MSU Tollgate Earth Explorers Camp: Wednesday-Friday
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EmailMSU Tollgate Earth Explorers Camp: Wednesday-Friday
Wednesday:
Kicked off the day with Flag Ceremony lead by the Yellow Peppers! After the flag ceremony it was time to head over to do our animal chores for the day. Yellow Peppers got to milk Sage the goat!
After chores we headed over to the pond for some fishing! Each pepper group did a great job using yesterdays casting training to send out some really good casts. Each group was able to catch quite a few fish, including a large mouth bass from each group!
After fishing it was time to make DIY cling wrap! We melted down bees wax and dipped fabric to give it a thin wax coating. You can use this cling wrap to seal left over containers or or wrap up snacks and other food! When it starts to get cracky you can re melt it in the oven on parchment paper or using a iron with parchment paper.
After lunch we got messy and made pollinator seed bombs to throw into the garden later this week. We mixed clay, compost, water and made a soil paste and placed pea and oat seeds in the center.
After making the seed bombs we learned about pollination and played games in the field
We capped off Wednesday with Makers Space where we made our carnival games for the whole camp to see.
Thursday:
Thursday is here! Today we started with our animal chores. Today the Orange peppers got to milk Sage the goat today!
After animals we visited the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) fields with Farmer Darby. We learned about compost, good/bad bugs, and got to harvest squash. While harvesting we learned about the life cycle of the squash plant.
After harvesting cucumbers we went back for snacks and a cucumber taste test! Quite a few hesitant campers but many converted to cucumber lovers after!
Orange and Yellow peppers went out for a additional activity of fishing while Green peppers went back out to the pond for some pond exploration.
After snacks we enjoyed lunch and then got back to work on our STEAM Project: Makers Space and threw our seed bombs!
We also got to explore vermicomposting (composting with worms) and learned that worms have 5 pairs of hearts and do a great job munching up our food scraps into nutritious soil for our garden.
Final activity was a visit to the Forest for Track Trapping. We set up a baited trap (a large piece of paper and an ink pad), found a good space in the forest, and let it sit over night to see if we could trick animals into walking onto our ink pad trap so we can see their markings.
Friday!
Happy Friday! Kicked off the misty morning with the Flag Ceremony hosted by the green peppers! After the flag ceremony we made it over to the animals for our final visit for the week! Lots of hi's and byes to the chickens and goats!
After chores we visited the forest to check our track trap and to play some games! The Orange peppers did an AMAZING job on their shelters.
After the forest we had snacks, learned about decomposing trash, and made DIY tote bags!
Surprise visit from Stormy the Pony from Horse Camp for the green peppers! Thanks Louise!
Lots of games were played today!
After games and activities. We had a moment to finish up our STEAM Projects and then it was time to present them. We had ball toss games, card games, solar system and tractor observations, claw games, egg drops, arrow throwing, and sooo much more! All the campers were so creative and thoughtful during this weeks STEAM and loved showing off their creations.
Then popsicles, survey, and time to go! Such a great week thanks to all of you! Hope to see you all soon :)
