Room 3’s Camp
What a fantastic idea for a school camp, overnight camping at Quinney’s Bush. Together with all that free space to run about in, and all those wonderful activities to amuse what a formula for success, and that is what it was.
With great planning from Miss Taylor (Room 3’s Teacher), enthusiastic parents, the watchful eyes of Mrs Gibson, and just a few simple rules it was destined to be a good safe camp. The role call took me back to my military days, each child had a number and when Miss T blows the whistle to start a new activity the kids would muster and say their number in order to check for any absentees, what a great idea. The children had lots of free time in between activities and on the odd occasion they would all run over and look for Miss T, maybe a bird had mimicked her whistle or they were just ready to have some more fun.
The activities ranged from racing against each other down the big flying fox, tackling the confidence course, bird spotting, artistic drawing with charcoal, team sports or just playing on the many smaller play areas. A lot of free time was spent playing “Bat Down”, a form of cricket/longball where the person who receives the ball without catching from the batsman has a chance to hit the bat on the floor to get him/her out. Other free time was spent on the big roundabout, playing soccer, touch, or just swinging on the tractor tyre swing.
Good food was plentiful and set up by the many parent helpers. At the end of the day we had other exciting activities like a group treasure hunt, class quiz and when it was dark we all went possum spotting to find the missing code. After that we just crawled into our tents absolutely worn out after a really fun day.
To finish off a wonderful camp the water slide was opened, after breakfast and an activity of your choice, and many parents braved the cold to the absolute delight of the children. Miss Taylor was the star of the day splashing down to the chants of, “GO MISS TAYLOR, GO MISS TAYLOR”. A huge thank you needs to go to Mark the owner of Quinney’s Bush who worked really hard to make sure the water slide was ready for us.
You would think that would be enough fun but it was topped off with a visit to Nelson honey shop where a full live demonstration of how the honey was gathered. Many questions had to be answered as the students were amazed by the live bee hive opened up in front of their eyes.
What a camp!
Kindly written by Dave WIllers (Julius's Dad)
