That song seemed to be the theme song of our trip. I probably heard it (or at least the chorus) at least 50 times the past two days. We had to outlaw it both yesterday and today. One of the 5th graders started singing it in the shower, but she modified the words so she "wasn't actually singing it." "What does the cow say? moo moo moo, ma-moo moo moo moo." Not so different afterall.
Okay, so summary of the trip.
Everyone got to school. We fed Joe, checked on our plant experiment, and corrected our spelling tests together. After a devotion and prayer, we left right on schedule. Upon arrival, we dropped off our things in the cabins and then went on an ABC nature hike. The two girls went with me and the three boys went with Aaron, the director of outdoor ed at Camp Omega. We found all sorts of cool things on our excursion: webs, lots of fungi, nuts, foam, and even a praying mantis! We thought it was dead, but it was just a little frozen from the cold. We left it on the clipboard and it warmed up enough to walk around. We also saved a leaf, and the mantis crawled underneath and stayed there for the remainder of our scavenger hunt. The boys thought it was really cool. The hardest letters to find were a, j, k, and of course x, y, and z. The girls and I came up with a sneaky way to get these letters; we looked for the shape in nature... and we found A, X, Y, and Z this way. The first three letters were made by trees and we found a bunch of little plants growing in the shape of a Z.
Lunch was hot dogs roasted over a campfire. Then we did archery using both a compound and a recurve bow. Man, did it make me want to watch Top Shot! That was my all-time favorite part of the trip. I really liked the recurve bow; it had a lot more power behind it. After archery was canoeing time. Most of the 5th graders had gone canoeing before... just one girl hadn't. The boys decided it would be boys in one canoe and girls in another. Aaron would lifeguard on the jetski. The person in the back is supposed to be the heaviest or most experienced canoe person. The people in the middle and front are the power. So I was in the back.
The boys were pretty speedy in their canoe. We had trouble getting our rhythm down... and then there was the splashing. My pants got pretty wet from all the accidental water flinging going on with the paddles. Then the two girls decided they wanted to switch spots. While we were in the middle of the lake. So with Aaron's permission, we did it. I steadied the boat while the girl in front scrunched down and slid her way to the middle. The girl in the middle carefully stood up and stepped cautiously to the front seat. And we made it!!!
Everyone else was pretty wet after canoeing, so we took a little break to get dried off. The 5th graders wanted to read Holes, so we congregated on the boys' side of the cabin (it was a lot warmer than the girls' side). I'd say overall we read a good 30 pages of the book. They were so excited; they wanted me to keep reading.
Some other things we did: archaeology dig, wilderness survival scenario, supper in the dining hall, and kickball (most of which was in the dark). We read for a little bit more and then had a campfire/devotions. It was super dark walking down to the campfire area. I forgot to mention to bring flashlights, but thankfully one girl brought hers anyway. Thank the Lord we did have one or I don't think we would've found our way down there! The other 5th grade girl was scared; she wouldn't let go of my arm the whole way down.
Before bed, the 5th graders wanted to read more of the Bible, so this time we met on the girls' side and read our favorite parts of the Bible together. And then we read more Holes. And then it was bedtime. The hard part wasn't getting everyone ready for bed. The hard part was getting them to stop yelling across the cabin.
The doors separating our half from the boy's side were locked, so I told the boys if they had any issues to knock on the door and I'd talk to them through the door. Well, everyone had finally gotten quiet(ish) when there was a knock. I thought it was one of the girls knocking against her bunk, so I didn't get up. But the knocking came again. The first time, the boys found something on their ceiling. I asked what it was. "It looks like glue." "...Okay. Is it hurting you?" "No." "Is it bugging you?" "Maybe." "Well, there's not a whole lot I can do. You can move to another room if it's really bothering you." "Uh, it's not bugging me that bad."
I had just gotten settled when another knocking started up. One of the 5th grade boys' tummy hurt. Not much I could do about that either. I thought he was probably homesick, but it was too late for him to call his mom to talk to her, so I told him to try rubbing his tummy. Silence. "What?" "Try rubbing your tummy. If it still hurts after 5 minutes, then knock again." Once more I got situated in my sleeping bag... and the knocking came again after less than two minutes. UGH! Unzip the sleeping bag, try not to wake up the girls, stumble to the connecting door. Same problem as before. Except this time, he couldn't sleep. "Try it one more time, or just lay in bed for a while," was my response. He didn't knock again the rest of the night.
Unfortunately, the 5th grade girls were feeling chatty (when are they not?). First one had a story to tell about another time she had a sleepover and another about when she was at Cutties. And when she finally stopped talking, the other one started up. I wondered if I'd ever get to sleep! This girl was scared someone would come attack us. And then when I tried to protect her, I'd get killed and then what would they do? And so on and so forth. Eventually, the other girl suggested we play the no-talking game to see who could be quiet the longest. And it worked for a while. I was just drifting off to sleep when I heard, "Mmm! Mmm-Hmmm! (aka- Hey, Miss H.!)" I ignored it, so the groaning got louder and more complex. My eyes stayed shut. Again, the groaning. Then a lantern flashed in my eyes (Aaron had let the scared 5th grader borrow his mini-lantern for light during the night.) I rolled over to face the wall. FINALLY, she drifted off to sleep.
But at 6:30 the next morning, "Hey Miss H. what time is it?" "Not time to get up yet, sleep for a little while longer." Everyone was up and ready by about 7:30, so we went outside to play around a bit. Frost covered the ground. We ended up using our feet to make designs in the frost: our names, crosses, signs of the Trinity... and the boys discovered the joy of sliding on frosty grass.
We ate breakfast, had Bible time/devotions, and then studied animal tracks. The 5th graders were more distracted today, so there wasn't nearly as much learning going on as there was yesterday. After animal tracks, we did a ravine study. Not so good. They were too distracted to focus. Each one found sticks that they used to dig in the mud and fling water around. So Aaron and I decided to scrap it and play kickball. By then it was lunchtime and time to pack up and go home.
Before we loaded the vehicle, I asked my students to get out their reading books they'd brought along. Each one said they had them. But after the vehicle was loaded... "Uh, Miss H.? My book is at he bottom of my bag." "Me too!" "Me too!" "Me too!" Sigh. The vehicle got unloaded and reloaded once again. Pictures were taken, prayers were prayed, and we were off! (after much arguing over who got to sit in which seat)
15 minutes down the road, "Uh, Miss H? I have to go to the bathroom." All the other 5th graders chimed in in agreement. Mental kick in the face! I was in such a jumble about the books, I'd forgotten to remind them to use the bathroom before we left! Though you'd think 5th graders would think of something like that. So ten minutes later we pulled into a gas station and zoomed through the restrooms. They did read their books about half the trip back. And we made it to school with time to spare! It was a little crazy when we got back, but we got through our end of the day routine and shipped everyone off for home without a hitch. Whew!
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