Days 1&2: Senior High Camp 2013

Happy campers!

Hey everyone! I am here, finally sitting, and ready to tell you about the past couple days. :)

Day one, yesterday, was craaaaaazy.
I will be honest and say I think I bit off more than I could chew.. at least for the first half hour. Turns out I have the campers for 3 HOURS instead of 45 minutes per day. Go figure... Anywho.. I kind of, sort of, introduced three different craft options but could only really COMMIT to teaching two. The crafts I offered were the pop tab bracelets, cardboard loom weaving pieces, and leather wrap bracelets. Campers that weren't working on the weaving made leather wrap bracelets - I don't have a good picture of those but I'll get some campers together and take one ASAP. They turned out really really cool - everyone did something different.

The campers worked on their weaving all day yesterday and I wasn't quite prepared to finish the pieces! The finishing steps had to wait til today when I refreshed my memory on removing the weaving and finishing knots etc.

WE LOVE WEAVING. YAY. ENTHUSIASM.

I didn't know how the campers would receive the weaving project but they loved it! It takes up almost the whole time they spend in Rockland and they are learning each others' names and making new friends :) All good things in my book!

Rockland: Full house!

After crafts was dinner and then I was on duty as a stand-in, or rather sleep-in, counselor/chaperone. Lemme tell ya, those cabins are pretty cozy for being in the middle of the woods. Still not committed enough to shower in the bath houses though! I have a staff cabin for that ;) 

I led devotionals last night and we talked about anger and the power of angry words.

Each girl had something different to say; many personalities and perspectives to witness in that small cabin... I was told that my group was a 'challenging' one, but I am enjoying working with them and reading all the ridiculous things old campers (and some of my current cabin mates) wrote on the walls for a laugh. Oh, but we have not been enjoying the mosquitoes. So. Many. Mosquitoes.

TODAY

 Here's the cubbies from today! Lots of weaving projects..

I helped almost all of the weavers finish their pouches today and some of them even decided to start new ones! They were more motivated when they realized they could use the pouches for their iPods and phones if they changed the size of their looms. I was excited to adapt the craft to their interests and to see they were so eager to keep at it. A handful of campers took their weaving to their cabins and were joking about weaving around the campfire tonight/with their headlamps. Too funny.

Easy, crafty, free!

I also introduced a new craft that was more church-themed. We have lots and LOTS of nails and I wanted to do some wire wrapping techniques to take up time..We have jewelry wire lying around as well. I found this cross craft in my web searching and the kids were interested in trying it out.

Unfortunately I don't have any good findings to make necklaces or charms, but they make cool pocket crafts/keepsakes at the moment! I will get some pictures of completed crosses tomorrow/as the week progresses. It's hard to find time to document the crafts/kids working when I am up and about all day!




I think I am gonna try out some more art lesson-oriented projects with the campers tomorrow.. they definitely have the focus to work on more challenging crafts/pieces! Maybe I can break out the paints and wood rounds and do mini-murals or something fun like that... I was contemplating making accordion books.


Signing off for now - I need a shower and I want to get in some reading time before lights out... oh, and it's sundae night. YUMMMMM

Ms. K