Sunny skies welcomed 80 campers to the Barn Day Camp for our Session Two opener. As the day began, many of the returning kids sang their welcome song as the new campers listened and learned. I asked several groups to share what they did in their morning rotations here are a few examples:
At the Waterfront, all the new kids tested into their swim groups and the returning kids joined right in for lessons.
At the Adventure Barn, groups had a challenge of getting the “toxic slime” out of our barn and into the waste portal. This wasn’t easy and groups had to find ways to communicate as they were just getting to know each other.
In Nature, groups found flowers, then put them all into a pile in the middle of the group and the children took turns describing the ones they had found without saying their colors. This tested their vocabulary and descriptive abilities.
In Work Projects, campers learned all about the tools and began learning how to use the hammer and saw by hammering and sawing.
At the Farm, some groups harvested lettuce and made a delicious salad and others moved the goats from one spot to another. In the Art Barn, groups learned how to sew and than did.
At Outdoor Living Skills, the groups set up tents and learned about fires. Campers who wanted to do this were welcome to join in this activity during their “free time.”
All this before lunch and Silent Meeting. And, yes, Silent Meeting was pretty darn silent with lots of comments about how wonderful it is to be at camp and how fun it was to swim and how excited they are to be in the swim group they are in and how much they are looking forward to, along with a good amount of silence before singing. I will save the afternoon for another day.
Great to have another sunny day to start camp.