October 11, 2011- Day #1

We have had THE BEST time down here in Nature's Classroom today!

Our three coach busses left FRCS at 8:45, arriving a little after 10:00. We all formed a "bucket brigade" line to work cooperatively, helping unload all the huge luggage compartments, with about 300 pieces, including duffles, rolling luggage, sleeping bags, pillows, and whatever else fifth graders packed for their adventure here at NC.

The super fun Nature's Classroom staff gathered us together on one of the big grassy areas for a gigantic games of Nibbity Bibbles, world's biggest game of "rock, paper, scissors", and Evolution. You'll have to ask your favorite fifth grader how each was played!

Then it was time to haul the bags up to our 8 cabins, settle in a bit, and then have a sit-down session with one of the NC staffers for a conversation about living together in their cabin, including how to respond in case of an emergency.

Next it was time to practice Fire Drill procedures and meet with field group leaders.

Everyone brought their huge appetites to our 1:00 lunch of garlic bread, ziti and sauce, steamed broccoli, and salad bar. Sunflower butter/jelly was also available, as well as apples, bananas, and yogurt. "MOO!" is what the kids were supposed to say every time if they opened the cooler for milk!

Everyone at each table signed up to be "waitron" for at least one meal while they're here. Meals are served family-style, and the waitrons' job is to set the table, get the platters/bowls of food from Chef Tom and the kitchen staff, and oversee the clearing of dishes at the end of the meal. Oh yes, they also sweep, wipe the tables, and put the benches back up on top of the tables. (The waitron for the next meal scrapes any "ORT" onto one plate and brings it up to be weighed so everyone can be kept posted of how much food and liquid is "wasted" at each meal.)

During after-lunch "entertainment" outside, the waitrons sang the ORT song and reported 24 lbs of wasted food from lunch :(....which Fitz explained was equivalent to ordering, and throwing away, 96 McDonald quarter pounders!) The 4-day goal while we're here is for the fifth graders to learn to only take what they truly are able to eat or drink, i.e. to share a carton of milk, or cut a piece of garlic bread in half, to reduce wasted food.
However, "if it's on the platter it doesn't matter," so food is only ORT if it's served onto an individual plate.

The afternoon was bright, sunny, and beautiful! Almost all afternoon classes were held outdoors.
They included ultimate frisbee, "Viking" boat construction (and integrity-testing in the frog pond to see which would survive attack by tennis ball bombardment!),feed-your-face (using food for beauty treatments), jelly belly-ology (taxonomy activity), bicycle dissection, egg drop (designing a container in which to protect an egg from being dropped from a tree-house platform), pond probe (wading, exploring with nets and scooping up interesting pond occupants for studying), rat dissection (identifying parts of the body and their function), atomic ice/chemistry (making ice cream the old fashioned way with ice cubes, Kosher salt, and sugar), and adaptaion auction (learning how animals adapt to their environment with particular body parts/designing a creature that would survive in certain circumstances).

Everyone is having so much fun!

Your first glimpse of our Nature's Classroom activities will be attached to the next several posts. Girls' bunk photos are ready to share, but I need to catch up with one more boys' bunk before I can post all those. Please be patient as I try to upload as many as the wireless network here will allow me to send!

Thanks for sharing your children with us!