How to Wash Dishes at Camp

For lunch Mom helped the kids make Mac’n Cheese, while Dad grilled some burgers. All of the food was very good, and Jack and Anne were soon full. “Okay, now you two can learn how to clean your dishes!” Mom announced.

First, Mom got out three large tubs. She poured hot soapy water into the first one, clean, warm water into the second and put sanitizer in the third tub.

“Alright, first you both should scrape your dishes as clean as possible, using your napkin from lunch. Make sure all of the scraps go into the trash can!”

The kids wiped their dishes; determined to get every bit of macaroni off the plate. Now it was time to wash the dishes. First they scrubbed in soapy water, then they rinsed in clear water. Next, mom gave them a net bag. They put their dishes in the bag, dunked them in the sanitizer and hung them on the line to dry. Everyone must work together to keep up after the camp chores. It makes the trip fun for everyone.

Healthy Edible Campfires

Fire Safety is a really important subject to teach campers about. We talked about how campers could prefent forest fires, how they can safetly set up a fire in a fire ring, what the different parts of a fire are, and how to dress safely around a fire.

  To talk about the different parts of a fire we wanted to use a edible campfire. Traditionally edible fires are made out of pretzel logs, candy corn, and marsh mallows. We felt that these ingrediants were not very healthy and that there had to be a better substitute. Well Kate found one! Here are pictures and instruction about how to make your own edible campfire


Ingrediants:

      1. Chedddar Cheese
      2. Baby Carrot Sticks
      3. Red and Green Grapes
      4.All Bran cereal

Arange the grapes in a circle to represent stones, and put the All Bran cereal in the center to represent tinder. Next put the Baby Carrot sticks on top of the All bran to represent logs. The Cheddar chees can be stuck in the middle to represent the flames.
(We used the carrots and All Bran instead of the pretzel sticks.)
Picture of edible fire taken from: http://pinterest.com/sjdillon2010/fun-plates/

Fire Safety

Pgs. 8, 9, and 10 Of "Anne and Jack Go Camping"

Jack and Anne were in their tent getting ready for the Fire Safety class. Anne left her hair down, put on a big, fluffy hat with tassels that hung down and let her sweatshirt strings dangle.  When she was done getting dressed, Anne went out to meet her mom.

“Hey Mom,” said Anne, “I’m ready to start.”

 Her mom replied with a smile, “I think I know what your first lesson will be. What we should not wear at the fire!” She explained, “Never wear anything that can hang down and get in the fire. This is important because you don’t want your clothes or hair to get burnt.”

“Yes, Mom” said Anne, “I’ll go change.

“See,” Mom said, “You have already learned something new today!”

Anne caught up with her brother. He was waiting with the Fire Safety leader, Sparky. He was going to teach them how to build a fire. “First,” he said, “we need to set up the fire area.”

Jack and Anne raked the leaves away. They made sure the fire bucket was filled with water and that the rake was nearby, but safely outside the fire ring.

“You guys did a really good job, I’m impressed!” said Sparky.

The class learned that tinder was very thin and papery, like pine needles. They found out that kindling was easy for a little fire to burn. Bits of dry deadwood, about the size of a pinky finger work well. Soon a fire needs fuel and logs the size of a forearm burn best.

Camping Games

The games workshop was based on the book series , Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Campers played capture the flag, (The Hypnos team one four times out of five), duck-duck-goose, and General.

Having a Three Legged Race

Pg. 7 of "Anne and Jack Go Camping

The next workshop was Games. Many other families came to the camp ground. A tall, blonde-haired lady, who called herself Dash, organized all of the kids into teams of two. Anne and Jack were together. “Okay, the first game we are going to play is the three-legged-race!” exclaimed Dash.

 She helped all the children tie two of their legs together.

“On your mark, Get set, Go!” she shouted when everyone was ready.

Jack and Anne quickly learned how to help each other when they were running. It did no good for one of them to keep running if the other fell to the ground. Soon the finish line was in sight. Jack and Anne kept a steady rhythm and came in first place!

What We Taught Campers About Local Wildlife

    We were lucky enough to have lots of animal bone samples to show the kids! Trying to indetify what animal the bone belonged to was a favorite. We used the skulls to show the difference between herbavores and carnavores. Campers got to play a game about   Everyone got to learn lots about the different animals that live in the pine barrens.

Local Wildlife in New Jersey

Pgs. 5-6 of "Anne and Jack Go Camping"

On Saturday morning, right after breakfast, Jack and Anne got ready for the Wildlife class. They fished around in their tent for backpacks, bug spray, and sunscreen. Jack realized he still had some of his pop-tart in his pocket. Anne watched him slip the breakfast treat into his sleeping bag. “Are you sure that is a good idea?” she asked.

“Of course it is! This way I don’t have to waste time packing it up in the van! We don’t want to be late for class,” Jack explained.

The first workshop of the day was Wildlife. Anne loved animals.

“Hello everyone call me Chipmunk! That is my camp nickname,” the teacher said cheerfully. “Today you are going to learn about wildlife. My first question is: Does anyone know which animals are commonly found in this area?”

Anne raised her hand quickly, “There are foxes, turkeys, and raccoons!”

“Good Job Anne, raccoons are very common. We have quite a few here at Camp Inky! You have to be careful to lock up your food and trash or else they will eat it all!” Chipmunk laughed. “We have one raccoon we instructors have named Scruff. He often steals food from campers who don’t pack their food correctly.”

Jack gulped as he heard Chipmunk talk about the raccoons. His mind drifted back to the pop-tart hidden in his sleeping bag.

Soon Chipmunk was taking all of the campers on a nature hike. “Now I’m going to show you some animal tracks. Some easy ones to find are the rabbit and bird tracks!” she said.

Anne and Jack looked over the trail guides they were given. Anne saw that the sparrow tracks looked like Y’s with another line in the middle.