Camp Tawanchi Journal

(To the Tune of Donkey Riding)

Camp Tawanchi’s always fun,

All we do is run, run, run.

Miss Elaine sets it all up

Working from her mini van.

Vroom, Vroom, Vroom, Vroom

Working from her mini van.

Vroom, Vroom, Vroom, Vroom,

Working from her mini van.

Always tanning in the sun

She is there and always fun

It’s Miss Mary, you know why

She will never hurt a fly.

Buzz, Buzz, Buzz, Buzz

She will never hurt a fly,

Buzz, Buzz, Buzz, Buzz,

She will never hurt a fly.

His life is always ’bout Purdue

Always stepping in goose poo

He always gets killed at the pool,

Mr. Josh is really cool.

Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey

Mr. Josh is really cool.

Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey

Mr. Josh is really cool.

This counselor is really tall

Towering above us all.

Bandanna always on his head

Mr. Matt is really swell,

Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey

Mr. Matt is really swell,

Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey

Mr. Matt is really swell.

Learning about the Olympics and how hard it is to be an Olympian was the theme for this week.  Our campers enjoyed archery, Frisbee golf, kick ball, and fishing this week.  Archery was fun as we filled up balloons again and placed them in a clear trash bag.  Each color balloon had a different point value, so if you broke a blue balloon you got 10 points, red 9 points and so on.  We did not break all the balloons so we got to pop them after the archery competition!  We did lots of games this week and we enjoyed swimming at the pool so much that on Friday we swam for 3 hours!

This week we made key rings out of braid (plastic lacing) for all the lifeguards, pool staff, and Mishawaka Park Employees.  It was  our way of saying thanks for a great summer!

On Friday Miss Elaine, Mr. Matt, and Mr. Josh invited us all back for another terrific summer next year as we “Celebrate the Day!”

This is the week we all drive our counselors crazy.  See we really want to do Air Jam (a lip sync show) but we have a tough time doing the hard work it takes to get to the presentation for our parents.  First, you have to pick a song.  The week before we gave our counselors some ideas and they had to find the music over the weekend.  Well, every year they find the wrong music and we disagree about that, but we do it anyway because they give us no choice other than making suggestions.  This year we suggested a Hannah Montana song, “Singing in the Rain”  and “If I Only Had a Brain”.  Miss Mary picked the Lollipop song and Miss Elaine took us way back with Heigh Ho from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  They did let us do True Friends by Hannah Montana, “Singing in the Rain” (did the person who suggested that know it was a love story?) and “If I Only Had a Brain”.  Clearly they did not take our suggestions seriously.

Here is an example of how we make it tough on our counselors.  Mr. Matt asked two of the boys in “True Friends” to give each other a “guy hug”.  There was no way they were going to do this.  So Mr. Matt and Mr. Brandon showed them how to do a guy hug.  Every day we disagreed about this whole issue, however when our parents came this was the biggest “ohhhh” moment of the night.

Our parent night was full and we had a terrific time and our parents brought great snacks!  Mr. Matt showed us a cool video of our summer and we laughed and cried as we knew summer was coming to a close.

Art and artists.  We learned about different types of art and the artists who made that type famous.  We made a mobile out of origami, a crazy Andy Warhol picture, a sculpture out of ground up soap, and we painted a picture of a famous meal we had with our family.  Miss Marlene from “Imagine That” came and gave us art lessons.  She said we were great artists!

This week the cicadas started hatching out and we spent some time watching them.  We learned it is better to observe nature than to disturb it as it takes these bugs many years of living below ground so that they can come above ground for a few days to create more cicadas.  We also saw a cicada killer.  This is a wasp that eats cicadas for lunch.  It is rough in the bug world.

One day on our way to the pool, a goose was hurt and he started following us.  He must have wanted help because he followed the boys into the boy’s bathroom.  We asked the man at the pool to help us and he called an animal rescue place who came and took him to a wildlife refuge for treatment.  It is good to know we helped the goose and our counselors talked to us about how even a little thing like calling Goose 911 can make us a great nature lover!

Animals, animals, animals!  We had fish, dogs, chickens, ducks, and horses!

We started the week watching a video about service dogs and how they help people.  One little girl has a dog who takes off her socks and puts the socks in the laundry basket!  Miss Elaine says all kids probably need a dog like that.  We visited with the K-9 Police dogs and they showed us how a dog takes down a bad guy and how the dogs find evidence like drugs.

Dr. Kathy visited us and she brought along Hannah the dog, 2 puppies, a runner duck who stares at people, a call duck and some chickens!  The best animal day was the day the Kiwanis people brought their two horses and we got to go horseback riding in the park!  We also got to watch the horses take a bath in the river!  It was great fun!

We learned a lot about animals all week and we now have very important rules to follow so we can be safe around animals.  The most important rule, always ask the owner of the animal if you may pet them. Second, always approach an animal slowly and calmly and never make loud noises or force the animal to do something unless an adult is present to help you.

Special thanks to the Mishawaka Police Department K-9 Unit, Knute Rockne Kiwanis Club (Tim Mc Bride & John Engel, and Doctor Kathy Horn!

This is the week we all had a part in making a film.  We wrote a script, practiced and then Mr. Matt filmed us!  We got to see the films and we think we did pretty good.  Much better than if we had listened to Mr. Matt.  Mr. Matt wanted us to a make documentary.  What was he thinking?

We also hiked back to the Library to return our books and get new ones and then we headed over to Bonnie Doon for ice cream.  It was good, but because of the heat, it dripped a lot.  Mr. Matt read the menu to tell us about the history of the place.

Mr. Glassman came to camp to tell us about bugs and the river.  We caught lots of bugs and then we went fishing together and two of the boys caught a garfish.  This is one strange looking fish!  We let him go, as we do all our fish as we practice catch and release.

This week we learned about cooking. We learned how to follow a recipe and that it is important to measure the ingredients so it turns out well. Miss Elaine makes great popcorn! She taught us the secret this week. You get a pan, put some oil in the pan, put some un popped popcorn in and heat it over high heat. It pops and you eat it. Our big question is, “Why does it taste better than what you make in the microwave?”

We hiked to the Library and checked out books to read. Several of us learned how to get a card so we could come back. We plan to go see the library again this summer.

This week we had a special guest. His name was Coby Krieger. He is a professional fisherman and he shared some tips with us. He taught us how to take care of our equipment, how to hold a fish and how to release a fish. He also gave us trading cards with his picture on!

Survivor Week found us at the Res again for annual trip there. We learned about things that will help us survive like how to avoid dangerous things while hiking, keeping our camp area safe, watching the weather, and how to escape from our house if it is ever on fire. At the Res we hiked a great deal and explored nature! We did get to see the sun through a telescope with Miss Joy and Miss Shanda! One of the campers could not see the sun so he said it was night time on the sun!

Our snacks this week were really different:

• Popped Maggots (popcorn)
• Eyeballs (grapes)
• Blood and Guts (Hot dogs with ketchup)
• Worm Mix (Cereal with gummy worms and raisins)
• Smores (Marshmallows, graham crackers and candy bars)

Our sleep over was great fun, and the boys found the girls, but the girls found a group of Boy Scouts in the woods and really gave them a good scare!

It is Western Week here at Camp Tawanchi! Our Counselors in Training planned a new archery activity for us! It was really fun. They filled a trash bag with balloons and said it was a buffalo! You really had to use your imagination! It was fun shooting at a different target and we got to pop the balloons! They also had us pan for gold beads and make a necklace of the gold beads. They did a great job!

Miss Kathy and Miss Sarah from the Brothers of the Winds came and explained what life was like on the plains. They had to catch all their own food, make their clothes from animal skins and build their own homes. They showed us some examples of animals skins and how they made cloth from sheep hair or wool. It looked like lots of work.

This week the USDA recalled tomatoes. We did our best to convince Miss Elaine and Miss Mary that ALL vegetables had been recalled and that we should not have a vegetable snack this week. They served us carrots and celery anyway. Then they told us we were going to have pudding the next day! We make it in jars and we get to shake it up and serve it in an ice cream cone. They are very good! Well, after swim Miss Elaine shared that she had heard on the radio that milk had been recalled and we could not have pudding because pudding is made with milk. This was very sad news, yet when we arrived at snack there was pudding! Miss Elaine had told us that so that we always remember to tell the truth. Root beer floats were the best snack of the week!

We had our first fishing day! The girls caught one fish and one turtle. The boys, well we will try again next week!

Long, long ago in this our very own galaxy,

along the Saint Joseph River,

in the Princess City of Mishawaka

near Merrifield Park’s Castle Manor,

a group of children gathered around a Camp Fire,

and it was called Camp Tawanchi.

The Legend Continues!

That’s our t-shirt for 2008! We are all excited about a great summer! We are starting the summer by learning about how important it is to take care of our earth and the entire universe. We visited with the Solid Waste Management Lady and someone who has been to NASA Space Camp! We started a new project working with the Mishawaka Park Department. We are going to take care of the area around Castle Manor. We started by planting flowers and putting in a bird bath which we will need to water and maintain. We have plans to put up a bird feeder and keep the birds happy all summer long!

Famous Quotes from this week:

• Where’s the floor in this pool?
• I passed the swimming test!
• Is that my snake Isabella all tied up in your braid? How did that happen? Ask Miss Elaine!