Camping Out!!! (12/2)

I didn't sleep a wink! Does that surprise you? The children went to bed around 2:30am, but I still heard some around 4am. And everyone was up by 7:30am. I was surprised!

But, even I thought the camp out was fun. At least, most of it was. It started off a little rough. First, I arrived at the time teachers were supposed to arrive (an hour before the students). But none of the other teachers came until the student arrival time. Then, students came early. There were about ten students and their parents AND ME. I was beginning to panic! Then all the parents started putting up tents and kids ran around playing. This was not how it was supposed to be at all!!! So I took their ball and told them to go put up their own tents. And they did. But then setting up camp took lots longer then it was supposed to and one teacher inserted a game that wasn't on the schedule, so we gradually got farther and farther behind our scheduled times for activities. It was suggested that we could throw out something from our schedule. But after all our planning and making "teamwork" the point of camping out, I just didn't want to give anything up.

But the activities went well and we had lots of fun. We spent time reflecting on teamwork and group dynamics after each activity. Parents stayed later than planned and participated in very helpful ways. I even really got into the games. We played a commando-"teachers vs. students" game that allowed me to sneak around and scare students with a flashlight. When I came out dressed in all black, students looked at me like I just went Gothic before their eyes. And I scared the -BLEEP!- out of them several times. I had so much fun! And I really didn't mind going without sleep. Three of us stayed up all night around the campfire. I enjoyed this time with them.

Anyway, we got lots of compliments on our camp out from parents. I took lots of pictures. And, administration really was proud of our initiative in teaching "teamwork". I am glad we did it!