Clear Creek was glorious! We were blessed with such great weather, great kids, and great parent chaperones! It just flew by! I wish I could publish photos of kids doing all these activities, but I don't want to get sued.
Of course the Ropes Course is the big favorite so Mohawk Walk was a huge success. They also enjoyed Wildlife Olympics (our inaugural debut of it), Tie Dye, and sports on the field.
Our evening rotations included a bear activity, boon doggle, and shrinky dinks. Then we all headed to the campfire for glow sticks and s'mores. The other teacher and I announced we would be playing Sardines, so we asked the parents to hold the kids at the fire for five minutes to give us a chance to hide. We headed to our spot and were suddenly rushed by five kids who were not obeying the request to stay at the fire! Nothing like having a bunch of figures coming at you with glow sticks.
When they came running toward us, I called out, "Cheater! CheaterCheaterPumpkinEater!! I have never seen such blatant cheating in Sardines!!!" So we hid and then we heard the countdown at the fire for the obedient ones to be released to look for us. It took awhile, but they started to find us, one dad chuckling at our unique choice of hiding places. One girl showed up and walked around us calling out in a rather loud voice, "Hi, guys! What's going on? What are we doing? Are we playing a game?" We shushed her and implored, "Get down!" I personally was stretched out on my belly and unfortunately got stepped on a few times by kids who found us and started to hide with us. It was my most painful game of Sardines ever.
The morning rotations consisted of the hike to the Hermit's Meadow, Geocaching with GPS units, and more Ropes Course. We hiked two groups up and I stayed in the meadow reading while they hiked down with parents and the next two groups hiked up with parents. I sat on my special rock and wore an orange safety vest because it's hunting season. I read. I enjoyed. I reflected on all the many, many times I have been to Clear Creek (I worked there a couple of summers). And I just soaked up the glory of it all.
After lunch, we load the bus and head back through the beautiful autumn colors of the canyon.
Matched the kids and their gear with waiting parents. Told the secretaries I was going home. Showered and went to the temple.
Next day, found thank you notes on my desk (with a bottle of lotion) and good wishes for Fall Break. In the words of one of my students, "Now THAT was fun!"
I'll close with a few quotes from student journals about their overnight field trip to Clear Creek:
"It was probably the best Monday and Tuesday I have ever experienced!!!
"I didn't like it. I LOVED it!!!"<
"I really wish that Clear Creek was a month long field trip so we could do the ropes course thousands of times."<
"I loved every second of it! I chose a bed and took my shoes off and slid around on my socks singing 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun!'"<
No comments:
Post a Comment