Three Days In May
Michael Neuhaus
On May 2-4 our whole 6th grade went to Outdoor Ed. Outdoor Ed. Stands for Outdoor Education Experience. We went to a camp called Snake River Adventure Center. It was in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Outdoor Ed seemed like a fun and exciting experience.
Leaving to Snake River
9:00 am
Right before we left to go to Snake River Adventure Center I went to the bathroom and got my pillow so I can sleep on the bus and listen to music. I slept most of the ride and I was sitting next to Arif. He was also listening to music while other kids were talking in the back. The bus ride was very relaxing. When we got into Wisconsin everyone was yelling and were happy we were almost there. The Trip took about 1 hour 30 minutes. The bus ride went very fast for me because I was sleeping most of the time. When we got to Snake River Adventure Center everyone was looking at the lake and saying how pretty it was.
Arrive at Snake River/Group
Games
11:00 am
When we got out of the bus to go to the dorms, Engelbretson and The Triplets, we started unpacking our bags, claiming our beds and then getting ready to go and do group games. We played a game were you had to throw the ball through the other teams barricade to score a point. I learned that to keep the other people from scoring you have to get close to the person next to u so they cannot throw it through. It was the whole 6th grade playing. We split up into two groups and played. We had a lot of fun playing the game. I forgot what the game was called but no matter what it was fun.
Lunch
12:30 pm
After we played the games, we went down to the lake were we waited for lunch to be ready. When we were at the lake there was a playground, swing sets and a game called carpet ball. When we were there I was hanging out with my friends on the monkey bars on the playground. We were talking and saying what we thought the trip was going to be about. Then the lunch bell rang and we lined up to go into the lunchroom. When we lined up, one of the people in charge would make an announcement then let us inside. When we got inside there were many tables with different teachers at each one. My friends and I decided to go to Ms. Mazur’s table. The people sitting at my table were Gregory, Ryan, Arif, Louis, Antonio and George. We were served a big beaker of water that our whole table had to drink before we could get soda. A couple minutes after everyone settled in his or her seats and talked a little, the person in charge told us what we were eating. We were eating grilled cheese sandwiches, Tater-tots, fruit, yogurt and salad. I had all of the options. The food was really good and we had a lot of fun eating together.
Team Building
1:30 pm
When we finished eating lunch we then went to the big field and went with our assigned groups. I was with the counselor Jon. My group members were J.B, Jonathan Silversteen, Chase Thomas, Arch Toupuzian, Noah Goldberg, Yesol An, Danielle Vargo, Carrisa Yang, Maya K and Joe Lim. First we played a Name game were we had to pass a toy to a person and say our name then they would say his or her name and so on. We had to memorize the order on who passed to whom and we did it with more than one toy after a couple tries. The game was challenging at first until we came up with a strategy were you would stand next to the person you receive it from and who you pass it to. Since we just passed in one direction it was really easy. After we accomplished the name game we did another game were everyone got in a straight line and had to run through a jump rope one by one, every rotation, and make it to the other side. When we first tried it we didn’t get all the way through. So we came up with a strategy were we would put the not so good kids up front and the ones that could do it easily in the back. We did this because if we can get the kids who cant do it as well up front then we can know for sure we can get all the way through if they get through. So we tried the strategy and it worked. Then Jon made it harder and made us go from 1 person going, then 2 people, 3 people, 4 people then 5 people going at a time to make it more challenging we did the same strategy and accomplished it in one or two tries. After we did the jump rope we went into the woods and went down the hill a little to two trees that had wire tied to make it look like a spider web. We had to go through the spider web without using the same holes in the web. We could either go alone our somehow be connected with 3 people to get through so we can get to the other side and move n with our activities. One of the strategies that we used was that we go through the hardest ones first than the easiest so we can get through the hard ones over with. It took awhile for us to complete the activity. If we touched one of the wires we would then be blindfolded of have our hands tied together. Having that happen makes it even harder for us. Since we took a long time to complete it he gave us 3 touches on the wire. So after he made that statement we got through the next trial. Finally when we finished that we went and had to carry a stick with each person’s topside of his or her index finger. We had to work together and walk a certain distance to get to our next activity. The activity really took no strategy to get to the next activity. Our next activity was to get across the low ropes course. We had to hook on to each others hands and shimmy across arch was the best s the wire on the bottom while holding onto other ropes hanging down that were spaced out evenly. When we first had people get up there, everybody thought arch was the best at it so they had him keep on going. Chase and I told arch to stop so we could go. It turns out chase and I was the best because we worked together and got to the end first. So everyone copied our technique and got across. The activity was really fun and seeing people work their hardest and crack up when they keep shaking the wire like crazy. The activity was one of my favorites at Snake River Adventure Center. After we finished that activity we walked to a tree house were everyone was blindfolded except chase because he had to lead us around to our destination and have everyone in a line. It was really fun because everyone was yelling when they hit a branch and they got scared and chase was having a hard time keeping us on track so he starts laughing at us. We all had a good time. Our last station was were there were 3 platforms and we had to get everyone on one platform using different planks. At first we had to get the girls to the middle plank then the boys and girls to the last plank. We did this very fast and it was an easy activity. We had a lot of fun doing team-building activities. 
Journaling
5:00 pm
When we got back to the big field we sat down and did our journal for 15 minutes. We had to journal about what the highlights of the day were and what we thought about all the activities. We also had to journal about what we learned about working together. I did my journal on every activity that we did and what I learned so I can remember what we did during our trip.
Dinner
5:30 pm
We then washed up and got ready for dinner. For dinner we had very good food. I took everything there was. My whole table finished the water very quickly so we could go get soda, but instead of getting soda we noticed there was hot chocolate. So we got hot chocolate instead because we wanted to try something other than soda. We had many conversations during dinner that night. We were excited to go back to our dorms and hang out then go do a special event at night.
Relaxation in Dorms
6:00 pm
When we finished eating our dinner we went back to our dorms to hang out and just chill for an hour. The people in my dorm were Louis, Arif, Brandon, Allen, Joe, Kory, William, Jason, Matthew and A.j. We went in the upstairs and downstairs dorms. We played cards and other games. Other kids were journaling to get more information to jot down and remember. I was playing cards. A card game that we played was war. Arif and I were sitting on my bunk playing war for about 45 minutes. We had a good time because he had no idea I was cheating him by taking all of the aces and putting them in my deck while I told him I was making sure every card was there. Arif and Louis started laughing when I told them because arif didn’t notice 3 games in a row.
Relay Races
7:00 pm
After our hour of dorm time we went to the gym and did relay races. We split back into our groups and lined up in 5 different lines. We were team 2, led by Mr. Hoffheimer and Ms. Snyder. We did different silly relays. We had to balance an eyeball on a plate, keep a platform between our legs while we run back and forth, and many other relays. We came in second for the relays. We had a different strategy for each relay. If you came in 1st you get 5 points, 2nd you get 3 points, 3rd you get 1 point and 4th and 6th get 0 points.
Dorms
8:30 pm
When we got back to the dorms kids played cards and me and some other kids went to sleep at 9. When we got back I took a shower and brushed my teeth. The showers were really nice. We had 1 bathroom and 2 showers. I was one of the first people to take a shower. I had no towel so I had to shake my hair and air dry in the shower room. It took me about 15 minutes to do that. Then I got dressed brushed my teeth and talked to Louis while we went to sleep.
Waking Up
5:00 am
The next morning we woke up at 5:00 in the morning because of Arif’s alarm clock. Everyone woke up mad at Arif. We all couldn’t go back to sleep so we were talking quietly in our dorms. We talked across the room to different people and even to the people under us. After about an hour most of the kids took showers and got dressed ready to leave to breakfast. We had 2 hours until breakfast so we turned the lights on; played cards, catch with a tennis ball and got out of our bunks to go hang out with other people. Jason was really mad at us because he said we were being so loud and said he was going to tell on us, but it happens that no one heard us and the teachers slept somewhat well. We heard the upstairs dorms jumping around or doing something rough and loud like that. After 7:15 the teachers came to check on us and to tell us to get ready for breakfast. Everyone was already ready so we went out into the dorm lounge and everyone played cards on the big table. We played Texas Hold-em’. We had a lot of fun playing Texas hold-em’ with 10 people.
Breakfast
8:00 am
When we left for breakfast I walked to carpet ball instead of the playground. Carpet ball is actually really fun. It’s were you have two balls and you set the up in a certain way so it is harder for your opponent to hit them with the neutral ball that is rolled back and forth. There is a champion side and a newcomer side. The champion’s side you stay if you win and if you are the newcomer and beat the champion, you take the champions place and that’s how the game works. When I first played I beat the champion and stayed there for 7 games. I then got the hang of carpet ball and kept winning my games. Then the breakfast bell rang and we lined up, the leader of the groups today mad an announcement and he sent us in to the cafeteria. We went to our table with Ms. Mazur and finished our water quickly. Some kids in my group got hot chocolate while Ryan and I got orange juice. The orange juice was in a small carton so when I finished it I went to go get hot chocolate so I had something more to drink. For breakfast we had eggs, bacon, sausage, potato wedges, yogurt and a fruit cup. I had eggs, sausage, yogurt and fruit. I had my eggs with ketchup, my sausage with maple syrup and my yogurt and fruit by its self. I went up and got seconds so I would have food in my stomach to keep me not hungry until lunch. The food was really good and we had funny conversations about what everyone did in their dorms. Breakfast was really good.
Orienteering
8:45 am
Our first class was orienteering. Orienteering is using a compass to locate different objects and to find your destination. At first we discussed how to use the compasses and what to do with them. I learned that you had to set the compass to a certain degree every time you used it so you would get the right directions. We then got a penny and spread out in the field, laid our penny down and were given a set of directions by Mr. Ogden. We had to set our compass to a certain degrees and move a certain amount of steps. When we finished the set of directions he told us we were supposed to be right were we left our penny. I was about 3 feet off and some kids were way off, more than 5 feet. After we did the penny activity we were to find another group member and do an activity with them that had to do with us going into the woods locating letters than unscrambling them. I was with Joe and we started at “pine start”. We ended up going to our first letter and our directions didn’t get us to the second, third, fourth or fifth letter. Joe and I had a hard time calculating our way around. We were sent to survival next.
Survival
9:50 am
When we finished orienteering we went across the camp to Survival. Survival is where we learned different techniques to survive in the wilderness. We also learned a good way to build shelter. They also taught us how to make a fire. To make a fire you need an ignition, fuel and oxygen. Those are the three things needed to make a fire. The ignition is what starts the fire, which is a kindle, the fuel is wood or bark, and the oxygen is what allows the fire to “burn”. To survive in the wilderness you need shelter. To make a shelter you usually gather sticks and make a cabin like shelter. After you make the cabin like shelter you would put material on top to close all the little holes. When we made our shelter I was with Joe, Arch and J.B. we made a long tepee type shelter. It was on a big branch that was intersecting with a V-shaped tree. We put little branches against it on both sides so it would look like a hut. During survival we had a lot of fun doing the survival activities. The information they gave us will be very useful if it ever happened that we were stuck in the wilderness. 
New Games
10:55 am
In new games we were taught three, new, fun, team building games. One of the games was called ultimate keep-away Frisbee. In this game we were split into two different teams and competed against each other trying to keep the other team from stealing the Frisbee. We had to think of strategies on how to complete the most passes in a row. My team’s strategy was to make quick short distance passes and go spread the field as we did so. The next game was Nerf ball where we had to throw the ball to each other and make it in the other end zone. It was kind of like football except you cannot move with the ball. My team’s strategy was to throw a long ball then many short ones, vice versa. We got many points in a row and ended the game fast. The last game was elbow tag Elbow tag is where you link arms with another person and keep breaking off when another person comes on running from the person who is it. We did not play for very long because we were running out of time but it was still very fun. New games were a really fun time of the day.
Lunch
12:30 pm
Right before lunch I played carpet ball again and it was really funny because we had new kids coming in to try to play and someone accidentally hit the ball and it bounced up and hit someone in the thigh. I also found a new really good strategy were you put the balls even so they cannot get both at once. You also put the balls 1 inch from the bumps so the ball will bounce over your ball. When the bell rang we lined up and went inside to eat. I did not remember what we ate but I remember that we had a great time because when Greg was drinking his hot chocolate it went up his nose and every one including Ms. Mazur started laughing. Arif had 2 plates of food and a plate of desert and his plates were overflowed and yet he finished everything. Everyone was watching him eat and was looking at him weirdly then he starts laughing for some reason. Lunch was a time to remember at going to Snake River Adventure Center.
Archery
1:15 pm
After lunch we went to our next class, Archery. In archery we learned the proper way to hold a bow and shoot an arrow. We also learned the safety of the shooting range. When we learned how to hold a bow we had to stand sideways from our target, pick up the bow on its side, turn it upright, load an arrow, pull back to shoulder then fire. We did all of these steps one by one so we could understand them into depth. When I was up to shoot, I got a headshot, a gut shot and out of the range. I was surprised I did that good. It was fun how we got to shoot many times and even try to pop balloons. When we went to go pull out our arrows we had to put the stem between two of our fingers and the use it as a guide and pull it out. I had a really fun time at archery and liked learning about how to use archery,
Nature
2:20 pm
When we left archery we got to nature. In nature we learned how hard it is for an animal with no thumbs to grip objects and how important communication is. We did an activity were Ms. Wright taped our thumbs to our palms and put us in a clump of grass. She then threw candy at us and we were to try to pick as many up as we can. Noah and I had a really good idea were we would use our hats so we could catch and hold more. We ended up getting the most candy because of our good strategy. Everyone thought it was cheap but an animal could use a pouch like a kangaroo killing and keeping the prey in the pouch. Then we were blindfolded and had a partner guide us around. We could only use words and couldn’t drag them around like when you go to a surprise birthday party and drag them into the room blindfolded. Its not like that, we had to guide them and use our communication skills, which was very challenging. I led Joe up the hill easily but we had trouble going down., he tripped on a twig and fell but it wasn’t that bad. He was ok so we continued down the hill. When we got down we switched and I was then blindfolded. Joe led me around the tree many times and told me to walk straight and I was really dizzy. It was fun working with Joe because we made eachother do funny things. He made me walk to the bathroom and wash my hands then made me run in a circle. It was really fun learning about nature.
Entomology
3:25 pm
Entomology was creepy. We looked at many different bugs. First we did a game were the lady taped a picture of a bug to our backs and we had to ask questions and receive info on who we think we got. I had a Hercules bug which I had no idea I was that. At first I thought I was a butterfly but in the end I was something totally different. We discussed our bugs and insects. We also looked at showcases of real bugs that the lady killed and pinned on box. She had many different types of bugs. She had really big ones and very small ones. After we knew what a bug should have and look like we made our own bugs with toothpicks and gummies. I made an ant like creature that could eat anything. We shared our bugs at the end. Entomology is creepy yet very interesting to learn about.
Dinner
5:30 pm
Right before dinner I was playing cops and robbers with Arif, Greg, William and George. We played for a good amount of time then went inside to go and eat dinner. For dinner we had really good food. We had spaghetti, breadsticks and salad. I enjoyed the food a lot and went up for seconds. it was funny because Greg went to the bathroom and when he came back he wondered were everyone went so he was scared he lost everyone but when he ran into the cafeteria he was relieved. So he went up to go get the food and he barely got to eat his food. Dinner was really good.
Games
6:15 pm
After dinner we went down to the gym to play games. One of the games that I played was basketball. I played a 3 on 3-basketball game with Louis, Antonio, Michelle, J.B and Tony. I was with J.B and Tony against Antonio, Louis and Michelle. When we started playing we checked the ball and I shot and made a three pointer to start the game off. Then when we checked to them they tried shooting but missed. So we got the ball, brought it back and then shot another three pointer. We had a good start in the beginning. The game turned out to be 22 to 28 and we won. After we decided the game should be over Antonio, Louis and I went to go get a soccer ball and make a circle were we would volley to each other. After a while people wanted to join so we stopped because its hard to keep a volley up with your feet and so we knew some kids who asked couldn’t do it. By then it was time to go. We had fun in the gym.
Campfire
8:00 pm
After the games in the gym we went to shadow hill where the fire pit was. We had a campfire. At first we al sat down and watched the fire. Then teachers let us come up and take 2 marshmallows. After you cook the marshmallows you get graham crackers and chocolate. I made my S’more and went to go sit down with Vincent. Vincent and I were all the way at the top of the seats. After I finished I was beat boxing as I normally do without knowing. Then me and Vincent made a song because he started rapping to what I was beat boxing. Our song that we made was pretty cool. We sang it all night and were laughing at it so many times. The campfire was really fun.
Dorm Time
9:00 pm
After the campfire, we went back to our dorms. When we got to our dorms I took a shower along with other people. After I finished mine, I went to my bed to play catch with Arif on the bunk next to me. We played catch for the majority of the night then the whole cabin joined in on catch. We didn’t do much in dorm time that night because we only had an hour. Then everyone went to sleep. But during the middle of the night around 4:00 am, we all heard Kory snoring. He woke everyone up and no one could go back to sleep. Then Kory did not wake up, so he kept on snoring. Our cabin was really mad the next morning.
Breakfast
8:00 am
After our long night we got dressed and went to breakfast. We went straight to breakfast. So we lined up outside of the cafeteria and talked about the plan today. We then went inside the cafeteria and ate eggs, sausage, bacon and yogurt. I had eggs, sausage and yogurt. I don’t like bacon that much. Breakfast was still very good and filled my stomach, as we got ready to go. Breakfast was as usual when we talk about what we did in our dorms and if we liked it or not. Breakfast was over and we got ready to go.
High Ropes Course
8:45 am
When we arrived at the high ropes course we talked about what to do. Then my group was the first to go on the climbing tower. The climbing tower was were you rock climb to the top of the tower than zip line down. I was the third person up to zip line. When I climbed up the rocks it was very easy to me and I got up fast. I used no strategy just grabbed on any rock that seemed stable to me. After I got up and got ready to zip line, I wasn’t scared but JB was. He was shaking like crazy. Then it was my turn. We went on the ledge a little lower than we were then we jumped off and zip lined down. Zip lining went really fast and was surprisingly short. Zip lining wasn’t that fun to me but it was decent. Then we went to the High Ropes Course. I didn’t do the high ropes course because Vincent didn’t want to do it either so we sat down or made another song. It was about 5 minutes long and we freestyle the whole thing. It was really fun that morning making songs with Vincent.
Going Home
12:45 pm
When we finished the high ropes course we got on the busses and departed to Marie Murphy. On the bus ride back I put on my headphones and went to sleep. By the time I woke up we were at school and I had to be woken up by Arif. After we got back I went inside to put my stuff away then went back outside and started Duck-Duck-Goose. After a couple rounds I stopped and Christie went to go get her dog from her house because she was dismissed from school and she brought her dog, Macy, over to me and I lay down with Macy. Christie said I have a thing with dogs, which made everyone laugh. I was happy we got home because now I could go get a good sleep at my house. Outdoor Ed was a really fun experience. I think the 5th graders next year should come hear too and learn everything we learned because it was a blast.
