Week 4: June 30th- July 3rd
It definitely felt like the 4th was coming this week; we had a sunny, hot, and humid time at Farm Friends!
Though we pride ourselves on allowing children the freedom to explore what interests them personally, our days have definitely developed a routine. We start with small table type activities as people arrive and are welcomed. This week was “bird week”- so paper airplane making, bird crafts (such as yarn birds or straw flying birds), and bird life cycle activities were big during this time. It was really awesome to see kids using our midwest bird guide while crafting to design their favorite birds with their crafts.
Around By 9:00, we always come together for some type of icebreaker game and whole group welcome. This week, a favorite was “bird call”- a game where two partners developed their own call, and then one was blindfolded and had to find the other just based on their call. We also did some traditional whole group games, such as a “rock, paper, scissors” competition and team building activities, such as lining up by height, hair length, etc. Some days, we also explored some books and stories together about birds, such as Nest, Bird, Egg: An Illustrated Aviary or the narrative included in our summer camp curriculum (HowWeeLearn) about a family of cardinals.
After that, it is off to complete our farm chores. We think that it is very important to show students the level of responsibility needed to care for living things. And, students often develop chores that their prefer, whether it is collecting eggs, filling sheep water pails, collecting fresh grass treats for the rabbits, or watering the garden and flowers. Farm chores are often started with a sigh and ended with a smile, which we love to see!
Now that the heat is fully upon us, we head to the woods after chores, where the shade down in the valley is a welcomed respite. This week my favorite activity to watch was team bird nest building. The creative differences between the nests was really neat to observe! After nests were built, students went on a feather hunt, where each team had to find feathers (hid by the staff) and place them in their nests. This was a game we played multiple times throughout the week! We also made some balloon birds in the woods, and went on some fun hikes on the trails!
Sometimes our mid-morning activities bring us back up to the main building, such as when we built our own chicken coops. The engineering process is a wonder to watch as students design, try, and redesign their coop creations, after a brief brainstorming session about the needs of chickens to determine what should be included in a coop. And, our chicks loved visiting their new coops after they were complete! The time before lunch is when we have guest teachers come and guide us through some new learning, which is always exciting. This week, we had Jessica, our fiber expert, teach us the next step in our fiber processing- carding our wool! Kids were so excited to see how colorful our dyed wool was from two weeks earlier, and they are anticipating our upcoming lessons on spinning the wool into beautiful yarn. We also did a great activity this week where students had to “guess the fiber”- Jessica had goat, sheep, rabbit, and even cat fiber for students to feel and learn about! Our second visitor of the week was Brianna, a Creekstone Alumni, whom I consider my own personal chicken expert. She showed us her bantam chickens and discussed genetics and breeding. She also brought her new quail. Being people who have never heard a quail rooster crow, we all loved hearing his big silly sounds!
Students are always hungry after our woods visit, so it is off to the picnic tables with our lunchboxes. After lunch, our afternoon focuses heavily on Pure Summer Fun, and this week the biggest ask for summer fun was WATER PLAY! Small pools, sprinklers, squirt toys, and water tables have helped us beat the heat for sure. Usually after cooling off, other types of play take shape- time at the park, gaga ball games, additional animal time (the kittens right now are just too much!) and finishing crafts (such as painting our bird houses from last week!) all lead to smiles. We also had some fun making homemade fruit and veggie popsicles and using the giant bubble wands. Overall, the end of our day leads to pink cheeks, messy outfits, and lots of friend time- the perfect end to our summer camp adventure!
Thanks for reading into our week and learning a bit about our routine. We can’t wait for more fun as July moves forward!