“Nature is imperfectly perfect, filled with loose parts and possibilities, with mud and dust, nettles and sky, transcendent hands-on moments and skinned knees. What happens when all the parts of childhood are soldered down, when the young no longer have the time or space to play in their family’s garden, cycle home in the dark with the stars and moon illuminating their route, walk down through the woods to the river, lie on their backs on hot July days in the long grass, or watch cockleburs, lit by the morning sun, like bumblebees quivering on harp wires? What then?”
– Richard Louv
Drive West up Spanish Fork Canyon out of Utah Valley. You’ll pass the windmills. ($23 million dollars apiece). You’ll see the site of the Thistle landslide of ’83 and most likely large orange signs advertising jerky of various sorts. Take a right and you’ll encounter Lake Scofield and the cemetery where 100+ miners were buried after one of the worst mining disasters in U.S. history. Pass a random rogue bathtub in the woods and soon you’ll find yourself at the red gate of Camp Clear Creek. It’s a happy spot owned by the school district. Schools visit during the school year a three day summer camp runs through June, July, and into August. Each year my 5th grade team takes our students to ‘The Creek’ for an overnight trip. Most years we go in the fall but this year we got stuck with January and it was delightful.
One of the big highlights at camp is the ropes course. Students balance on wires and swing on ropes without touching the ground. It’s really just logs, wire and rope, but they love it. That natural kid appeal to climb and swing and balance really kicks in. They’re excited and discouraged and mean and encouraging. It’s a real litmus test for who the really gritty tough kids are. Last year I noticed a little girls’ fingers were bright blue. Bluey blue. I asked if she was cold and she said no. I was concerned about her fingers falling off, but realized they were blue from the Tie dye rotation she had just come from. Phew! Those gritty kids are passionate, though! They want to stay on the course through rain, snow, blazing sun.
Camp kids are helpful and grateful. We discovered that our normal fire pit was snowed in and we were obliged to use one up a rather steep hill on the other side of camp. The pile of firewood we normally pull from was also buried in snow. One of the dads trekked out to the area with me, waded through thigh-high snow, and dug out logs while I carried them back to the little path that was only 3 or 4 inches covered in snow. After dinner, I rounded up some kids to help us carry them up to the campfire. It’s kind of amazing to me how camp makes everything and adventure. Kids who complain about having to lift up their chair and stack it were suddenly excited about helping me carry logs 1/4 mile away to the other side of camp through snow drifts and up an icy hill. It was carrying logs up a hill people! They requested more logs to carry and some even went back down the hill for more logs near the hill. #woodlandmagic
We watch a movie at night to help everyone wind down then the kids go get ready for bed. My co-teacher and I stop by each cabin to make sure no one has been lost in the woods, etc. We tell the students that as it may be the first night away from home for many of them that we are going to give them a hug and kiss to make them feel more comfortable. We enjoy their horrified faces for a few seconds before pulling out chocolate hugs and kisses. We lock the doors for the night and walk to the next cabin. Leaving the boys’ cabins at night we heard a dad from the first boys’ cabin, “We are sitting down to pee! We are not messing up these toilets in just one night!” As we walked away from the second boys’ cabin we heard the dad saying, “We’re going to play a game! And the only rule is that you can’t cry when I beat you!” My coworker and I giggled to ourselves at the contrast as we walked to the girls’ cabins.
There are moments in teaching when I realize that I’ve become something of an adult. We let the small ones off the bus and they were rolling around in the white stuff like a happy YouTube panda. For two days when a group was presented with a fluffy white snowbank someone caved to the inclination to flop themselves down into it and have a chair made to order for their bottom’s exact dimensions. It did still look appealing, but I’d decided that my snow pants weren’t fashionable enough and didn’t really want to get my jeans wet. Adult. Adult. Adult. Shame. Shame. Shame.
For Teachers:
A few years ago I got to attend a conference called, ‘Nature to the Classroom’. For a few days, a group of teachers went to Capital Reef in southern Utah and discussed and learned about ways to incorporate more nature education in our rooms. We read the book, Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv. It made me more aware of how much of an impact nature had on my development and encouraged me to push my students out of doors, or bring the world in to them. It made me love ‘The Creek’ all the more.
Things I’ve learned about camp in the past.
Create a time-based schedule with a list of students who should be at each activity. There is so much time between when I see a child at an activity and when I take roll next. Enlist your parents in the tracking of children.
Have fun back-up activities for every activity in case of inclement weather.
Give students time to explore. Some of my favorite memories as a child were just wandering around without an adult explaining everything. It’s also something students request every year. They just want to see what’s out there and enjoy their ten-year-old independence. Let them experience life as though the world were theirs and they could go anywhere.
Teach them something useful. Make them work a little. They like it. Some of my favorite ‘work a bit’ activities are:
The Hike: Kids take a one mile hike through the forest. Parents lead them and they get to leave campus and see a bit more of the area. There are bear scratch marks on the trees and some parents or teachers like to tell the story of the run-away miner who lived in the meadow that is the destination. The parents take fanny packs and periodically stop to teach the kids about safety while hiking. Prizes like a whistle, granola bar, and rain poncho are given out to lucky kids who answer questions. (Award the whistle last.).
NPS Activities: My coworker lives in Yellowstone during the summer with her husband who is a ranger there. She’s brought some activities that help teach the kids about wildlife. One is called Wildlife Olympics. Kids get to compare their own abilities with those of animals. They see how fast they can run, how far they can jump, etc. It’s a bit of work getting materials together, but is a great activity. The other activity from the parks service requires kids to collect food as if they were a bear. They might have a cub or an injury. At the end of the game they discover if they survived.
Our students also participate in a GPS activity. We check out GPS units from the district media center. Navigate to the Satellite function and help the students experiment and see how the last three digits of the latitude and longitude change as they walk. We then take them on a little treasure hunt with a teacher or parent reading off the last three digits of coordinates of different landmarks around camp, ending with the discovery of a treasure.
Take safety very seriously. Kids are fragile. Situations change fast. Take those safety precautions seriously.
