Introduction
If you like zip lining, candy, playing carpetball, and having fun, you’ll love outdoor ed! Outdoor ed is the 3 day 2 night trip 6th graders go on. It was a lot of fun and I encourage anyone with the option to go on outdoor ed to do it. We did a variety of activities and almost all of them were extremely fun.
My group playing the magic carpet game.
Team Building Activities
The first activities we did other than the group activities were the team building activities. We did a number of games such as have you ever, Jedi, Magic carpet, and puzzles.
The first game we did was called ‘Have you Ever’. In this game we had a person in the middle. The person would ask a question with have you ever in it such as “Have you ever owned a dog.” If the question applied to you, you had to get off a rubber pad you were standing on and find another one that wasn’t next to yours and wasn’t yours. The person in the middle tried to get onto one of the open rubber pad.
The next game was called Jedi. This called for a lot of teamwork. In this, someone was blindfolded on your team. There were 2 teams. Teresa, our instructor, had 2 swords and dropped them in the middle of the 2 teams in the field. We had to lead our blindfolded ‘Jedi’ to the sword and then lead them to the other ‘Jedi’ so they could attack him/her. This taught us that yelling wont get you anywhere, but if you have one person talking calmly, everything works out.
Another game we played was called Magic Carpet. In this all 13 of us in my activity group had to stand on a sheet. Then we had to flip it over without us touching the ground. In this we learned to listen to ALL ideas and to be creative.
The final game was puzzles. In this, we had to make 4 different puzzles without talking or moving. This activity required had gestures and clapping to get pieces and extreme patience. This was my least favorite game we played in the team building activities.
Me with my hands taped for the squirrel game in nature
Nature Awareness
In nature, we learned how to use our 5 senses. The senses are touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight.
First, we did an activity for touch. In this, we were given an object with our eyes closed. We felt the object and gave it back to Ms. Wright, the teacher for nature. We had to think about what it was. Then she poured all the objects into a pile. We had to find our objects. This taught us how we are so reliant on touch.
Next, we worked without our thumbs. The teachers taped our hands so we couldn’t use our thumbs like squirrels. Then, Ms. Wright threw candy in the air for us to get. We learned how hard it is to live without thumbs.
Finally we used smell. Mrs. Wright had gone into the forest and sprayed peppermint spray near pieces of paper. We had to find the paper. Still, there was a catch. We couldn’t talk. We had to bark like dogs to let others know we found the paper. This taught us teamwork.
Nature really helped us use our senses and realize how dependent we are on certain parts of us.
Me with my good friend Matthew in orienteering.
Orienteering
In orienteering, we learned how to use a compass. I learned that orienteering used to be a sport. It isn’t popular anymore because of geocaching, a similar sport that involves GPS.
To use a compass to find a degree, there are several steps you must take. First, you set the compass to a degree. Then, you turn your whole body until the red arrow lines up the arrow on the plastic part of the compass. The red arrow means north. Then, the direction your big arrow is pointing to is the direction of the degree.
Mr. Ogden gave us pennies to stand on. Then, Mr. Ogden had us put our compasses to a certain degree and do a certain amount of steps and we would go in an odd shape to get back to the penny. If you lost your coin, you owed Mr. Ogden a coke. I still had already learned how to use a compass at camp.
Me and others playing carpetball.
Entomology
In entomology, we learned about insects. After all, entomology is the study of insects. This was my least favorite class. The instructor was Donna who I didn’t really like.
First, we did an activity to see our basic knowledge on bugs. We had pictures taped on our backs of bugs. We had to ask our partners yes or no questions to try to guess our bug. My bug was a termite.
We learned about Viceroy and Monarch butterflies. Monarchs are one of the only butterflies that taste bad when you eat them. They are even sometimes poisonous! Animals, once they see the consequences of eating Monarchs, they avoid them. The Viceroys look very similar to the Monarchs, but they are not poisonous. Still, animals avoid them thinking they are Monarchs. That is how Viceroys survive.
Finally, we got to make candy bugs. We used gumdrops for the body, toothpicks for antennae, and Twizzlers for other additions. Then we got to eat the bugs if we wanted. Since the plates we used by others as well, and the toothpicks and some candy, I decided not to eat mine because I didn’t want to get sick.
My group's fort. Not beauty, but it was safe.
Survival
Survival was one of the most fun activities. In this we learned about outdoor survival. We did a variety of activities including shelter making that were very fun.
First, we did a little introduction activity. Around a campfire, we grouped up in groups of 2 or 3. I was with Matthew T. We decided what 3 things we would bring as absolute necessities for living in the wilderness. There were many different things said and I had a good argument with Robbie on what to bring and in the end, my group decided to bring water, a multi-purpose pocketknife, and a stove.
Finally, we did the fun part. We got to build forts. My fort group was Will, Colleen, I think Youngjin, someone else I don’t remember, and me. First, we found a Y shaped tree near a tree stump. We stuck a long stick in the Y tree and had an end on the stump. Then we lined other branches along the sides of it and had an opening for a door and Colleen even set up sticks on the outside to make it look good. We used a lot of teamwork in this activity. If we hadn’t, we never would’ve finished.
A funny thing happened with Robbie’s fort. He kept bragging that his was the best. When he went in to demonstrate his, part of it collapsed. He REALLY showed us.
New Games
In new games, all the games we played were old games. We played basic team games: capture the flag and kickball.
The capture the flag game was uneventful. Same old waiting for the other team. My team lost both games.
The Kickball game was better. For this, one team got Mr. Henley and the other got more of the stronger players. We won by 1 point and it was a close game. If we had played more innings, I could not predict who would’ve won.
The New Games went by fast but it was still fun.
Me in archery.
Archery
In archery, I didn’t really learn any thing because I had done archery at camp. Here are sum facts: There are 2 kinds of bows, compound and recurve. Compounds are more powerful. We used compound bows.
When I shot, I wasn’t very good but I wasn’t very bad.
Me climbing the net.
High Ropes/Climbing Tower/Zipline/Giant’s Ladder
The hours before we left were spent actually at the main snake road adventure center. We got to do a ton of fun things.
The high ropes course was pretty self-explanatory. I went on 2 of the mini courses. The first one I went on was made up of 6 swings and I had to hop from one to the next with the help of two ropes at waist height. The other one I did was a bit harder. This one I was on a single wire rope with 4 ropes hanging from above me I could use getting to one side was easier because I could use all the hanging ropes. On the way back I had to skip 2 with the instructor having the rope more taught.
In between those 2 activities, I got to go to the climbing tower. When I got there, I chose to do the net and ladder rather than the climbing wall. The net was a big rope net I climbed and the ladder was a giant ladder with each step 4 feet apart. I climbed with a little struggle and made it to the top. The hardest part was the last step of the ladder.
Once I was on top, there was only one way down…the zipline. When others went down, the whole tower shook and the wire made a whirring sound. I was a little scared, but not as scarred as others since I had ziplined before in the Mexican rainforest. The zipline was probably the most fun part of he whole trip. The rush of adrenaline felt great.
Also, I did the giants ladder. It was a giant ladder that I went on with Robbie. We made it to the 4th bar. It got harder as you got harder.
Robbie and I on the Giant's Ladder.
The End
In the end, I had a great time with all the fun things we did. I think anyone would. The only bad thing was that the camp was a bible camp. Still, the others, and I had great times.
¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Thanks Mr. Ogden!!!!!!!!!!
