Stop giving me that look. I know, I know, I should have written this post straight after the last week of camp, when all my memories and muscle aches from camp were fresh and raw. But I decided to take a day off for some rest and recuperation, and er, it turned into five days. What happened during those lost five days? Well that’s a story for a different post (see how I keep you hanging on?); I like to keep things in chronological order blog-wise so lets crack on and talk about that final week of camp.
Week five was significantly different from the other weeks of camp in three ways.
1. It was siblings week, so we had more little kids than usual (awww), and employed a buddy system in class.
2. It was the last week of summer vacation, and the kids seemed worn out.
3. I finally broke down and started drinking coffee. The kids from week five got a slightly more manic, hyper version of me (if you can imagine that). There were a few recess incidents where I tried out crazy skateboarding /jump rope/ free running stunts and landed on my arse. I still hurt, but it was fun.
I’m well aware of how little recess kids get once they go back to school, so I eased up a lot on indoor time on the week before school started and the camp was loose and floppy. Our topic was Picasso v Matisse, or rather Pigasso v Mootise, based on a sweet and funny kids book about the two artist frenemies. We made paper mache masks after looking at African tribal masks, and discussing Picasso’s interest in tribal art. We collaborated on large paper cut-out compositions inspired by Matisse’s cut outs, and we dabbled in a little contour drawing, and drawing on glass.
I set up a Play-Doh table for the little kids, and everyone got obsessed with it! I realized that the big kids loved story time as much as the little kids, so we read a lot of stories. Also, we built teepees, went on walks, had high jump and limbo contests, and on the last day of camp, we wore costumes, ate pizza, and had a very chaotic fortune telling session. The kids made me a banner and there were moments during the group hug that followed, that I almost forgot about the black paint bottle that had exploded onto the carpet earlier on! We lay on picnic blankets, played with balloons and drew on mirrors. The kids sort of ran this camp! It was a pretty amazing end to the summer. Good luck at school, campers, I miss you already!
*Resource list for camp to follow in next post!
