The last night we went on a night hike with the kids. We told them we had lost one of our staff that night and we needed to find him. Earlier that day some of the staff had cleared this trail and flagged it, although we told the kids that Daniel (missing person) had gotten lost, but he left us clues (flags on trees) to help us find him. It was actually very cool, as I have never been hiking before at night and our kids have some fears about the dark, so to see them feel confident in themselves after they conquered it, was so neat!!
Ok, so let's be honest that all of us staff were ready to leave the boys on top of the mountain by Thursday morning. We had all sorts of problems with them; lying, stealing, fighting, being disrespectful, etc. So, Thursday afternoon Tim (Expedition Leader/Disciplinarian) had just about had it and decided they needed to be whipped into shape; let me remind you that he was in the Corps at A&M for 4 years. He had them (13 boys) walk down the mountain (not very far) and pick up a tree that had just been cut down and carry it back to camp on their shoulders. Then when they got back, he made them do push ups. It was sight to see for sure. Thursday night was a real turning point for all of us and that is when we started enjoying our trip! YAY for discipline!
Me with 3 of my fifth graders.
We did some teambuilding while we were there and let me just tell you that the first day we tried to do it, we totally scratched it b/c they couldn't even work as a team. By the second day, we were able to handle each other much better. This was a game where one person is blindfolded and the other person can't talk to them, they must just lead their partner around the campsite. They did pretty good with this. We then debriefed about what does a good leader do for their followers and what makes it easy to follow someone. We also talked about what is it like not knowing where you are going and how does that affect your response?
Here are some partner groups who just got done leading and following. Notice the blindfolded girl on the left that looks totally comfortable with her partner and she doesn't seem nervous. Yet the boy on the right is trying to take off his blindfold and the leader boy looks someone mischevious eh? Fun with 5th graders:)
The last night we went on a night hike with the kids. We told them we had lost one of our staff that night and we needed to find him. Earlier that day some of the staff had cleared this trail and flagged it, although we told the kids that Daniel (missing person) had gotten lost, but he left us clues (flags on trees) to help us find him. It was actually very cool, as I have never been hiking before at night and our kids have some fears about the dark, so to see them feel confident in themselves after they conquered it, was so neat!!
Ok, so let's be honest that all of us staff were ready to leave the boys on top of the mountain by Thursday morning. We had all sorts of problems with them; lying, stealing, fighting, being disrespectful, etc. So, Thursday afternoon Tim (Expedition Leader/Disciplinarian) had just about had it and decided they needed to be whipped into shape; let me remind you that he was in the Corps at A&M for 4 years. He had them (13 boys) walk down the mountain (not very far) and pick up a tree that had just been cut down and carry it back to camp on their shoulders. Then when they got back, he made them do push ups. It was sight to see for sure. Thursday night was a real turning point for all of us and that is when we started enjoying our trip! YAY for discipline!
Me with 3 of my fifth graders.
We did some teambuilding while we were there and let me just tell you that the first day we tried to do it, we totally scratched it b/c they couldn't even work as a team. By the second day, we were able to handle each other much better. This was a game where one person is blindfolded and the other person can't talk to them, they must just lead their partner around the campsite. They did pretty good with this. We then debriefed about what does a good leader do for their followers and what makes it easy to follow someone. We also talked about what is it like not knowing where you are going and how does that affect your response?
Here are some partner groups who just got done leading and following. Notice the blindfolded girl on the left that looks totally comfortable with her partner and she doesn't seem nervous. Yet the boy on the right is trying to take off his blindfold and the leader boy looks someone mischevious eh? Fun with 5th graders:)