Science Camp, Mini Camp...campcampcamp

 Sooo the past few weeks have been insane but I will try to sum up....

Monday (6/22) : Science campers arrived and they were in the craft cabin twice! Their first project was to work on Yo-Yos and decorate them. It was fun to see the campers again - many of them this was their last year at Science camp so they were really excited to be back for a big bang of a finish.  Literally - rockets were the main project at camp :)

preparing for crafts with Cézanne

apron partyyy

lots of work but worth it :)

One of the nice things about Science Camp is they are very independent. I have time to organize and clean up for other projects and ideas. I spent most of Monday morning helping to find supplies and restringing fishing poles I found in the garage.

organizing the tackle boxes 

After a long day of working, crafting, sciencing, and cleaning, my coworkers and I went out onto the lake to fish for a few hours. We missed the rain by a few minutes and one of the guys pulled in a small pike - apologies for the poor quality of the picture - we were caught in the moment.

three poles tangled together.. oh good

pike minnow

Tuesday: To be honest.. not all days are good days at camp. My coworkers and I worked really hard and had a tough time finding the positives at the end of the day. I had a lot of fun with Science Camp building rockets and helping them with other projects, but at the end of the day my Maintenance workers and I just needed a break from camp. 

rocket building!

We went out to dinner and then stopped at a local attraction called "The Yoopers". They had a really cool rock shop and some other fun activities/displays set up to look at and tour.

Catwoman glasses

finally getting to sit down!

the owner's private collection

Wednesday: Wednesday Elementary Mini campers arrived and I was put in charge of helping with name tags.. kind of. I was actually put to work on Maintenance fix-it jobs all day and only was able to help with some babysitting type stuff with the younger campers. I helped organize the maintenance garage before dinner and didn't sit down til dinner.

We also launched rockets on Wednesday night!

launching...

getting some air!

I brought my rocket back from last year's camp - we effectively launched it into a tree line!

Thursday: Thursday I finally had time to work with the little ones on crafts! We made monster magnets/pins using recycled bottle caps, googly eyes, and foam pieces :) If the kids didn't want to make magnets they could draw on the table cloths or make pictures.

coloring :)

putting together monster magnets

she made a great big one!

some of the kids got double close caps - like a ketchup bottle.
they made two monsters in that case!

After the kids completed their magnets there was a mandatory clean up. The scampers did the BEST job cleaning and organizing the craft cabin and made sure every little piece was off the floor. The reward for clean up? A close up with Cézanne! First we talked about snakes, specifically corn snakes, and did some trivia type questions to teach the kids about Cézanne and his natural habitat. Each kid had to answer a question about him before they could hold him.

This girl was SO SCARED of Cézanne but after learning more about him she found her courage and held him for a few minutes! Talking her through the experience, "What does he feel like? Is he cold or hot?" etc, helped her relax and she only flinched once! As the kids worked with the snake they learned more about snakes and how to properly handle reptiles.

one of my coworkers wanted to hold him, too!

monster magnets!

cute cute cute

The Elementary Mini camp counselors and deans wanted to give their campers a chance to learn about archery - so I taught 25 little kids how to shoot! It was really fun and pretty challenging - which made it more fun.

And I MADE A GIF

this girl... made me crazy. But we were actually celebrating her great shot!

seeee happy faces!

perfect form! my little archers :)

I look like I work at Jurassic Park

happy archers :)

Friday: Friday was the last full day with both camps and I wanted to make the most of it. We worked on the pop tab snake craft and the kids did great! We learned about counting, weaving, and of course snakes.

Some of the kids needed a little more help than others - a standard in classrooms everywhere!

 I had a lot of campers who kept telling me "I can't do this!" "It's too hard!" Finally, I had heard enough. I stopped everyone from working and stated my peace: "Okay, here's the deal. I do not want to hear the words "I can't do it!" come from any of your mouths. I have personally watched each of you draw an arrow, use hot glue guns, set tables perfectly, and sing all the words of the camp theme song. Most of you just learned these things this week! If you are not willing to try then I have nothing to teach you... I know you can all do this! You have done amazing things in just 3 days. Please continue to amaze yourselves and me and don't give up."

And just like that... I had kids cutting out the snakes, glueing on eyeballs, drawing pictures, and learning how to make beautiful friendship bracelets for the rest of the day. I was a proud craft lady, that's for sure :)

After lunch and maintenance duties all over camp I was asked to teach the Science campers archery for a few hours before dinner. Sign me up!

learning about draw

go time!

aaaiiim...

even the deans were shooting!

NEAR BULLSEYES

retrieving the arrows

another round

best part about teaching at camp - help with clean up!

candid shot - oops haha

my snake has quite the fan club!

UPDATE: I am sitting writing this post two weeks past due! I feel like a terrible blogger... I need to be more attentive to this, but frankly the past couple of weeks have been absolutely insane. Last week after campers left we had the rest of the week off and I finally had time to relax and unwind with friends. So. Necessary.

This week we had Mission Camp, which was basically a group of middle school-age campers who came to stay and work both on and off grounds. We had lots of projects planned like mowing, raking, painting, cleaning.. all of the everything. My maintenance workers and I installed all new light fixtures in the bathhouses, painted the dining hall walls, among many other things. This week has been very trying in more ways than one but I feel like I have learned a lot about managing others and managing myself and my emotions...valuable skills for a teacher!

More to come tomorrow. Tonight I need to rest and reserve energy for tomorrow's projects and responsibilities.

--Ms. K