Nature’s Classroom – Eden

May 4, 2016 eden1616 0 - NATURE'S CLASSROOM, 0 - Scary Stories, 6th Grade Writers, Eden children, fun!, Natures Classroom, New Ideas, Woods

In 2016 I went to Becket, Massachusetts with my school for a program called Nature’s Classroom. It was quite a fun trip doing all the different activities and making memories we had made there. I had many favorite parts and some parts I wished I hadn’t experienced.. But for the most part is that it was a lot of fun. On the day of our leave we had ended up having a snow day. So, we had a delay, we were originally supposed to leave at 8:30am but in the end ending up leaving at 1pm and arrived 4 hours later at 5pm due to snow conditions. After we got there we were greeted and were taken to our activities and the trip began.

One of the things we did was choose classes, I did one specific class called “Feed Your Face” that involved in putting different foods and other things on our face, lips and arms and seeing/learning about how it helped us. Our teacher Ana (Nicknamed Bloodhound) let us experiment and taught us about the different pores we were cleaning and relaxing our facial muscles. We also got to make and eat an edible lip balm with some cocoa powder in it. We tried to keep it on our lips as long as we could, but the temptation was too much for most of us. At the end before we left, out teacher let us have orange slices with some sugar on them, a nice winter treat!

Another class I took was called Squid Dissection, in this class we got to watch a squid being dissected. A group of kids including me sat around our teacher at a table and we watched him dissect a squid and we got to touch some of the parts like the heart, stomach, eye, and brain! As gross as it sounds, we had gloves and luckily, nothing sprayed out at us! We also got diagrams and got to see what parts the squid had and how it all worked together. Lastly but not least we got to pass around small pieces of the squid and see what all the functions did. By accident our teacher cut open the stomach and this weird liquid substance came out, but it was a cool color right?

So, we did do a lot more in Nature’s Classroom but I’m afraid that’s all I can write for now, but it was a great experience and I am excited for my return next year. I am excited to find out what new adventures will overcome me next year and have the memory of 2016 snowy Nature Classroom in my heart forever. See you guys next year!

Lisa Zins via Compfight

Natures Classroom by Tess

May 3, 2016 tess1516 0 - NATURE'S CLASSROOM, 6th Grade Writers, Tess Friends, fun!, Natures Classroom

Nature’s Classroom is located in Becket Massachusetts. I would describe it as a sleep away camp, but it’s a little different. At Nature’s Classroom, you get to do all sorts of things like hiking, different fun activities and just hanging out with your friends. To get there, my class left at 1:00pm from school. We all fit on a giant bus with many different seats and even a bathroom. We arrived at 5:30pm, everyone was exhausted from the long 4-hour drive! We were all assigned bunks, and later on, we got to set our stuff down. This was pretty much our first day, there was not a lot going on because there wasn’t a lot to do considering it was so dark.

Photo by Tess

Every day we would wake up at 7:00am. Everyone would get dressed, then go out for breakfast. Some people who needed to take meds or people who were Waitrons would leave a little early. After breakfast, we would have a break time to get ready for field groups. Most of the time my field group was out hiking, so we would be walking in ankle deep snow. Every day I would wear 3 pairs of socks, two pairs of pants and two shirts. It was that cold! We also played a game in field groups called camouflage. The leader of my group (Kelly) would scream Camouflage and she would count down from 10. Everyone had to hide and over time, she would find people.

Screen Shot 2016-05-02 at 11.07.02 AM

Picture by PDS

I think my favorite moment at nature’s classroom was a class I took called Hucking stuff. I arrived in the class thinking we would just be throwing things, but once we got there, it was so much more. It was a meditation class. I felt my body melt away into nothingness as my counsellor Kelly told us a story that made me go the deepest into my mind I’ve ever been. The story went a bit like this…

You walk into the dark forest. Everything is silent, the only sounds you can hear are the crunching of snow beneath your feet. You walk passed the water, and the trees. You soon come into an open field. You feel an emptiness inside you eating away at your courage. In the middle of the field, you see a black stone. It’s the heaviest thing ever and no one could ever lift it. You walk over to the stone and you lift it with no problem at all. Your feet carry you back to the river and you stand looking off into the distance. You throw the stone into the water. It shatters into a million pieces. You start to walk out of the forest, that spot in your stomach fades away.

Screen Shot 2016-05-02 at 11.04.50 AM

Picture by PDS

After doing the meditation we went outside into the dark cold woods and took an object we found. That object represented something bothering us in our lives. After finding the object we went to a high up deck and threw the object off. This was representing throwing away our fears, insecurities etc. A friend in my group’s item was a rock. He said something that will change my life. He told us about how his object was a rock and how it would never break, but somehow he could try. I don’t exactly remember what he said, but I know it really made me think. I hope you visit Nature’s Classroom sometime because it’s so much fun and I know you’ll like it!

Olivia’s Nature’s Classroom Post

May 3, 2016 olivia1516 0 - NATURE'S CLASSROOM, 6th Grade Writers, Olivia Friends, fun!, learning, Trip

At my school, when you’re in the grades 6-7 you go to a place called Nature’s Classroom. It is a place in Becket, Massachusetts where you get to learn about nature and how to work in a team. It is out in the woods. You sleep in a cabin for three nights. There are lots of fun activities that require teamwork and strategy. Also there were activities that helped you learn about nature.

There was a game that we played called Predator v.s Prey. This game was a simulation for the food chain. I really liked it because I got to feel what it feels like to be a animal. I also really liked it because at the end of the game there were only four people left. Those four people were my really good friends. We also had something called field group. You go to your field group a couple times every day. In our field group we played a game called Camouflage.

Camouflage is a game where you have to hide from your field group leader, and then he/she had to try to find you. All the groups played a little bit of a different way. I really liked this activity because you had to use strategy about where you were hiding. That’s not all we did in field groups, we also got to learn about nature. We saw many trees and learned a lot about them. We also looked at animal tracks. Looking at animal tracks was fun because now you can look outside and find a track and know what it came from. Overall It was a very fun trip!

Elizabeth’s Nature’s Classroom Post

May 3, 2016 elizabeth1516 0 - NATURE'S CLASSROOM, 6th Grade Writers, Elizabeth camp, fun!, Nature

In the Middle School, there are 3 grades, 6th 7th and 8th. The 6th and 7th grade go to a place in Massachusetts called Nature’s Classroom. Nature’s Classroom is almost like a big fun camp in the woods. You do all sorts of fun activities and learn how to be nice to nature. Since I am in 6th grade I went to Nature’s Classroom this year.

I had known about this trip since the beginning of the school year. I remember my brother had gone so I kind of knew what would happen. He told me that it was lots of fun! The 6th and the 7th grade had met a couple of times and talked about what would happen. Since the 7th grade had been the year before they told us what it was like. They had all kinds of crazy fun stories to tell. When they were talking about it they said all these things to do and not to do which was very helpful.

Finally, it was the day to go to Nature’s Classroom! Of course we had had a perfectly warm winter and the night before we were supposed to go we had a huge snow storm. But it did not affect our plans because we went anyway, although we left 3 hours late! When we got there I could already tell I was going to have a fun time! Over the course of 4 days we played awesome games and we had fun outdoor winter activities to do. At the end of the 4 days I was sad to go but I remembered I would come back next year!!

Joanie’s Nature’s Classroom Post

May 3, 2016 joanie1616 0 - NATURE'S CLASSROOM, 6th Grade Writers, Joanie Awesome, fun!, Week

Nature’s Classroom is something like a retreat for all ages. It was so much fun. We played a bunch of fun games and my favorite game was Camouflage. Camouflage is a game where your field group leader said the word camouflage then we all had to go hide and we had 10 seconds to hide. Once we were all hidden, Sassafras our field group leader would try to find us but she could not take any steps. I really like Sassafras, because she was really nice!

I also really liked hanging out in our bunk. I don’t really know why but it was just really fun. We had so much fun, and Eden having her spaz at 5 in the morning Maya saying, “Eden are you ok?!” Then she woke me up so we all got up on Olive’s top bunk and started to sing “Do you want to Build a Snowman?” Then at about 5:30 we all got up and took showers. I can’t wait to go back next year!
My favorite memory from the trip was probably singing “Do You Want To Build A Snowman?” At 5 in the morning. I think I really got to better know the people in my bunk. We also played a lot of fun do you know me game and stuff like that! Over all I had a really great time at Nature’s Classroom and I can’t wait to go back next year!

Maya Nature’s Classroom

May 2, 2016 maya1516 0 - NATURE'S CLASSROOM, 6th Grade Writers, Maya Classes, fun!, Nature

I really liked Nature’s classroom. We were there Monday through Thursday and I say overall, it was pretty fun. I had some homesickness but I got over it. My favorite thing to do was make H20 rockets. My rocket was named BVB (after Black Veil Brides) and I made it with Caidin and Bella (some of my classmates.) It was really fun to make them and to shoot them up into the air. I also watched a squid get dissected. I also got to see and touch everything in the squid.

I really liked field groups. Field group is something that you do in the morning, and it’s usually a hike and a game. My field group leader was Garrett a.k.a. Carrot. He took us off trail and we usually played games instead of hiking. Also he told very good stories and he thought that carrots and celery was dessert. My favorite activity to do was probably free time that we between classes and meals. In my bunk was Olivia, Annie, Olive, Eden and Joanie. We discussed how tired we were and how fun our classes were.

Overall I had a very fun time at Nature’s Classroom. The meals were good, even though you were assigned a table. At my table was Anna, Audrey, Eden and Justin and in my personal opinion that’s a pretty good table. The one bad side is that you can’t contact your parents, or listen to music. When I got home I blasted my music. I was never so happy to hear Andy Biersack’s voice that day. I would rate the trip a 9/10 and it would be a 10/10 if you could listen to music.

Yasmeen – Nature’s Classroom

May 2, 2016May 2, 2016 yasmeen1616 0 - NATURE'S CLASSROOM, 6th Grade Writers, Yasmeen Adventure, food, fun!

Something that I really enjoyed was the food at Nature’s Classroom. Not only is their food really good but they have options for people who can’t eat pork (like me), or meat, etc. They have a great salad bar and their veggies were so crisp and fresh because they were picked fresh from the farm. My favorite meal that I had was the pasta and garlic bread. I liked how for breakfast you could have white milk,or juice. For lunch you aren’t allowed to have milk just water, and for dinner there was chocolate milk.

One of my favorite things that we did in Nature’s classroom would have to be Wednesday Night Live. I liked how I could express myself with my group anyway I want to. I thought the skit my group did was really funny. I got to be one of the main characters which was really fun.I also really enjoyed the teachers skit and how they pretend to be us. I had a lot of laughs and giggles on Wednesday Night Live.
My other favorite thing about Nature’s Classroom is when we went on the hike. I like this part because we went through some ups and downs, but we still had fun. One memory I will never forget about this hike is when Caidin fell into the stream, and when I was helping Milaura up a mountain of snow. My field group leader was Nicky D and he really showed me how to embrace nature. Overall, Nature’s classroom was a great experience and I can’t wait for next year!

Nature’s Classroom. By Justin

May 2, 2016 justin1516 0 - Journals, 0 - NATURE'S CLASSROOM, 6th Grade Writers bad, Exciting, fun!

When we went to Nature’s Classroom it reminded me of a camp/hotel kind of place. I was really excited and nervous to go. When I got to the parking lot at school to go I started to cry a little bit. Once I got into school I was fine for about ten minutes. Then every five minutes I would cry but not in a scared way. When we put our stuff on the bus I was fine. When we got on the bus and after thirty minutes being on the bus I started to get really bad anxiety.

Twenty minutes later I started to calm down. We finally arrived at Nature’s Classroom in Becket Massachusetts. We went inside and found out our room number then unpacked some of our stuff and then went to dinner. After dinner we had transition time which is when we had 20 minutes to do whatever you need to do to get ready for your next class. The first night we had little fifteen minute classes with all of the group leaders.

After those classes we had singalong. That’s when some of the group leaders go up on the stage and sing songs with us. I didn’t really enjoy that because some of the songs that we sang were songs that I listened to with my mom and it made me think of her. So that me really sad. But afterwords I felt better. When we got back to our cabins My friends and I went to bed.

Overall I had a good time and a bad time at Nature’s Classroom.

Joanie’s Personal Narrative

March 9, 2016March 9, 2016 joanie1616 0 - Personal Narratives, 6th Grade Writers, Joanie fire, fun!, Hotel, Scary

I was sleeping in my bed with my warm fuzzy blanket and my stuffed dog at the hotel. This hotel was part of a water park where my family and I went on vacation. This water park was in Connecticut; it was called CoCo Key Hotel and Resort Lodge. The logo of the resort was a red parrot wearing swimming goggles, going down a waterslide in a yellow raft.

My family was asleep in our room and my moms best friends were asleep in the other room. We woke to the sound of an ear piercing beeping! It was the fire alarm. We rushed out of our room and into the cold lobby where we found everybody sitting in fuzzy chairs wearing P.J’s and bathrobes because it was the middle of the night.

We were sitting in the lobby with nothing but silence. I had no idea what was happening. Then I realized Belle (my stuffed animal), was still in the bed. Belle is my webkinz dog. She is my favorite stuffed animal. I got her when I was about four years old from my dad’s best friend’s daughter and I named her after their poodle, Belle. I love her very much! When I realized Belle was missing, I said, “Mommy mommy I left Belle in the bed. Can you go get her?” To my surprise, she said,

“Yes honey, I will be right back!” It felt like hours before she came back.

I was so happy when she came back! After that I tucked Belle in my shirt and I said, “This is where she will sleep now!”. When I was seven I made her a bed out of a cardboard box and now that is where she sleeps. I think she loves her box!

I was scared because I didn’t know if it was a real fire or if some one had been messing around and pulled the alarm. We waited, what felt like a long hour before the fire department came. In the lobby, waiting for them to say we could go back to the room. I lay asleep in my mom’s comforting arms. After the long hour of silence, she carried me up to the warm room. She laid me in bed and tucked me in. Not long after, we fell back to sleep.

This is the link to the Hotel we stayed in! www.cocokeywaterbury.com

This is the water park I went to! I got this photo from Flicker Britt Reints .

My Passion- Skiing- By Zacharias

February 10, 2016 zacharias15 0 - Quadblogging, 6th Grade Writers, Zacharias fun!, Passions, skiing

My passion is skiing because I have been doing it since I was four years old and now I am apart of a race team. I am very passionate about my ski racing and do the best I can do. Every weekend I go to my ski mountain called Butternut and I train Saturday through Sunday. Sometimes I have a race on one of those days and that is why we train a lot. I am not very competitive about it but I enjoy it and work very hard each weekend to get my skiing skills to a good point. We have a practice course almost every time we go to training so we can practice going into gates and smacking them down.

I love when I hockey stop and the fresh powder sprayed in my face. When that happens I feel very refreshed and I can keep on doing my training and racing. When I am the start gate I get zoned in on what I am doing and I look around to see how the terrain is because it is important to see in the ground is icy or powdery. I have to do this to see how much on edge in need to be. When they say 5.4.3.2.1….. Go, I take a deep breath and then I push myself with all I have and I tuck halfway down the track and then I tuck for the end. After I stopped, the spectators took the bib that had my number and then I went to the lodge and ate lunch. That is what a race is like in skiing.

I think that skiing was a passion for me when I first started, but when I joined the race team I felt a totally different feeling about skiing and I wanted to do the best I could do without getting hurt. I have been in the race team for four years so I have improved a lot and for that I am grateful to my coaches for training me the right way. I am always a little nervous for the races because I do not know if I am going to do good or not. I really like skiing and I think that others should enjoy racing even if they do not do good because the way that I look at it is that is an achievement for me. I really like my skiing and one day I hope to end up in senior ti-state league. Again my passion for skiing is strong. So ski on!!!

Matt Biddulph via Compfight