By Dylan McDonough
Welcome back to the Camp Roger Report 5th Grade Edition, where I report on my outdoor homeschool education program. This year I will be writing about the experience from the perspective of an element of nature. This month the theme was Water Ecology and will be reported from the perspective of water at Camp Roger.
Hey there! I’m Mr. Water, and right now I am raining down silently on Camp Roger. Suddenly, a car pulled in to drop off two boys. They excitedly ran up a hill to a cabin. Deep down I knew that today was going to be exhilarating.
Now, one thing you need to know about me, aka “H20 Hero”, is that I’m everywhere! So when the kids gathered around the main cabin, I was right there in a girl’s water bottle, quite comfortable. The Assistant Director of Outdoor Education, Reuben, explained the rules of Camp Roger and the schedule for the day. He took out a devotional book and read about the Tomato Frog. This amphibian lives in Madagascar and has the incredible ability to change colors according to the weather. From what I overheard, friends can be the same way, sometimes nice, other times bitter and unkind. After Reuben prayed, each group split up.
I was taken along with the oldest team, but was spilled out by the water bottle’s owner. I slid alongside them until we stopped in a shelter. I formed a puddle in the rain gutter to watch the kids. First, the group made a circle. Then they tossed a stuffed animal back and forth saying their names and the name of the person they are tossing it to. If the stuffed animal hits the ground, they needed to start all over again. Bit by bit the campers adjusted how they worked together, such as not throwing it, or sitting down if it was thrown to you. At last, they tossed the toy all around the circle without dropping it. I was happy to learn their names.
Next, the group went up to Girl’s Hill to one of the cabins. By now, the rain wasn’t as harsh as before. There was a big rope that was transformed into a gigantic jump rope. The object of the game was to get all of the kids across the spinning jump rope to the other side. Some kids got hit and then the group had to start over. Slowly but surely they worked together to get everyone across untouched. I wanted to try!
Everyone headed back to the main cabin, and no, I am not going back into someone’s water bottle. However, I did want to see what happened next. I had to move fast. Since it was such a rainy day, I dripped into a boy’s damp hair as he walked into the lodge. I had made it!
The boy, I believe his name was Dylan, was talking to his friend named Asher about the day so far. They were really good friends. After everyone had a snack, they went off to their next adventure. I dripped off the camper’s hair and slid and slipped alongside the two friends.
The Camp Counselor, Mary Jo, led the group (now called the Black Cats) down to the lake. Ah the lake! I love to swish around in there. The Black Cats fished around the lake with nets looking for jellyfish and frogs. Eek! That tickles. Dylan and Asher found a frog and a jellyfish. The frog’s name was Todd and I was sad to see him captured. The kids put all of their catches in one container. There he was, Todd, leaning against the plastic walls desperate to escape. The prison cell was picked up and carried away. Nooo! Todd was never to be seen again. But then, out of the bushes came a small frog. Tears of pure happiness dripped down my already wet cheeks. Todd! They had let him go.
The groups joined back together to have lunch. Dylan and Asher had lunch with two girls named Eden and Janna. As I rested peacefully atop a big stump, I overheard them pleasantly talking about school, movies and other kid talk. When everyone went back into the main cabin I slid in too, hiding behind the garbage can. Reuben read a book to the class called “The Pond Circle” by Betsy Franco. It was about what eats what in the pond. It started from algae and progressed to a red fox. I highly recommend this picture book to you. I could not believe how much I was learning along with the kids!
The groups ventured off once again. Desperate to find a team to follow I chose the group going with the counselor named Hannah. I wanted to be part of one more adventure before I completely evaporated. Evaporation…something humans will never truly understand. They went down near the lake again to find small lake critters. The campers dumped onto the ground the pile of goop they pulled from the lake. While using a guide, they put the tiny organisms in different categories of an ice cube tray. As I slunk along the lake side many nets crashed down into the muck to then be retrieved and looked through. At one point I wasn’t careful and a net scooped me up and dumped me on the ground. A boy named Minte looked through the leaves that lay beside me. He found two snails! In fact, that’s only what Minte, Wessen, Asher and Dylan caught. Pure snail. I never knew that there were so many tiny bugs and creatures within me.
Lastly, everyone gathered around a campfire to roast marshmallows. Wait? FIRE? Aaaugh! I had to get out of there. Just like that, I felt myself slowly rise up into the clouds as I evaporated. Whew! I overlooked the joyful scene below. Kids were talking, marshmallows were eaten, and frogs were being chased.
Dylan was toasting his marshmallow perfectly until his fingers slipped and it dropped into the scorching flames. The look of disappointment on his face was horrifying. But it quickly flipped when Asher called out that he caught another frog.
When the kids all left I felt a ping of happiness in my heart as I rested on a new cloud. Even though I’m water, I learned a lot about myself and my surroundings while studying water ecology. This was the beginning of a great year the kids would enjoy at Camp Roger.