Our April meeting of Saturday Explorers really brought the showers! We began the day with heavy rain but that didn’t spoil our fun. Once we got to our campsite, we got busy with a wet wood fire challenge. Some of our fearless explorers went into the rain to collect lots and lots of “wispies” (very thin sticks), while others stayed under the tarp to strip birch bark. Once we had the sticks and tinder ready to go, one of our instructors gave a brief lesson on building a fire structure while some of the kids worked together on it. Their challenge was not only to get the fire lit and burning using flint and steel, but to also get the fire strong enough to burst balloons suspended above the fire pit. The fire caught quickly and was successful at popping every balloon. With the warmth of a fire to dry us out, we settled into snack and a story about how the humble little Wren or “Hedge King” became king of the birds.
The rain ended with snack and so we ventured out into the forest to find a good clearing for a game. Along the way we looked at trees and tried to identify them. We found beech and maple trees sprinkled among the pines. We also kept an eye out for antlers on the ground as it was the season for deer to shed them. One explorer was lucky and found an antler!
Once we got to a good spot, we played a game of Hawk and Bird Tribe. In this game, a hungry bird tribe must find food, which is hidden somewhere in the forest by the hawks. The birds have a nest someplace at the edge of the playing field with an obstructed view of the playing field, so they can’t see where the hawks are hiding the food. While this happens, the bird tribe decides which bird calls they are going to us to communicate out in the forest. Bird tribe can ONLY use bird calls, except for when in their nest (base). The birds must go out of their nest to look for food, but must not get eaten (tagged) by the hawks. The goal of the game is for the bird tribe to find all the food and bring it back to the nest. Once the birds had successfully found all the food and gotten it back to their nest, we headed back to the campsite for lunch.
The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to handcrafts and free play. Some explorers worked on carving pieces, such as backpack hooks, while others continued our basswood cordage project from our March meeting.
We finished the day off with another story, this one about a young girl who faced a grizzly attack and lived! Everyone was gripped by the dramatic tale. As we left camp and walked down to the field, a little sunshine peeked out from the clouds. It was a great day to be outside, and a reminder that there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes!