We had a great first day here at Green Science Adventure Camp! We can’t believe this is the last week of camp here at Tollgate – we began the camp season with GSAC and we’re ending the season with GSAC!
We started the morning with a flag ceremony and a meet-and-greet with our pepper groups. There are four groups of campers, divided by age group. The Green Peppers are with Ms. Mandy; the Yellow Peppers with Ms. Erika; the Orange Peppers with Ms. Nicole; and the Red Peppers with Ms. Jenny.
Red Peppers learning a new song!
We took a hayride this morning to tour the property and play icebreaker games. We saw lots of birds and bugs in their natural habitat. Our campers learned the difference between hay and straw (hay is green, moist, and fed to animals while straw is yellow, dry, and used for animal bedding).
Campers always enjoy the hayride!
It was a little hot today so one of the stewards thought it would be fun to spray the campers down!
Every morning we spend time doing animal chores and making sure the animals are taken care of. We gave a morning bottle to the kid triplets, learned how to milk Isabella, and fed and watered the chickens, ducks and goose. We also met Alice the rabbit! Every day the campers rotate animal chores so that everyone has the chance to meet all of the farm animals. What chores did your camper do today? Did they learn anything new about the animals?
Red Pepper milking Isabella
Orange Pepper
Green Pepper
Ms Pam took us out to the garden and we got a chance to pick zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, basil, cucumber and tomatoes! We also learned how important it is to wash our hands before we touch our food or anything in the kitchen!
Red Peppers picking tomatoes!
Red Pepper
Ms Pam also showed us how to make chocolate cherry crunch and pesto during Garden Kitchen! Both recipes can be found at the end of this post.
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- Green Peppers helping make the chocolate cherry crunch
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- Green Pepper
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- Yellow Peppers trying out the pesto!
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- Orange Peppers
We enjoyed yummy granola as our destination snack!
Yellow Peppers
Campers brainstormed ideas for the skit they’ll be performing on Friday! As a group, we picked our favorite idea and each day we’ll be practicing it and adding to it.
Orange Peppers coming up with ideas for their skit
Every week, campers work on a STEM project and continue working on it every day at camp. Today they worked on building sustainable farms out of organic materials. Ask your camper what they did or talked about during STEM!
Campers spent a little more time in the garden doing a balancing act. We acted as different kinds of plants and had different colored post-it notes that represented nutrients like water and sunlight. We counted to 10 and tried to collect as many “nutrients” as possible. Then we added more campers to the game who pretended to be weeds. We noticed how plants receive less nutrients when trying to compete with weeds.
We’re so happy that you shared your camper with us today and we hope they had a great day! We can’t wait to see what’s in store for the rest of the week!
Chocolate Cherry Crunch
Cooking spray
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup crispy wheat cereal squares
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 300°.
2. Line a jelly-roll pan with parchment paper. Coat parchment with cooking spray.
3. Combine oats and next 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine honey and canola oil in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat 2 minutes or until warm. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and chocolate, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Gently stir chocolate mixture into oat mixture.
4. Spread chocolate mixture onto prepared pan. Bake at 300° for 28 minutes, stirring twice. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Stir in cranberries. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Pesto
1 cup basil
1 cup spinach or lambs quarters
½ cup parmesan
½ cup olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions