This August, Ms. Richards and Ms. Ellis led a five-day summer camping trip to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The students were from both EC and the EK communities, but worked together to get all of the jobs around camping completed successfully.
We saw incredible gains in independence and self-reliance over the course of the week as students had to raise their own tents, cook, clean-up, feed the fire, take "coin-op" showers, and navigate by flashlight to the bathrooms at night. The up-tick in self-reliance and needing to "step-up" to responsibilities has been carried over into the classroom; students who attended camp have definitely stood out in the first few days of school as having a noticeable increase in self-confidence.
Enjoy our pictures below!
First, we had to stop and get all our food supplies from Safeway! The students did all the menu-planning and shopping.
Then, we found our site and had to put up our tents.
Our site fully set-up among the redwood trees...
Learning how to cook over the fire pit.
Making eggs for breakfast.
See below- our hike to Buzzard's Roost... a long, hot trek but fabulous views at the end.
We swam and played in the creek
...the water was super cold.
This student is getting flank steak ready for the grill
Watching it cook
Of course there were s'mores! And sometimes they got burned!
We played guitar and sang silly songs.
And we all went boogie boarding at Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz...
Later, when we had all swum in the ocean, we sat on the beach and made tie-dye shirts.
All-in-all, it was a great trip and we learned so much! We look forward to next year.
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