Gross! Camp

  Rural Resources' second session of the 2015 Farm Day Camp  wrapped up on Friday with "Gross! Camp." First through 3rd-graders spent the week learning about bugs, dirt, worms, poop, pigs, wallowing in the mud, snakes, and even cow farts! They smelled, tasted, looked at and touched all manner of gross things. They enjoyed lots of traditional Farm Day Camp fun, too, like playing in the creek and milking the cow. Click on the video below to see some of the fun!





Soundslide Production: Lorelei Goff
Photos: Emily Greenier and Lorelei Goff
Music: Heftone Banjo Orchestra via Creative Commons Music

Farm Day Camp: Little Sprouts!

 The 2015 Farm Day Camp sessions have begun! Summer camp season kicked off June 1-5 with a flock of Rural Resources' Little Sprouts campers frolicking in Holly Creek and learning about farming, food and sustainability. The week provided 4- and 5-year-olds with abundant opportunities for exercise in the farm-fresh air and sunshine, crafts, planting seeds and an all around good time! Take a look at some of their summer fun below. There is still time to register for the second Little Sprouts session next week. Click here to go to the link.

Bunnies!

Craft Time

 

  

Feeding Time!

The Garden!

 

 

 The Creek!

Happy Campers!

Photos: Lorelei Goff

Farm Day Camp: Too Much Farm Fun and Little Sprouts

      Farm animals, food, crafts, and a creek – it’s time for Rural Resources’ summer Farm Day Camp!

      In fact, two more sessions of Farm Day Campers scampered through Rural Resources’ Holly Creek farm over the last couple of weeks. Children from Pre-K through third grade took part in two sessions: Too Much Farm Fun Camp and Little Sprouts Camp.

      “I’ve milked a cow,” 7-year-old Corinne Southerland said, with a grin. “It was pretty cool. And I’ve played a lot of games.”

      Corinne’s big sister Grace, a seventh-grader, volunteered to help with the younger children in the Too Much Farm Fun session. Anticipating the start of her own FDC session, she talked about last year’s memorable camp moments.

      “Last year we went to Paint Creek,” Grace said. “And we went canoeing on the Nolichucky. That was my favorite! It was my first time in a canoe.”

      The opportunity to try new things is one of the things that keeps kids coming back, year after year. But Doak Elementary School teacher Margaret Ayers, who was there with her daughter, said there are many good reasons for kids to come to camp.

      “Being around the animals and being able to feed them,” Ayers said. “Just even being around the creek. These are things that kids don’t get to do every day. They see where food comes from and how animals live. Their understanding of food isn’t just from the grocery store.”

      Ayers also said she thinks this kind of an experience makes kids more compassionate to animals and each other, and opens the door to new friendships.

      “They’re all from different schools, so they’ve made new friends who have similar interests,” She said. ”I think it’s a great camp.”

      Sissy Rabern’s son, Wolfgang, participated in the Little Sprouts camp.

      “It’s a lot better than sitting inside, to actually get out and do stuff, like figure out where milk comes from,” Rabern said. “He absolutely loves it.”

      Doak Elementary School teacher Nick Baumann led the sessions and said he believes that tuning into students’ interest levels and keeping things fun is the key to successful summer learning at Farm Day Camp.

      “The highlight for most campers is probably creek time,” said Baumann, as Ben, a Little Sprout, climbed onto the creek bank cradling a freshwater shellfish in his hands.

      “I think they’re having a good time,” he said, taking the tiny creature from Ben’s cupped hands and giving him a sprout-sized biology lesson.

      Perhaps wide-eyed wonder and unending opportunities for discovery are the best reasons of all to come to Farm Day Camp.

Gross! Camp

      The Rural Resources’Farm Day Camp is a hands-on farming and food adventure that connects children of all ages with the natural world.

      Nick Baumann, a teacher at Doak Elementary, opened the Gross! Camp session on June 2^nd by introducing a pair of giant cockroaches to a lively group of 1^st – 3^rd grade students. 

      “When you touch them, remember they’re a bug,” Baumann admonished, placing them on a table with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “You don’t want to squeeze them, or it might get reeeaaal gross!”

      The children erupted into gasps and squeals of, “Eeewww!” and “Gross!”

     Baumann introduced a variety of smelly, slithery, creepy-crawly critters throughout the day – snakes, insects, pigs and rats to name a few – with an unexpected bonus of a tiny, pink, hairless baby in the rats’ nest.

      Baumann also produced a kitten. The children buried their fingers in its fur and hugged it to their chests, while he assured skeptics, who weren't convinced she qualified as gross, that “she has stinky gas.”

The week also included art, crafts, feeding farm animals, milking the cows, visiting the Rural Resources garden, playing games, climbing trees and exploring the cool, shaded creek during the afternoon heat.

      The days were filled with lots of amazement, laughter and good-natured bantering between Baumann and his campers.

      Although the sessions are pre-planned and structured, Baumann said one of the key principles to creating a positive experience for little campers is flexibility. He said he allows more time for activities they are enjoying or moves on to something else if they are losing interest.

      Campers represented a number of area schools, as well as the home school community.

      Watch for more Farm Day Camp adventure photos!