Week 3. Day 3. The Big Tesuque and Stories!

Wednesday at the Big Tesuque!

Katie started the day by reading her book about Sandhill Cranes and showed the kids the process to create a picture book.

LITTLES:  Buddies created stories together and then hiked to a spot to work on their books or build shelters. Some of the kids made a shelter for a queen fairy and her pet dragons, while others worked on more serious tee pee structures with the counselors. We used watercolors to paint a story on some fallen bark and talked about the stories we saw the day before carved into the rocks and caves.  We told bear stories and did a group game of sharing stories about places they had been and what they had seen.

BIGS: Played in the river, and used a map to discover a less traveled trail.  We spent time quietly writing our animal stories and enjoying the peace of the forest.  A beautiful and relaxing day in the mountains!

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Week 3. Day 2. World's Largest Swim Lesson! Tsankawi!

Tuesday, June 18th

We started the day by offering kids an opportunity to participate in the World’s Largest Swim Lesson. We had twelve kids participate: both BIGS and LITTLES.  It was chilly but a great opportunity to practice a really important survival skill!  Mountain Kids joined swimmers around the world to make it the largest simultaneous swim lesson ever. We hope. 🙂

Afterward, we headed out to hike and marvel at Tsankawi, a part of Bandelier National Monument. It was a beautiful and perfectly cloudy day for such an adventure (for the morning anyway)!

The paths there are grooved three feet deep in places (!) and there are many, many caves from the “masters of survival skills”  – the Ancestral Pueblo people. It was a big hike for the LITTLES but we took plenty of breaks along to way to drink water, and to look for pottery shards, apache tears, petroglyphs, and hollow rocks!  We all climbed several ladders and got to enter several big and small “cavates.”  We learned that Cavates are caves that were dug out by the Ancestral Pueblo people. They were not naturally formed.

The BIGS did the same loop and stopped to eat and listen to a story told by Ashley in one of the caves.  They had fun exploring and imagining what is was like to live here.  In the van everyone enjoyed listening to My Side of the Mountain, a great tale of survival to complement our day!

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Week 3. Day 1. Super Hikers and Wee Wanderers Among the Aspens!

Roll over images for captions.  Click on image for larger view and slideshow.

Monday at the Norski Trail!*

*Apologies to the LITTLES of whom there are very few photos from this day… we are working on resolving some technical difficulties! Stay tuned for lots of LITTLES at Tsankawi!

After a morning of meeting, playing, and making our group contract at the Children’s Museum, we snacked, filled water bottles and used the potty before we loaded into the Adventure Vans.  We were heading to the cool, moist Aspens for the day!

On our way we sang and listened to stories, which gave way to hiking and listening to birds.   Blue sky and fluffy white clouds behind towering white giants, green leaves whispering and giggling.  We felt happy and alive!

LITTLES!  We did listening activities with our buddies and talked about how important listening is for storytellers and hikers. We talked about and came up with definitions of fairy tales, folk tales, and fables (and read examples of each). We hiked to a spot to build shelters and review the cardinal directions. We did the book binding for our picture books. Boy were we busy!

We LITTLE campers also incorporated lots of team building and ice-breakers into our day.  We played head-to-head, toe-to-toe, name games, and learned fun facts about each other.

We also chose our group animal for the week from three choices.  We chose chipmunks because they are SO cute, just like us!  🙂  We looked at pictures of chipmunks of the southwest and chose the “Least Chipmunk”  for our identity because they were the cutest.  We made our group call,  “Squeak!”

The BIGS hiked through the Aspens and found a perfect spot to stop for lunch.  We then split off and make shelters in small groups.  There were lean-tos, summer shelters and winter shelters.  We did a group Shelter Tour and talked about what each shelter would be good for: summer, winter or play.  Then we hiked on to a beautiful spot where we found oodles of CATARPILLARS!  We collected them (whether we tried or not!) on our arms, sticks, shirts and hats…

We also played Human Camera with buddies.  We found something beautiful for our buddy to “take a picture” of with their mind’s eye, then drew a picture of it for them.  It was nice to stop and look closely at the beauty all around us.

We did an activity to show how Aspens are all connected before hiking back to the Adventure vans for a relaxing ride home.

We chose our group animal for the week – the Black Bears. Rooaaarrrr!

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Summer 2013: Week 2 – Wilderness Skills Part 2

Buddies!
Buddies!
Great vista, great hikers!
Great vista, great hikers!

Week 2 began with our usual games, group contract and getting to know each other at the SFCM.  We also talked about what to take on a hike, and how to stay safe and healthy outdoors. After circle and snack we headed off on our adventure for the day.  Each group started at Aspen Vista and went in different directions. The Bigs hiked up to Carl’s Meadow where they played games –  camouflage, blind old owl and park ranger, among others.

The Littles hiked up to the Aspen Vista trail to the Big T while playing Red Light-Green Light (as well as silver light, blue light, yellow light, and brown light)!  We sang, played, drank water, snacked, and hiked until we found the trail down to the Big Tesuque – we were excited to see water! We talked about how to stay hydrated and feeling good on a hike and drank a lot of water!  We ate lunch and then headed to a beautiful “new to us” river location.  Some kids built a very unique shelter with a river running through it, while others engaged in imaginative play  – fishing and being animal families.  All enjoyed getting wet in the river!  It was an accomplished hike for both Big and Small today!

On Tuesday the Littles played games to learn the cardinal directions and had lots of time to play at the Big T in the river. They read folk tales and hiked to a tiny waterfall. The kids did activities with their buddies such as making up secret code names to call to each other in the woods.

The Bigs went to base camp on Tuesday for the first ever: archery, slackline, art, and mountain biking day! Small groups rotated through the activities, which kept it interesting and fun for everyone.   By early afternoon we were ready to cool off so we headed to Shidoni, hoping to get wet in the river.  We found the river bed dry, but made the best of it with water games under a big shady tree on the grass. Blind Old Owl and Drip Drop Splash cooled us off, were a lot of fun, and a great way to finish the day!

On Wednesday, we all went on an amazing trip into the Santa Fe Watershed with Eileen Everett and Erin from the Santa Fe Watershed Association!  Before we left, we learned what a watershed is and used a tarp and water to illustrate how water always flows down to the lowest point. We talked about how to find and purify water in a survival situation and made a group “waterfall” to encourage drinking plenty of water throughout the (hot!) day.

On the field trip we learned about good fires and bad fires and how fires have historically helped the forests. We saw where they have done a lot of cutting in the watershed, so it was helpful to learn why.  We walked by the Nichols reservoir and learned about the capacity of our reservoirs and how low they are this year.  We also used nets to search for aquatic macro invertebrates (our new term for the day!) and found many.  This tells us that we have good water quality – yay, some good news about water!  We also got wet and played in the Santa Fe River.  We were grateful to get to see this bit of the Santa Fe watershed and mountains that has been closed to the public since 1932.  Thank you, Eileen and the Watershed Association for inviting us to go for the day.

At the end of the week we went to the Ski Basin and talked about how to avoid lighting, how to stay safe when lost (stop and stay put), and what to pack in an equipment kit. We hiked, ate and played games in Adventure Land.  It was a good way to cool off and take it easy after a very hot week!

If you liked this post, leave a comment! 🙂  Thanks!

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Summer 2013 Week 1: Wilderness Skills!

By all accounts Week 1 of Summer 2013 was a hit!  We had a fabulous group of campers and happy, dirty, wet and tired kids returning from mountainous adventures each day.  New friendships were forged, new adventures had, and new wilderness skills acquired!

Themes all week were S.A.F.E.R., equipment/packing a backpack for a hike, cardinal directions, noticing surroundings, maps and landmarks, keeping track of buddies and belongings, and working together!

We started the week with a name game, an orientation to Mountain Kids and a group contract.   We talked about what we need to have in our packs and on our bodies for a safe and fun adventure each day.  Everyone got a “Buddy” for the day to keep them safe on the trail, and to make a new friend.

Monday at the Beaver Ponds brought a wide variety of explorations: making beaver dams, listening to birds, making rafts, finding clay, fossil hunting and playing camouflage.  Each group chose their group name for the week: we had the Horned Lizards, the Bobcats and the Otters.

On Tuesday Mark read a story in circle called Stop and Stay Put where we learned how to stay safe when going on an adventure in nature.  The acronym S.A.F.E.R. helped us remember these important concepts:

S  – Stop and Stay Put (if you get lost)

A  – Tell and Adult where you are going

F – Go with a Friend

E – Bring an Equipment Kit (the basics include water, sunscreen, hat, snacks, jacket)

R – Make sure you Rest.

Our adventure for the day took us to the Nordic Trails to hike and learn how to build survival shelters that will keep you warm and dry, or cool in the forest if you are lost.  We played Park Ranger and other games for group building.  The Littles played a hiding game with their buddies and one where they hiked along the trail and took note of anything that stood out.  Campers were buddies with new friends today; they really enjoyed getting to know new kids!  We had story time and did our first Sit Spots of the week while making Sound Maps.  A beautiful day in the forest!

On Wednesday, Ashley led us in learning about the Four Directions and how to use a compass to find them.  We practiced finding the four directions at the Children;s museum using magnets to show us magnetic north, and again at the Big Tesuque where we spent the day hiking, playing by the river, making maps, identifiying landmarks, building shelters, doing Sit Spots, watercolor painting, and talking about what else we could add to our backpacks to make our Equipment Kit even better (compass, mirror, whistle, orange garbage bag, first aid kit, etc. )  The water was super fun, but also COLD!  We did a rain dance to help bring on some moisture!

Thursday we headed up to Black Canyon where the kids found many wonders of nature: a bird nest, broad tailed humming birds, caterpillars, butterflies and wildflowers.  We connected the Four Directions and compass with a map to show how they can be used together.  We played games, did watercolors, sound maps and another rain dance!  Let’s hope it works soon!

All in all it was a wonderful week!  We are grateful for such a super group of kids and such stunning natural beauty in our surroundings to inspire us each day!

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