Campers arrived ready and excited for the pool this morning. We sang some of our favorite Pool Day songs, including “Swimming, Swimming” and “Baby Shark.” We headed inside to order GORP. Campers were shown what many of the ingredients look like and each got a turn to vote for what they wanted in the GORP. The campers practiced good consensus building and named their GORP Red Tree Monster Food Tornado Chex. We can’t wait to make it tomorrow! Campers then got a chance to use their art skills and we made trees out of craft sticks. Campers named their trees and even created a story about them. After sharing about the trees and making sure campers were all set for the pool we headed out. We made a pit stop at the mini meadow to eat lunch and we arrived at the pool around 11. We applied even more sunscreen and the campers showed the staff their swim skills (so we made sure everyone stayed in a skill-appropriate area). It was a perfect day for the pool. We stayed in the whole time except for when we took a break to drink water. The walk back from the pool was akin to ascending Everest; slow and arduous (but hot instead of cold). Waiting for us when we finally reached out destination was air conditioning and stories. To finish the day we ate yummy watermelon and discussed what we were looking forward to for tomorrow. What a great pool day!
Posts Tagged ‘Spruce Pool’
A Great Pool Day for Jrs!
Thursday, July 15th, 2010Keeping Cool & Warm at the Pool
Thursday, July 8th, 2010These Jr. campers bring good luck because today warmed up just enough to have Pool Day! We started our pool day singing “Baby Shark” and then several other songs led by our great Junior Leaders. For the morning game we headed over to the “mini meadow” and played What Time is It Mr. Praying Mantis? After using some of our energy we headed back inside and created insects out of clay. Campers made centipedes, butterflies, lady bugs, mosquitos, and some created their own type of insect. We got ready for swimming and our walk to the pool and ate lunch at the mini meadow.
When we arrived at the pool we pretty much had it to ourselves! We applied plenty of sunscreen (even though it was a cloudy day we know how important it is) and performed a swim screen to see camper’s swimming abilities. After that it was all fun! Many campers had to take turns warming up in their towels and playing in the pool, while others thought the water was warm and stayed in almost the whole time. We played in the splash area and with a beach ball and noodles. We made sure to change back into our clothes before our walk home so we’d be warm and dry. During rest time we read a story and campers were called to pour ingredients into our bucket for snack time. The GORP (called Pepper Eyeball GORP) was so delicious we didn’t have any left! We discussed our favorite parts of the day and what we’re looking forward to for the last day of camp. We finished our day “On Top of Spaghetti.”
Juniors Visit NCAR!
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010Juniors began our morning with “Fred the Moose,” “Leo the Lion,” and “Little Red Wagon.” We stretched out a little bit, then sunscreened up and headed to the mini-meadow for a wonderful game of Ship-Island. We learned lots of new commands! After playing, we headed back to base camp to order our gorp–each group got to decide what ingredients to put in the gorp for the remainder of the week. Then, we finished up our dinosaur hats! All of the campers looked fabulous! 
After finishing our hats, we packed up, re-filled our water bottles, and headed out to NCAR on MDC’s big yellow bus. Everyone was very excited to see Ed, the MDC bus driver, again. We ate lunch upon our arrival at NCAR, then went on NCAR’s weather walk, where we learned about the different habitats of different dinosaurs. Ask your camper what dinosaurs live by the river, what dinosaurs live on the grasslands, and what dinosaurs live in the tops of trees! After our adventure at NCAR, we headed back to base camp for some quiet time.
During quiet time, we read “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss and drank a lot of water out of our water bottles. After a bit of a rest, we all headed outside to eat some delicious gorp for snack, mixed by Director Betsy. Tomorrow, the campers will get to mix their own gorp! After snack, we finished off the day with rose and thorn–each camper said their favorite and least favorite part of the camp day. We ended by singing “On Top of Spaghetti” in our nicest voices.
Tomorrow, we’re heading to Spruce Pool–if each camper could come to camp wearing their bathing suits and clothes over their bathing suit, that would be perfect! See you tomorrow!
Pool Day at Junior!
Thursday, June 10th, 2010We had an awesome pool day at Junior today! We began our day with the “Fishing Song” and the “Swimming Song,” and then played a rousing round of duck-duck-goose, Mountain Day Camp-style. Ask your camper how it’s played! Then, we headed back to Base Camp for some teambuilding time–we worked with the webbing, and also made a cabin group sign. Then, we got packed up, put on some sunscreen, and headed out towards Spruce Pool!
We stopped along the way to eat lunch and discuss pool rules. After eating, we trekked all the way to the pool without stopping! We put all of our stuff on a table, sunscreened some more, and then headed into the pool for an hour and a half! The campers had a ton of fun being sharks, pool monsters, and playing with our Junior Leaders and Counselors. We took a number of water breaks, and hopped out of the pool only when we were exhausted from playing so hard.
After changing into dry clothes, we drained our water bottles and headed back to Base Camp, where we had some quiet time. We were lucky to have Inclusion Director Leah come read us a story! Then, we headed outside for some watermelon (yum!) for snack. It was so delicious, we all at multiple pieces! After snack, we did a fun weather activity. We made real rainbows (using water, a bendy mirror, and a white sheet of paper) and also real cumulus clouds (using water and cotton balls). The campers were excited to see how weather works!
We finished off the day with our rose and thorn–each camper said their favorite thing and least favorite thing about the day–and with some quieter, more relaxing songs. We sang “Little Canoe” and, to finish off the day, “On Top of Spaghetti.” Tomorrow, we’re going to finish off the week with a fun hike and by playing with the MDC parachute! See you tomorrow!
Juniors Climb, Play at Greenleaf Park!
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010The junior campers’ day began with some fun, high-energy songs–we sang “The Fishing Song” and “The Swimming Song.” It was really fun to see how fast we could sing! After songs, we played some fun games with the webbing, including working together as a team to pull everyone to their feet using the webbing. Then, we headed outside to climb on MDC/AO’s mobile climbing tower! The tower has fossils embedded in it, so we got a chance to discuss fossils while climbing. Each camper got a chance to climb some different routes, and the Junior Leaders also got in some good climbing time!
After climbing, we drank some water, put on some sunscreen, and headed into base camp for a little cabin group time. Today, the E.M.D.D.’s made a group sign–it shows everything the group has done this week, and each section was created by a different member of the group. After finishing up that project, we headed over to the Mini-Meadow to eat some lunch.
We ate lunch while discussing pool rules, and then headed up to Spruce Pool. Unfortunately, the pool turned out to be closed! But everyone at camp did a great job at being flexible, and the campers decided that they would be okay going and playing at Greenleaf Park instead. So we headed to Greenleaf Park, and had some fun free play time on the child-safe play structure there, next to the Nature Conservancy. After putting on still more sunscreen, we headed back to base camp.
The trek back to base camp wore us out a little bit, so we headed inside to have a bit of rest time and to learn some more about dinosaurs. We learned that the biggest dinosaur was named Ultrasaurus, and that it was found in Colorado! We also learned that the smallest dinosaur was about the size of a chicken, which was exciting to learn. After having some quiet time, the E.M.D.D.’s headed outside to order the ingredients for their own mixture of gorp, which they’ll mix and eat tomorrow! After completing their gorp order, we had some delicious, pre-made gorp for snack, and finished up the day with the “Little Canoe” song and a quiet version of “On Top of Spaghetti.”
For our final day of Big-Toothed Dinos, we’re planning to make our own dinosaur fossils out of playdoh, and are also planning to trek down to Boulder Creek to have lunch and look for more animals (seeing squirrels today was a highlight of our hike!). We look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!
Pool Day in Junior!
Thursday, August 6th, 2009We began our Pool Day with some free play, and transitioned into some great songs and a water relay. We sang the “Swimming Song” and “Little Green Frog,” and then split into two teams for our water relay. Each team had a basin full of water and a sponge, and an empty basin positioned across the yard. Each team, using the sponge, had to transfer their water from the full basin to the empty one! It was very exciting, and needless to say, the relay ended in a total and complete tie!
After our game, we headed inside to drink some water and make some pipe cleaner fish sculptures. Everyone was really pumped to make all sorts of different pipe cleaner creations–ask to see your camper’s! After our group time, we got all packed up and headed to Spruce Pool for our pool day. Directors Tim and Tommy were nice enough to drive our stuff to the pool, so we got to walk to the pool carrying only our water bottles! Once at the pool, we ate lunch, got all sunscreened, and jumped right in! Everyone had an awesome time playing at the pool–the ducky slide was a hit, as was the long ramp into the main kids pool.
After swimming, we changed into our regular clothes, gave our bags to Director Tim, and headed back to Base Camp. Walking with just our water bottles was pretty fun–we got to stop and take some drinks in lots of different shady spots. Once back at Base Camp, we headed inside for some quiet time. We read some stories and rested a bit before heading back outside for our surprise snack. It was nice cold apple slices! Delicious! All of the kids enjoyed the special pool day snack, and after snack we had some free play. Everyone was pretty tired, so there were more tears than usual, although they all dried up pretty quickly. We had a good time playing with our pipe cleaners, though!
We closed the day with some circle time–we did our rose and thorn for the day and then said goodbye to those members of our group who won’t be joining us tomorrow. We finished up with some fun afternoon songs, including the “Shark Song,” “Bumblebee Tuna,” the “Canoe Song,” and, of course, “On Top of Spaghetti.” We had a pretty great day at the pool–for our last day of camp, we’re heading to the fish observatory to see the fish and we’ll also be making crawdad masks! Get ready for an awesome last day of the session!
Thursday at Spruce Pool!
Thursday, July 16th, 2009The Juniors had an awesome day at the Spruce Pool! We started off the day with some fun, water-oriented songs…we sang “Swimming, swimming, in the swimming pool” and the world-famous “Fishing” song–how fast can you sing this song? Then, we played a great round of Ship-Island–some of the counselors even joined in the fun! After drinking some water to stay hydrated, we headed inside for some cabin group time.
Each group took some time to talk about the pool and also drew and then colored in their favorite dinosaurs. It’s amazing how many of the campers really like T-Rexes! Then, we prepped for the pool–everyone got all sunscreened, filled up their water bottles, and got ready to head out. Director Betsy was nice enough to drive our bags to the pool, so we got to hike to the pool carrying only our water bottles!
Once at Spruce Pool, we ate lunch, sunscreened some more, and then dove into the water for some fun free play in the pool! All of our swimming dinosaurs had a great time–the pool is the place to be on these hot summer days. We hopped out after about an hour of swimming, changed, and headed for home. Director Betsy once again drove our bags back to camp so that we didn’t have to hike carrying anything wet, which would have been very heavy. Instead, we just carried ourselves and our water bottles!
Back at camp, we had some quiet time–we read about Annie Apatosaurus (ask your camper how Annie the Apatosaurus walks!) and also about the trickster Coyote. Then, we headed back outside for a delicious snack of frozen Go-Gurt and some free play before the end of the day. We concluded our day with rose and thorn (each camper says their rose–their favorite thing–and their thorn–their least favorite thing–for the day), and some quieter, more relaxed afternoon songs.
Tomorrow, we’re headed out to Boulder Creek for some free play, and we’ll also be making Dinosaur Hats! Get ready for an awesome last day of camp!
Juniors Go Swimming!
Thursday, July 9th, 2009Today was pool day for Juniors here at Mountain Day Camp and boy did they have fun! As usual we started off the day singing a few songs, today we sang the Shark Song and the Swimming Pool Song (both water themed tunes in anticipation of our great adventure to the Spruce Pool). After singing we split into our cabin groups and spent some time playing team building games and learning about weather (specifically tornadoes, hurricanes, and rainbows).
At 10:30 we left Base Camp and hiked to the Spruce Pool, which can be quite a trek for the Juniors so we took it slow and drank lots of water! After eating lunch in the shade by the pool and after having a huge sunscreen party it was finally time to swim, and all the kids had a blast playing in the pool with the counselors and junior leaders.
Upon returning to Base Camp at around 1:30 it was time to rest. We spent rest time reading two fabulous Dr. Seuss classics – Thidwick the Big Hearted Moose and The Sneetches. After resting for a bit it was time to play and eat gorp (today’s gorp was prepared by the Awesome Opossums). In MDC tradition, we brought the day to a close singing On Top of Spaghetti.
Tomorrow is going to be another great day but sadly it’s the last day of the session for Juniors – they’ve been wonderful thus far and it’s going to be rough saying goodbye to those not doing another session.
Juniors at Spruce Pool
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008Today was a perfect day for going to the pool. As the kids were arriving, they were able to play with Popsicle sticks, from which many campers made “exploding fireworks.” We began the day with some themed swimming and water songs, and then an energetic game of “What Time is it Mr. Shark.” After our game we began the hike to the pool. All of the campers were really great hikers and we made it to the pool with some energy left to play. At the pool, we all had a great time splashing around and cooling off. There were some sharks. some submarines and many other exciting things at the pool. Once we had all tired ourselves out having fun, we headed back to the Living School to enjoy some well earned rest time. During our rest time, we listened to some stories read to us by Counselor Jake and Counselor Kristen. Finally we got to our surprise activity which turned out to be our first silly counselor fashion show. Each cabin group was given some costume pieces and face paint and had to make their counselor look as silly as possible, it was awesome. By the time each counselor had strutted their stuff, the votes had been cast and counselor Jake was crowned the silliest, it was time for snack and some end of the day songs. The campers were sent home tired but happy to rest up for another fun day at camp.
Adventures at Spruce Pool
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008The campers were full of energy and we sang songs for about 20 minutes to get everyone warmed up. Then we played a water animals game too.
Like most pool days our trip to Spruce Pool with the Juniors was an adventure. The weather held up nicely – it was sunny and warm for our whole time at the pool. We ate lunch when we arrived because they closed the pool for an hour after a child had an accident in the pool. However our campers are very flexible and were contented playing “A truth and a lie” and “What letter am I drawing on your back”. When we finally got in the pool  the water was warm for us – a pleasant surprise.
The fuzzy waffle bunnies had a great time mixing their gorp recipe using a different part of their body for each person. We can’t tell what they like better, mixing gorp, or wearing the plastic food service gloves (that they wear and keep as souvenirs).
We finished up the day with a few stories, snack and of course, “On Top of Spaghetti”, our iconic Mountain Day Camp song.