Soupa wednesday 16th August 2017- Summer Camp Day 17

'Soupa' Wednesday!! 🍵 🥕 🥔 🥒 🍠

With a twist in the tail- and snakes too!
These days just keep getting better!  👍 🤗 🌿 ⛺️ 🍃and thankfully the weather too.Today we prepared and made our own soup for our afternoon campfire snack- another first and another success, Trudy was our sous chef and she did amazingly well...especially as it took only 5hrs to finally cook 😜 😂 😜
 
The sun shone, the wind blew ( a bit) the bugs came out and we all had a thoroughly energetic and action packed day.
We started with our usual introductions and rules and we welcomed 5 new people to our tribe today, then with a few games of 'go find it' and 'duck duck goose' we went straight into a bit of 'bug bingo' while 5 people at a time came and helped me to prepare our stew, all hands on deck with the peeling and chopping! -now you know they CAN do it parents!!!' 👍 😉
 
After some hard work making trails ( raking, digging and wheelbarrowing chippings to and fro from the car park) we took a break for snacks and drinks.
The theme was 'snakes' today and I got out my bag of snake skins ( thanks again Lee) to everyone's amazement, we talked about the texture of their skin and why their skin sheds etc. The little ones got into 3 groups and each using a different media they all created and decorated a large anaconda like snake- some using paint on bubble wrap, some with leaf prints and some with actual leaves. These looked ace when finished, the toughest part was stopping them from blowing away!
After some free time, trail blazing  👍the kids just LOVE doing this!! And much hammock swinging we had lunch.
 
In the afternoon we went on our woodland walk ( it was considerably less muddy today) collecting colourful flowers and big juicy leaves on our way for our next task. After surviving the ropes, bog of doom ( Mollie passed this surprisingly clean and mud free) we headed back to camp to create some flags using the Japanese printing technique called 'Hapa zone'.
 
 Each child was given a rectangular piece of cotton cloth and they arranged their flowers/leaves in a pattern or arrangement to their liking. They then folded the cloth and hammered away carefully until the juices and pigments of the plants created a lovely effect and print on their cloth.
 
Considering this was my first time at doing this ( I only discovered it 2 days ago, then rushed out and purchased hammers and bed sheets 😝) it was brilliant fun and the results speak for themselves 👍there was as always some wonderful outcomes. We then turned them into a flag and hung them out to create a fab fare of flags outside the shelter.
 
Everyone was beaming with pride when my mum and little man Elwood ( 17 months) stopped by to see what was going on! We were Also visited by some trustees of the cricket club who were very impressed with our set up and the how well the kids were behaving and enjoying themselves. What was once a unused piece of grass and woodland is now a very magical and inspiring area to spend time in. Trudy and I felt very proud of ourselves today...some lumps in our throats 🤗
The soup went down well, most had seconds ( there were a few reluctant to try but gave it a go and loved it!)
 
This then followed into circle time reflection and ended with marshmallow toasting and the obligatory s'mores  😋 😋 😋
 
We said farewell to two wonderful young helpers today 'Rhean and Mollie' who have been fantastic hands on staff over the last 2 weeks in Glossop.
BOth go on to start their PGCE's in Primary ED in September and I hope this experience of FS camp has given them some great memories and a confidence boost for the year ahead- they will both make excellent teachers. Thanks guys for all your help and we wish you all the best in your future careers  👍 😘 😘
Yet another super day, I'm shattered and up planning for tomorrow but excited for our last 2 days!