Delayed Post - Wow Wednesday! : Senior High Camp Returns!

Well another week has come and gone and with that another group of campers leaves as well. Senior High Campers returned and were able to take full advantage of my new programs at camp :) But first I was on Maintenance duty.. Garbage, light bulb changing, bug spraying, gathering and breaking down cardboard... yeah, busy morning. The afternoon, however, was all about fun with the campers and counselors.

Day 1: Maintenance took priority along with dishes and clean up after meals. After lunch I was able to introduce one of my new programs, Fishing! We borrowed one of the rowboats from the waterfront and set out for an hour and a half of afternoon angling.

teamwork!

the current was strong, but we made it off the shore and out!

I took 5 campers out fishing off the dock and we anchored to cast toward the shore. Immediately one of the campers pulled in two huge rock bass! After that 3 of the 5 campers caught fish of different sizes and we put them on the stringer to bring to shore.

this camper was generous enough to let us use his night crawlers for bait :)

the kids caught 6 more fish after these ones!

The lifeguard let the campers fish off of the shore and they kept catching more and more fish! I loaned them the fishing poles I had and they eventually ended up cooking the fish for an after dinner snack at campfire!

the fishing crew

After fishing I went back to work in the craft cabin. One of my coworkers helped to watch Rockland until I was done with the fishers. I had big plans for the campers! My coworker kept them busy with gimping and drawing until I got back to introduce the new projects. Campers had a choice of gimping, drawing, or Shrinky Dinks. The majority of the campers worked on keychains and gimping but not before I snapped a picture of my kids returning to Rockland :)!

We're baaack!

It was nice to be "home". All the kids worked until dinner time and cleaned up the cabin to make sure it was ready to go for the next day.

Day 2: Yet again, morning was dedicated to maintenance and other little fix-it projects. We had to get one of the bathhouses working so the kids could use showers and water. We were nearly done by the end of the day.. But the big task for me was to work on planning Archery for the afternoon program!

I had 'practiced' with my coworkers and devised a system of shooting and set-up for the range. We sprayed a range onto the games field. The range is 100 feet long and 100 feet wide. I incorporated a stall system to separate archers, meaning each archer has about 5 feet of space in which to stand and nock arrows. I was able to purchase five brand new Bear Junior bows and I could not be happier with the results! I placed two targets at the 25 feet mark and as campers became more confident I would move one target further away... they learned to adjust their aim, power, draw, and had a lot of fun in the process! Each camper hit the target the first try and after that it was just calling out commands.

Commands were as follows:

Return to Stalls - archers were to remain in their stalls while holding the bows and could not nock arrows unless properly in stalls. Campers were taught about archer safety, proper handling of equipment, and commands.

Archers Clear - called after all archers were clear of the shooting area - in preparation for another round of arrows

draw...

Nock Arrows - goes without saying. Archers 'click' nock onto bow string. Most of the kids caught on to this trick right away, but the 'odd-colored' feather always faces up - creates consistency.

Approach the line - archers could not draw until they approached the shooting line and took the proper stance (one foot on the side of the targets, the other on the side of the stalls) We learned about closed and open stances and the advantages/disadvantages of each

preparing in the stalls

Draw - this was a challenge for most campers. I taught them a quick trick - if they could comfortably rest their thumb between their lips they were at full draw! I had a little bit of work to do with helping the campers master a stance and proper arm alignment. Can you tell I totally geeked out with this!?

Loose  - always fun to feel like a medieval commander lol

Loose! - Bullseye!

some happy archers here!

By the end of the lesson the campers knew the routine and I was able to shoot with them for a few rounds. They were even checking my commands at some points! Little did they know I was testing them... Every once in a while I would get a question or a hand for help during aiming or posture. I had to do very little correction and in cases where the change would be very slight I often just talked them through a troubleshooting session and they figured it out on their own :) I was a very proud Maintenance/fisher/archery/craft lady.

Look at those perfect stances... so proud.

victory!

After archery was done I returned to Rockland to start the campers on some new projects. We worked on Shrinky Dinks yet again (much more popular than I thought they would be!) and I introduced them to String Art plaques. They started creating some pretty cool designs and I knew this would be a project they could work on while I was gone - getting to that.

happy crafters

counselors/deans on the job

One of the best parts of the day (after crafts and archery of course) was when some of my anglers from Monday afternoon arrived with a big surprise - another HUGE catch of bass! They were so happy to show me all the fish they caught.

the happy fishers! 

later we were able to cook up the catch on the campfire - delicious!

Day 3: Day three of Senior High Camp was so insanely busy I only had pictures from archery! We were working maintenance, gathering recyclables, donations, cleaning up camp... the list goes on and on. Archery was voted in as the more popular activity, but I let the kids borrow poles to fish during their free time/beach time as well. I can't do it all!

helping out one of the counselors with his form

tips and tricks

watch and learn ;)

eager archers at the shooting line!

everyone looks good - I checked each person before shooting.

this girl was recovering from a  surgery and thought archery would help her wrist get back to normal
we took it easy but she was a great shot!

draw....

Laugh! I mean.. loose!

she hit the bullseye! Don't let that face fool you; she's excited.

practice, practice..

I liked working alongside the campers so they could see me and I could observe their techniques and work with them to improve their shooting. I was able to improve my own instruction and teaching practices as I learned what did and did not work for each camper. I am hoping to bring both programs to the majority of the camps this summer - I already have requests from deans and counselors!

I unfortunately was not able to stay for the entirety of Senior High camp... because I had a wedding to go to! One of my good friends from NMU was getting married and I was not going to miss that for the world :) My boss was generous enough to allow me days off and my coworkers had everything under control, of course. I left detailed 'sub plans' for the other staffers so they would know what we were working on and what options there were for campers to work on. I missed seeing off my campers but it was also nice to get a little break from camp for a few days..

Amber and Casey! :) Cake faces

Science Camp arrived this afternoon. It's a much smaller camp than senior high so the staff gets a bit of a breather this week. We will be spending some time cleaning and working on little fix-it jobs AND of course working to finish the bathhouse. In the meantime I am going to enjoy my care package from home which was full of snacks and fishing supplies! My parents know me so well.... fishing and food are my sustenance.

Until next time,

Ms. Kanak