“We have a bit of a dilemma here at Lake Adventure Challenge today. Last night’s huge rainstorm has hit us pretty hard. We are going to need all hands on deck to re-set everything up and check the safety of our camp before our new group of kids arrive, which is only a couple of days away. We are going to need to split up into small groups and check everything is okay and fix anything that is broken….”
Everyone jumped into action straight away. There was a lot of talk as people reported back damage that they had discovered. Plans were quickly made on what repair jobs needed to be done and what supplies were needed. Gear lists were made as a stocktake of the equipment shed was completed eg. “10 rafts, 18 kayaks, 18 oars, 18 balls….”. Some went off to check food supplies and made lists of what was there and what was needed. Some went off to check the tracks on the island and to look for any fallen trees. Some went off to make a new welcome sign, which turned out to be badly damaged. Some went off to check the cabins, sweep them out and make the beds. Rope courses and tree jumping activities were checked and repaired as necessary – it was a hive of activity at Lake Adventure Challenge Confidence Camp!
Some overheard conversations:
“Lets hop into the boat and head out to the island”
“I brought my toolkit”
“there is quite a lot of damage to some of the gymnasium equipment”
“I’ll check trade me to see if I can find some cheaper metal bars and springs…”
“we just had two calls, one from Zoe’s friend who can come and fix our springs. We also won the placed bid on trade me”
“it is going to cost $50 for the new metal stands”
“there’s some spare carpet in the gear shed left over from when we carpeted our office, we can use that to replace the carpet on the beam”
We stayed in role right up until morning tea (most of an hour), everyone was really engaged and busy as they improvised conversations, phonecalls, made stocktake checklists, gearlists, lists, diagrams, and signs…
There was also a lot of spontaneous maths as people worked out the costs of things and multiplied them as necessary. Some worked out how many supplies would be needed for 24 kids and 9 adult helpers, others worked out what size groups they would have for the different activities etc. One team sorted out the raft building supplies that would be needed. They decided they would do this activity in 6 groups of 4 requiring a gear list of:
12 tyres, 78 nails, 42 wooden boards, 6 anchors, 6 ladders, 6 ropes, 6 saws, and 8 chains…
Team members then reported back to each other on what they had found and how they had responded:
“There was loads of mud and leaves in the cabins that we had to clear”
“we chopped down the tree that had fallen down and we made a new table seat by the wharf on the island”
“we have cleared all the tracks and repaired some signs”
“We found some hinges in the gear cupboard and fixed the doors that had blown open”
“some of the light bulbs in the cabins aren’t working. I have ordered the lightbulbs but they can’t get them till tomorrow, they said they can come in the morning at 11”
“we got some donations, $365, we have used $165 to replace the broken and worn gym equipment so there is still $200 for other people to use….”
A Safety Sign
Diagram for Raft Building Materials
Map Showing Damage on the Island
A Stocktake List of Food Supplies
As the team reported back what they had found the discussion took an interesting turn towards other things that were discovered in the big cleaup…
“I noticed that there is chewing gum on the underside of the beds and seats”
“I noticed a lot of lolly wrappers in the toilets…”
“some of the kids in the last group brought cellphones and they were using them at night…”
“we should have signs in the cabins and toilets saying ‘no lollies, gum, or cellphones allowed’”
“we have activities like toasted marshmallows, so they will have some treats here, they don’t need to bring any lollies etc”
“we should have bag checks when the kids arrive to make sure they are not sneaking in any lollies or gum”
After some discussion we decided we need to come up with a gear list for the children coming to our camp and strict guidelines about what children were not allowed to bring!
TAKING ON A DIFFERENT ROLE – As students in Sophie’s class who have been visiting the camp.
Next we fast forwarded a week and went into role as students in Sophie’s class (From our work earlier with Dick King Smith’s book ‘The Adventures of Sophe’). We imagined that we had just had three days at Lake Adventure Challenge Camp and that we were packing our bags on our last night before leaving for home in the morning. We mimed packing our bags and when we were shoulder tapped by Ms Gain we spoke aloud a thought/reflection that might be going through our heads as we packed. We followed this activity with some diary writing in role as these characters also. Here are some examples from our diary entries:
‘Today we climbed a big climbing wall. I have never had to do this but I did! I jumped, cooked, baked, and rained myself with water bombs…SPLASH!’ Helena
‘After French Toast for brekkie and doing my hair (ponytail), we went straight to raft building. My group was Andrew, Duncan, and me. After we had finished our raft we had to try it out….’ Macey
‘Today I made friends with Dawn when we were making rafts. The most challenging thing was the team bulding and the easiest thing was the rock climbing…’ Zoe
‘It’s the end of the day and I’m wishing that I didn’t have to leave Lake Adventure Challenge. It felt like heaven here biking, playing soccer, kayaking and many more activities. I wish I could live here forever….’ Alexander.
‘I liked today best out of all of the days. We did team rowing and we did raft building….’ Hugo.
‘Today I am quite sad because I have packed my bags […]I am surprised that I am sad because I had to share a cabin with Sophie and Duncan. Today we did the flying fox. I was really scared when I first saw it but once I did it I wasn’t that scared and after I had done it a second time I wasn’t scared at all. We also did raft building. IT was quite hard but I managed to do it, I was in a team with three other people. I got better at team work…..’Evie
‘Today I pushed my limits but kayaking to the island and back again…’ Alice.
Diary Writing in Role
PUBLISHING ON KEYNOTE
The rest of the day was spent publishing writing for our Lake Adventure Camp brochures. We worked on laptops using the programme Keynote. We learnt how to save our files to the desktop for printing. The layout and designs that have been created are starting to look pretty professional!
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