Spring camp 2015

Our preparations started a few weeks before the camp, making a few things to take along with us to show others a bit about our group. We already have a wonderful banner which our Pioneers made some time ago and which has come along to several events with us but with so many new members it was time for something new.

This year we opted for a totem pole, with each person decorating thier own section to add to the finished pole. It made a great feature in the marquee.

The Pioneers were once again busy baking 140 servings of cake!. The chocolate marble cake looked amazing when it was done.

The weather this year meant we spent plenty of time in the marquee working on crafts. There was something for everyone with the knotted bracelets and tissue paper lanterns proving particularly popular.

The Sunday afternoon wide game is always a firm favourite, this years theme was bees. The aim of the game being to collect nectar and take it back to your hive, pollinating flowers along the way. There were various activity stations set up in the woods to earn extra nectar, whether it was by performing a waggle dance to show your partner where the pollen was hidden, or following the smell trail to get to the nectar. Some like the fire lighting were less bee themed but no less fun.

It was a tired and muddy but happy group who went home on Monday

Off to camp

Time has flown this term, and we haven't got round to showing off the wonderful creations the children have been making. We've been busy getting ready for this weekend's Spring Camp.

The Pioneers enjoyed making the cakes last year, and the whole camp enjoyed eating them so we thought we'd have another go this year.  Mmmmmm.

I think we've covered the really vital equipment for keeping the adults going through the weekend.

Now just the last few bits to load up before we set off and get the site ready for the children arriving tomorrow.

Growing already

Wow, look at how much hair in just a week

Spring is on the way

Spring shoots are popping up everywhere, so this week the children all made their own spring grass heads.

Now we'll just need to keep them watered and on a sunny windowsill and wait till they are ready for their first hair cuts.

Get up and Glow

Packing for this weeks outdoor evening covered all eventualities. The first aid kit thankfully stayed tucked up in my bag needed, but the hot chocoltae was much appreciated in the cold.

It was the sort of evening when you need to keep active to stay warm, but we had lots of games to play. Starting with a balloon race. Each team passed a balloon over the hear of the first player, under the legs of the second and so on down the line. When the final player in line took the balloon they had to run to the front of the line to restart. It was a great warm up, made all the more fun by putting glowsticks inside the balloons so we could see them better in the dark.

The glowing balloons lent themselves well to some other games we'd more often play with balls too.

We ended the evening with a few rounds of untig, everyone had  just 10 seconds to find a hiding place before the untigger set off to find people. Some of the best hiding places we found by those who could manage to stay very still in the shadows.

Games Double Bill

 Tonight we decided to focus on games.

Most evenings we start with a few games, to get everyone moving and thinking. Tonight was no different, a few rounds of ball games, then a quieter game of Three Step Tag.

On person is blindfolded, the rest of the group then take 4 or 5 steps away. Once everyone is quiet the game begins. The aim is for the blindfolded person to make their way around the room, and try to tag another player. The rest of the players can move away, but they are only allowed to take three steps for the whole of the rest of the game. Once their steps are taken they can duck and dodge but must keep their feet still.

After a break for a drink and to catch up with what everyone had been doing over the week we used our craft time to make some more games equipment, and see how many ways we could use it.

First, some paper darts which are shot off the end of a straw. They were great fun but quite delicate. It took a bit of practice to be able to thread them back on the straw for another go.

We had a go at some target practice, and seeing how high and how far people could shoot them.

The second activity was making our own bats for a game of balloon tennis. The children came up with a  whole range of games using the bats and balloons. Both tennis and table tennis worked well. We had a group challenge of how long we could keep all the balloons in the air, several balloon and spoon races.

Welcome back

What a busy news circle, it sounds like everyone had lots of fun over the holiday.

This week we played a bit of a gusssing game, using only our sense of touch to try and work out what each object was. Do you think you could have worked them out?

Most people got them right, even working out what might be inside the tin.

We also had a go at making our own slime to play with. When it works you get a stretchy squishy ball a bit like silly putty.  There are lots of recipes on the internet, you can even add colour and glitter for even more fun. We stuck to a basic mix of glue and laundry liquid. A bit of research shows that Aldi's own brand has the right mix of chemicals to make the slime work.

We learned that it really needs PVA glue to work though, the test batch with PVA worked really well but the new bottle of white glue never quite set in the same way.