This week, all of Year 6 had the opportunity to go to camp as part of their E.O.T.C. (education outside the classroom) learning. It is a tradition around New Zealand for primary students, mainy year 6 children to go to camp. The kids had been talking about it since I came into their class at the beginning of the term, started packing a week in advance, and when we arrived on wednesday to leave, you could tell a lot of them had not slept much because of their excitement.
Before we arrived at camp, we trekked (hiked) through a bush walk (New Zealand word for forest) and played in a waterfall and explored along a man made dam, made during world war 2. We ate lunch and made our way back to the bus to leave for camp.
As soon as we arrived at camp and started unpacking the kids found their cabins and set up all their clothing and beds running in and out of the cabins to explore all of their classmates bunks and cabins. Bobbi, who is also in a year 6 classroom, and I got our own cabin which we were very thankful for, knowing we would be getting a good night sleep when it came nightfall.
We then organized morning tea for the kids and set off to the first activity. I helped run the flying fox (the zipline) and watched a bunch of kids fly down in fear, happiness, and too terrified to let go of the ropes holding them on the line.
We then played rainbow tag with all of year 6 where the kids run around the camp and find adults that are hiding in the bush and get a strip of paint on their arm. They need to get all six colors on their arm to win, but there are adults that are running around after the kids throwing sponges at them that wipe off the colors they have gotten from the hiding adults. Naturally, I was the person that ran around and threw the sponges at the kids and decided to be ruthless and wipe off all the colors on their arms rather than just one stripe, so they couldn't win the game.
After more running than I have done in years, we limped to dinner in the dining hall. After dinner the kids had free time while the adults set up the burma trail which is a tradition at camp in New Zealand. The tradition came from a terrifying tradition from the history and has continued into a mini haunted house for primary school kids. The adults hid in the bush while the kids would walk through the bush in the dark while holding on the rope and scare them as they made their way through the trail. The girls screamed and ran around without trying to hide how scared they were and the boys went into the bush acting like they were too cool for the burma trail and ended up screaming louder than the girls.
The next morning we woke up and ate breakfast, a New Zealand deluxe, toast and baked beans. We then started activities and I ran Bush survival skills, which taught the kids how to survive if stranded in the bush. We planned for a trek (hike) and then went into the bush and the kids made a shelter. It was very entertaining to watch the kids try and figure out what to do with the tarp and rope we gave them.
I ran this activity four different times and by the end it was dinner time, the kids ate dinner, showered and had a bit of free time before the skits at night. A bunch of parents and teachers from the school came to watch the kids to do the skits, Bobbi and I did a skit with two of the year 6 teachers, the teachers put their hands behind their back and bobbi and I used our arms in replacement for their arms. We showed the crowd what a normal day in the life was like for teachers to get ready for school which included eating cereal, eating an orange, brushing his teeth, and drinking water. Nothing made it into my cooperating teachers mouth, it ended up all over the floor, the table, and the floor, the whole crowd was laughing and I was behind the blanket crying I was laughing so hard. That night Bobbi and I slept like a rock and woke up feeling like we had just fallen asleep.
On friday we woke up and had another New Zealand deluxe for breakfast, spaghetti on toast. After breakfast we did our final activity and I helped run the flying fox again, after we had a whole group activity. The kids ran around camp and had different activities they had to do around camp, some were things such as shooting a balloon on the bullseye on the archery course and some activities included eating a raw union and singing twinkle twinkle little star. Watching 11 year olds eat raw unions was hands down one of the funniest things I have seen in my life.
After the whole group activity, we ate lunch, New Zealand pies, a traditional New Zealand meal. After we cleaned up camp and the cabins and headed back. When I got home I passed out by 5 and slept through the night I was tired from the week of fun! It was a great week to get to know room 23 and the rest of year 6 and be able to see the kids in a different light outside of the hustle and bustle of school!
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