After all our games, everyone was so very hungry; thankfully it was lunchtime.
12:30-4:58pm
Lunch-End of Team Building
When everyone was waiting for the food to be ready, we all got on the field in front of the dinning room and either played carpet ball, play on the playground or swing on the swings. Finally, the bell rang and we went inside to fill ourselves up with food, but before we entered the dinning room an instructor can and told us the rules for the dinning room. After that, we went in and ate grilled cheese with tomato or chicken noodle soup. At the table I sat at was with: Yeji, Yesol, Carissa, Angela, Chelsea, and Ms. Wright. When lunch was over, everyone headed up the hill to the field again to do low ropes activity with our activity groups. I was in group number one. It was made up with Arif, Yeji, Michelle, Alan, Emily, Brandon, James, George, Anna, Paul, Louis and me. For my first activity did a name learning game. Here we would pass a stuffed animal to person while you say your name and then the person’s name who ever your throwing it to. After that we did a jump rope game, where the jump rope symbolized an elevator, so everyone had to go through the rope before it goes around 2 times. Well that was challenging because people kept getting catch in the rope and kept tripping. The next activity was into the forest. It was a spider web course where you had to go through it with out touching it or else you would have to start all over. The course took such a long time to accomplish. We ended up army crawling through it. Next, we did the penguin activity. In this we had to ride on a tire swing and get the bigger ice bergs, but some people kept falling which is water and in the water were orca whales, so when the fell they would lose like an arm. At the end everyone wasn’t able to reach the bigger ice bergs because we took such a long time that it took up the time for most of the other activities, so we ended it short. Since we took so much time on the penguin activity, we only had enough time for one more activity, which was a seesaw activity. In this everyone had to be silent and use body actions to communicate and we had to keep the sea saw balanced. Once the see saw was balanced everyone had to sing row, row, row your boat before the seesaw touches the ground. We accomplished this 10 minutes before it was time to head back into the field. While waiting we did a short activity with a pole. We had to use only our index finger to lead the pole down to the ground with out dropping it. Finally, it was time to head back to the field to have a relay race against other groups. In this relay race we had to have a partner and get a balloon to the other side, without using your arms or hands. So, we held it up with our backs. After that we headed down to have dinner.
5:30-6:50pm
Dinner-On the way to the Gym
During dinner I had so much fun because I kept talking to my food. I was happy to have a better meal then the lunch we had. After dinner, everyone went back to their dorms to relax, talk or play small games. My dorm was called, “Triplet #1”, and my roommates were, Alyssa, Liz, Chelsea, Yeji, Emily, Payton, Bella, and I. My roommates and I played card games, gossiped, and wrote in our journals. All in all, I’ll just say I had fun during that time with my roommates.
7:00-8:25pm
Relay Races in the Gym
When other people and I got to the gym, we played some games while waiting for the rest of 6th grade to come. Soon, everybody came and we started the relay races. Before we started everyone lined up in their groups. The first game was called carry and fetch. In this game there was a rubber chicken and the rubber chicken had to be carried and placed on a chair across the gym, but if the chicken fell off you would have to run back and place it on there properly. The next game was called Waiter, Waiter. Here we had to carry a plate over our shoulders with a plastic eyeball on it. You had to keep the ball from rolling off of it while walking fast and trying to get both objects around the chair and back to your teammates to hand it off to the next player. The third game was called Knee Knocker Brain Blocker. In this game, you had to carry a rubber mat between you knees with out the use of your hands. Then you would have to make it to the chair and back like the second game. Next, we played Rescue Relay. For this game each team had a foam ring, The first person to start off the game had to run from the opposite side of the gym to your side and run back with a team member and repeat this until everyone was on the other side, rescued. Our last relay was called 3 Spot Spring. We had to crab walk all the way up the middle line of the gym, next lay on our backs and scream “help” three times. Then hop into the center of a hula-hoop that was on the ground and pull it over your head and place it back on the ground. The last step was to run to the jump rope that was on a chair, jump rope three times, place the rope back on the chair and run back to your team. This would continue until everyone has completed this. But the one thing to remember is that the last person has to stay and sit on the chair. After the was race over, everyone got a HUGE 9 ½” Rice Crispy treat bar, and went back to their dorms, but Carissa, Yeji, Robbie, and I went to the field instead of the dorms to go on the night hike.
9:00-10:15
Night Hike-Hit the Hay
When the four of us (Carissa, Yeji, Robbie, and I) and two teachers (Ms.Wright & Senora Dion) got to the field, there were 4 counselors waiting there to lead the hike, but before we went into the forest, we did some short activities. All the activities were to use our senses. The first activity was to feel what an item that was in a paper bag, and after you felt it, you’d have to guess what it was. The item was an antler from a deer. The next was to identify a crayon’s color in the dark. I was hard to identify the color because it was so dark outside. The color I got was purple but I guessed green. The person who was closest to there color was Robbie. He had the color orange but he wrote red. After that we stood there in the middle of the field to see if we could hear or see anything. Something really cool we saw was a bat. Soon after trying to hear and listen to things, we headed into the forest. When we headed into the forest, Carissa and I pretended to be scared because it was dark in the forest and we kept tripping that we had to hold hands to keep both of us not scared, plus keep one another balanced. While walking we found deer tracks on the ground, heard the deer walk near us, and actually see it. After that, we walked a bit more into the forest, but soon we headed back out onto the field. When we got there, one counselor said that we had to bit down on a piece of candy (mint life saver) and bite on it and something would happen, but we weren’t able to see our own life savors, so we had to look at one another’s. The counselor was right something did happen, when you crunch on it would let out sparks, which we really surprised about and thought it was really cool. After that we thanked the counselors and headed back to our dorms and brag how fun it was. While in the dorms everyone took turns taking showers and when it was their turn to shower they played games. Everyone had limited time to shower (5 minutes). After we were ready for bed we played some card games or gossiped. When it was time to sleep, it was hard because we kept taking. Then soon everyone fell asleep. Hours later, everyone woke up at like 2 in the morning, either because they either needed to use the bathroom or it was to hot. Liz and I woke up because had to use the bathroom and it was too hot. After that both of us couldn’t fall back asleep because it was so hot and we had sunburns on our faces, so it hurt even more. Liz and I was so hot because she was under the vent where the heat was coming out from and I was right next to it, so we got wet paper towels and set them on our faces and moved to the two empty bottom bonks because it was much cooler down there. There we feel asleep.
7:15-8:40am
May 3rd
Rise and Shine-Stuffing up our bellies
We woke up at around 7:15am. Everyone got ready for the day and the delicious food. When we went down to have breakfast, we had to wait till the bell rang for us to enter the dinning room and eat. When the bell rang we entered the dining room and ate a fantastic breakfast. We were stuffed and happy after we ate. Then my group at my table and I were excited for the activities.
8:45-9:40am
Survival
Our first group activity was “Survival.” In survival my group and I learned things about surviving in the wild when you don’t have any supplies. We also learn two ways to stack wood for fire and how to make a fire, the counselors who were teaching us this, lit a fire as an example. Next we learned the three essentials needed to survive, how to survive in the wild with out the three essentials, and what characteristic a shelter should have. After that the teacher said that we were going to pretend to be lost in the forest and that we had to make shelter because there was a big storm coming, so everyone used wood for there shelter. Before we started to build shelter we got into group of five to build the shelter together. We had about 30 minutes to build our shelter. When time was over for building, everyone presented their shelter. After sharing, it was time to go to our next activity, which was on the field.
9:50-10:50am
New games
Our second activity was called “New Games.” this activity included two parts to it. The first part was called “Frisbee Keep-Away.” In this game you have to pass a frisbee 5 times to earn a point, while keeping it away from the other team that’s trying to catch it so that there team can earn points by passing it 5 time too. The second is called “Ultimate Nerf.” This game is similar to football, but with a round ball. Mrs.Mazur was in charge of this game. Our group was split into two groups to make it an even team. Everyone wasn’t on the same team every round. The game was fun and it was funny at the same time because people kept falling and slipping on the ground. In this game people had to communicate to score, which made it easy for my team to get points. The game went on for a while until we had to go to our next activity.
10:55am-11:55am
Archery
The next activity before lunch was “Archery.” Before we started shooting, the instructor taught us the safety procedures and the parts of the bow. After learned the safety tip we started shooting. When shooting, archery was challenging for me even though it wasn’t my first time doing it (this was my 2nd time). Everyone took turns shooting because there weren’t enough spots for everyone to shot in at the same time. Our targets were pictures of animals on cloth stuck to hay. When it was my turn, I couldn’t even hit the animal, which was pretty funny. While shooting I had a lot of fun. When the clock turned, and it was 12 o` clock, we left and went down the hill to have lunch.
12:00-1:13pm
Lunch
During lunch I had fun with my food again. I ended up enjoying it, while talking to it. Ms.Wright kept laughing at me, and kept saying that I’m crazy, which is true. While eating my friends and I would talk about funny things that happened during the activities and about funny memories. After all the funny talk, we went out to our next activity.
1:15-2:18pm
Nature
This activity was called “Nature”, and it has 4 parts to it. The first activity we did in nature was, that you had to identify your rock/piece of wood. We first had to feel the item you had without looking and then give it back. After you gave it back the items, they were handed back to us randomly, and then try to find your item you first got (I got a big rock). The second activity was called “Friendly Squirrel”, where your thumbs were taped down and you had to grab candy and try to open the wrappers without using your thumbs. I ended up wearing the tape on my hands for a little over an hour. The third activity we did was called the “Tree Hugging game.” In this activity, your partner would lead you to a tree while you were blindfolded and then you would have to hug it a feel the details on the tree with out knowing which one it is. Then your partner would have to bring you back to where we did the Friendly Squirrel activity and there you would be spun around. After being spun around you had to be able to find and identify your tree you hugged after. The last activity we did was when we had to act like dogs and use your sense of smell, your eyesight to find all the clues to get the prize (an air head). Also, We weren’t able to talk in English we were only able to bark or howl like dog. While looking for the clues we entered the forest and there we found the rest of the clues, but Brandon found the most clues, where I only found one clue. After that we left to go to our next activity.
2:20-3:23pm
Entomology (Insects)
After our fun in Nature, we went to our next activity, “Entomology”, which technically is the study of insects. When we first entered the place for Insects, we had to wait for the counselor to come, so during that time we ate candy (from our last activity) and wrote in our journals. After 10 minutes of waiting, the counselor finally came and we got started on our activities. For the first activity, we had a picture of a bug on our backs, and we didn’t know what it was, so we had to try to identify it with the help of other people answering yes or no questions from you. While trying to figure out what my bug was, I got some clues. Michelle and Colleen helped me out. For the clues Michelle said, “Hercules” and Colleen said, “Beetle.” At first I didn’t get what they were saying, but after I thought of it I figured out that my bug was, it was a “Hercules Beetle.” After that we started learning some facts about how you can tell if an insect is a bug or not. How you can tell if an insect is a bug is that they have 3 main body parts, 6 legs, a pair of antennae, and more. The counselor also showed us examples of bug pictures, about its main body parts, and some of her collections of bugs. Our last activity was the most fun part of this activity, it was making our own bug out of candy. We had toothpicks to stick all the pieces together and after we made them we had to name them. I named my bug Whorlie because it had whorls on its body. Once everyone was done making their bug we all presented them. After presenting, we ate our bugs and left for our last activity. My bug didn’t taste so good.
3:25-5:55pm
Orienteering
Finally, our last group activity, “Orienteering.” Mr. Ogden was in charge of this activity. In this activity we were given a compass to use, but before we obtained the compasses we learn a little history about the compass. In the first activity for orienteering we were given a coin. With that coin we set it on the ground where we were standing. Then Mr. Ogden gave us directions that lead us back to our coin, but I didn’t get back to my coin on my first try. After that, we did it again, and I got to my coin. The last part of this activity, we chose partners. My partner was Yeji. With my partner we entered the forest with a card and compass to try to find letters on trees. The last direction on our card lead us to where my partner and I first started, but we forgot to mark down the letters on the trees, so we had to do it again. The second time we remembered to write it down but the marker wasn’t working on the card so I had to write it on my hand. Once we were done we checked with Mr. Ogden if our letters were in the correct order, and they were. After being checked we had to wait for the others because we were the first ones done. Finally, everyone was done and we all put our items (compass, card, and marker) away. Since it was cold outside and we were done with our last activity we were able to write our journals inside of our warm dorms. After writing, my dorm mates and I had some time to play some games while waiting until it was time to go play some game at the gym.
5:00-5:29pm
Big Group Games
Once it was time to go to the gym, everyone got up and started heading up there. At the gym hula-hoops were set on the ground and spread out from one another. When we were starting the first game, the instructions were told before playing. The person who was telling us how to play told us that the hula-hoops were planets and that when a whistle was blown we had to go on to a planet, but if you weren’t on a planet or if you fell off one you were out. At the end of the game, my friends and I talked about how they didn’t enjoy this game and thought it was sort of a kiddy game. The next game we play was a “What was your favorite thing in any activity?” We just had to go to someone across from you and ask them what their favorite activity was that day. The last game was a handshake game. We had to do all sorts of handshakes with other people. At the end of this nonsense, we headed down to go have our last meal of the day.
5:30-6:55pm
Dinner
During dinner, I stuffed myself like a turkey, well sort of. While eating my friends and I talked about how much better the food was there then at school. After that we talked about what we did during the activities and games.
7:00-7:55pm
Games in the Gym
In the gym there weren’t any games set up for us to all play like last night, but there were basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, and one carpet ball to play with. During that time I played volleyball with some of my friends. After playing, everyone headed down to Shadow Hill to make some smores.
8:00-8:55pm
Campfire at Shadow Hill
At shadow hill, a fire was started for us and skewers were there too. When I got my skewer my friend didn’t know how to make a smores and get her marsh mellow ready so I did it for her. First I did her then I did mine. I couldn’t finish mine while the others finished theirs. I made another one for her. Once it was time to head back to our dorms, my friends gobbled up the rest of their smores and went back to our dorms.
9:00-10:15pm
Dorm time-Sweet Dreams
At our dorm we had a lot of fun while playing games, talking, and telling jokes to one another. Before going to sleep we took a shower doing the same thing like the night before night. After we all took our showers we got back to doing our mini activities, while playing I started packing to head out of the camp. We were playing, talking, telling each other jokes and having fun. When it was to go to sleep and when the lights were turned off, Bella said something really funny. She asked Alyssa if she had any floss and everyone started laughing. Bella could have asked earlier but she waited until we were all in bed. After our good laugh thanks to Bella we all fell fast asleep.
7:15-8:40
May 4th
Wake up-Stuff our tum tums
Before heading out to breakfast we were told to finish packing our luggage. After we finished packing we headed down the hill to the parking lot by the dinning room and set all of our luggage there in piles. After we set our stuff we waited till the bell rang for us to eat. When the bell rang we all ran in to eat. Breakfast was good and I enjoyed it, of course. After eating and stuffing our tummies we headed out towards our last activity at Snake River.
8:45-11:55am
High Ropes & Climbing Tower
Our last activity was the most fun activity I did at Snake River. The activity was high ropes and climbing tower. The first thing we did was high ropes. High ropes were extremely fun when climbing up to the courses above and doing them. After the high ropes my group was called over to go to the climbing tower for our turn to do it. There were two climbing activities on the tower. The one that I did was, the rock climbing side and the other side was a net and ladder climb. Once I got to the top of the rock, I went on the zip line. On my way down, I was having a blast and laughing my head off. After that, I went back to the high ropes and did one more course before we left for lunch. I sure was ready to feast on our lunch!
12:00-12:40pm
Lunch
Lunch is served! We had good food before our trip back home.
12:45-2:23pm
Departure and Arrival
I was sad to leave so soon, but at least I got to go home to my family and to my own bed. It took us about an hour to get back to school. It was exactly 2:23 when we got there. My grandma and my dog Rice was there to pick me up. I sure was happy to see them.
All in All, I’d say that this was the best field trip I’ve ever been on. I learned a lot while having a lot of fun doing so. Thank you to everyone for making it such a wonder experience! Thank you to all the teachers and to my all my friends!!!!
