Thursday, September 8, 2016

Portsea Camp Day 2


Obstacle course.


Co-operative games- making a geometric shape.
The flying fox, aka zip-lining.

Friends at camp!
The chow line.

Thursday, September 8th
The boys slept well too, it seems. I heard them, but it was about 7. I got up and organized the medications for the morning. Then we had breakfast.

The first activity today was Team Building which was actually a variety of activities. Unfortunately the kids didn't listen very well and didn't want to do some of the activities and the boys didn't want to work with the girls etc. It definitely didn't build our team.
Don was at Flying Fox helping kids get off the line. He called me over and said, “Did you ever think of getting a real job?”

The leader asked Don if he wanted a turn on the zip-line but he declined, so I made the chicken noise and he said that he knew that was my mating call but it wouldn't work on him!

The second activity was the Flying Fox, which is actually zip-lining. I had the job of helping the kids get off the line and take the rope back up so the next kid could go.
The kids loved this activity and at the end I took a turn which the kids thought was funny.
My parent volunteer noticed that the Giant Swing was just ending and she knew that I wanted to try it yesterday but we ran out of time, so she suggested I go take a turn. The staff there said it was okay. The leaders all helped pull me up and the kids all thought it was good fun. It was pretty good and gave you a good adrenaline rush as the rope let go.
Then it was time for a lunch of cold cuts, buns and salads, with fruit for dessert.

Activity three for the day was The High Ropes. This was a combination of rock climbing, ladder climbing and tight wire walking. I thought it looked pretty scary and thought that kids would bail, but I was very surprised by how fearless and confident the kids were. Most of them were quite successful, especially the girls.

We had afternoon tea before the fourth and final activity of the day: Oceanography.
It started with a lesson in a room with a leader talking about: 1) the dredging of Port Philip Bay to accommodate freighters and the damage that it did to natural habitats 2) The accidental importation of the North Atlantic Sea Star and how it destroyed habitats and took over from natural species 3) cuttlefish and their bio-luminescence, and 4) the sea dragons that live by the pier. Then we went for a nature walk to see the rock pools. The kids didn't behave particularly well and we never really saw anything other than a dead pufferfish.

At the conclusion of that there was an hour of free time. I went for a walk along the cliffs over looking the beach. When I got back Nigel (a grade 6 teacher from school) was there. He came to see the kids and the camp. Next up was a dinner of chicken schnitzel and salads with jelly for dessert.

The teachers bailed on the planned evening activities: a talent show night (because the kids had had no time to prepare for one) or the disco (because the were too young for a dance). So they decided to show a movie but couldn't get the equipment to work. While they worked on that they set up board games in the dinning hall. They finally gave up on the movie in the dinning hall and moved it to the Oceanography room. They showed 'Finding Nemo'.

I supervised the board game kids until bedtime. Two male students helped clean up the whole room and put away all the games and pieces. They were really quite amazing and helped us with meal cleanup too.

When I asked if the camp is open year around, I found out that we are the first group of the season. And when I asked Harry the leader who took us on the night walk how long he had been working here he said “Since Monday” So he had never done a night walk with kids at this camp before!


It had been a warm and sunny day until late in the evening when it began to rain, which lasted right through the night.

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