Camp Prep Week

This week was the week before our grand Outdoor Environmental Educational adventure at Camp Seymour. OEE Week is my favorite week of the school year, but I'm a little apprehensive about the weather forecast for next week: wind, rain, and thunderstorms. I had said a few years back that I might be ready for a wet OEE week, but theorizing about it and preparing a group of kids for a wet week feel very different.

My partner teacher and I gave over class time on three different days this week for cabin groups to get together to bond, create a cabin cheer, and come up with and rehearse a skit. As it always does, it started out rocky, with tears among the boys this year. One boy was so upset his first choice pick for a cabin mate was in the other boys' cabin that he didn't even see his other two choices were in his cabin. Another boy was rightfully upset when he did not know what had been decided on by his cabin group, and when he asked for clarification, they all started talking at once and he still had no idea what was going on. Overall, the cabin dynamics seemed to come together fairly well by the third day, but as usual, each group had its own challenges to overcome to get there.

The biggest challenges, the ones that made this year's prep harder than any prior year, were in getting enough parent volunteers who had completed the required training and could take the time off of their normal lives in order to make the trip happen. I found my final cabin leader on Wednesday night, and he won't even be able to come with us on Monday morning. He will arrive about dinner time on the first day and then stay with us for the duration of the trip. Once I had my final cabin leader locked in, I was ready to put together carpool lists. But when I sat down to figure out my carpool lists, I realized I was short eight seats for students to get to and from Camp Seymour. So it was Thursday before I had recruited enough extra drivers to ensure a seat for every student in a carpool. As I told a good friend of mine, I'm tired already and I haven't even been to Camp Seymour yet!

It was a busy week, but we also found time to model the rock cycle using crayons and hot water. Here are a few pictures of students turning their sedimentary crayon rocks into metamorphic crayon rocks.