Fifth Grade Camp 1999-2000

Miss Sara, Mr. Greg and Mr. Kirk pose with the fifth graders!

The Titanic
By: Victor
Miss Schuleman's Class

I went to camp and we played a game called the Titanic. There were 3 big wooden squares and 2 planks of wood. Those 2 planks of wood were to get our team across without touching the ground. If any part of the wood touches the ground, you will turn into ice and start all over again . To get across you had to have a strategy to work together as a team. Some people did make it and some did not make it at all. I think that was a cool game.

THE WALL

(left) Miss Schuleman gives the wall a try!
(below) Sean, Michael, and Mr. Greg
review safety procedures
for the wall.

Wall Climbing by Sean (Miss Schuleman's Class)

It's a bright sunny day at Camp Olympia far away from the city. I had just finished my Compass Course and was heading for the Wall Climbing. The instructor told us to sit on the bench as he called up students To put on their climbing gear. I was sitting quietly despite the squirms caused by the flies all over the place. Mr. Kirk called me up to put on the gear for the climbing. After a few minutes I had the gear on me it felt like a piece underwear worn on the outside of my jeans. I sat back down on the bench again. And no sooner then I did, Mr. Greg called me up to climb the wall. I was a bit nervous, but confident too. He also called up another boy named Michael to keep the rope in the bucket. As I reached for the first rock and pulled myself up I thought this is easy, I thought too soon. As I defeated the first half of the wall I began to look for a path on the second half. I soon noticed my arms and legs were to short and the rocks to small to grip. I could pull myself up a little bit but couldn't reach to the other griphold. I said, "I couldn't reach" and I couldn't reach to the other rock. Mr. Greg asked me to try again, so I did but I still couldn't make it. So I decided to come down and as I jumped down I wished I had gone on a bigger wall grip course and was a bit taller. What I want to say is that this wall is no piece of cake it takes a lot of skill to do this and if you are a fourth grader beware of the wall.

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When I went to camp, one of the things we did was go canoeing. First we had to learn the basics. We learned how to go backward, forward, left, and right. To go forward, you would put the paddle in front of you, and pull it back. To go backward, you put the paddle in back of you, and push it forward. The instructor told us an easy way to remember it. It was, "Push the dust under the rug". If you wanted to go right, you would paddle on the left. If you wanted to go left, you would paddle on the right. When we were getting in the canoes, we saw three canoes hooked together, then we saw some other ones, but they were not hooked to each other. My class had to ride on the hooked-on canoe. It was complicated, and confusing. The girl in front of me was splashing me. My shirt and pants got wet. After we got finish riding in the hooked-on canoes, we rode in the smaller canoes. My partner was Kendrix. He sat in the front, and I sat in the back. It was hard getting away from shore, but after five minutes, we did it. The instructor told us our boundaries. They were the poles that stuck up in the water. First we went along the side of the poles until we came to the end of the poles, and went back to the middle of the area. Then after that, we raced another canoe. We won by almost five feet. Then we did a victory spin with our canoe. After a while, the called us in so we could talk about our experience with canoeing. It was very fun canoeing. I hope I go there in the summer.

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Pond Survival
By: Gabrielle
Mrs. Ramirez-Pace's Class

One morning we took a trail down to the pond, where we put on boots, got a net, a empty milk gallon and then got into the pond, where we collected fish and other pond animals. Next we took the milk gallon and swooped it down in the brownish like water and tried to at least get some kind of clean water. Then we took the net and started to catch our pond creatures. After we finished looking for our pond animals we put all of them in the milk gallon and headed down to the science lab. We sat down on a stool and waited till we got our instructions. We were to examine the pond creatures and then draw them in our journal and give it a name then explain if we thought this creature was going to survive or not! After we finished that we went over to the fish tank and put the creatures in and watched to see if they were going to live or not. Most of them got eaten before they could even swim around. All but one, who started to get chased but hid on the other side of the tank.

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A DAY AT THE FARM - By, Ashanti Miss Schuleman's Class
On the second day at camp we all went to the farm. I was so anxious because I could see all of the farm animals that Camp Olympia had. The animals I saw were pigs, rabbits, sheep, and goats. I found out that the farm is a very exciting place to be. The first animal I saw were the largest pigs I' ve ever seen in my whole entire life. One of the pigs were so greedy that it ate the other pigs food. Next, we went into the barn and we saw the rest of the farm animals. Some of the farm animals were rabbits. The rabbit was so cute it looked like it was afraid because it was balled up like a little cotton ball. The next animal I saw was the sheep. The sheep were very big, and also looked like they were afraid of us. Every time I touched it, it would move further in the corner, and if you stuck your fingers deep in their furry coat you could feel their skin. Next, we went to go see the goats. The goats had huge horns. They were also afraid of us. Maybe because they don't even know us. One of the goats was very friendly, it let me touch its horns. I wanted to know whether it was a boy or a girl. Mr. Al who worked at the farm looked under one of its legs and told me it was a girl. Then we went to go see the hens and the chickens. One of the hens was laying eggs I stood there and watched the hen lay about two eggs. I was so excited that I ran to tell Mr. Al who works at the farm. Then Mr. Al told us that he can hypnotize the hens! Everybody wanted to see him hypnotize the hen, all he did was put the hen in the palm of his hand and started to rub the hen's stomach and started to tell the hen that he is getting very sleepy and when he snaps his fingers he will close its eyes and when he puts it on the ground he will not move a muscle. The next thing we did was go into the garden. We began to plant flowers and vegetables. I only planted vegetables, some of the vegetables I planted were cabbage, lettuce, and tomatoes. That is my fun day at the farm, I enjoyed it very much!