Recap Of Camp: Week 1

This was a hectic and exciting week for our Camp Paw Paw staff and campers.  With the new curriculum and schedule, we were too busy to post throughout the week.  For the upcoming weeks, we will be doing recaps of each day, but for this week we will have to settle for a full week recap.

Monday
After learning each other's names and a touring the shelter, we learned about how to help our animals when there is a disaster, such as a natural disaster or a human disaster.  We learned about disaster kits and how to prepare them.  We also met the cats in the shelter and played some fun getting to know you games.

Tuesday
We had two visitors on Tuesday, Joann with some reptiles and Paddy with Buster the bed bug sniffing dog.  Joann shared with us some of her pets, including two snakes, a dragon, a hedgehog, and a turtle.  The kids were very impressed with their new friends, and enjoyed petting the hedgehog.

Wednesday 
For our halfway through the week, we met Dr. Elizabeth Berger from Affectionately Cats and some Raptors from Outreach for Earth Stewardship.  With Dr. Berger, we were able to listen to a cat's heartbeat as well as learning the many responsibilities of a veterinarian.  With the raptors, we were able to see two owls, both of which were amazing birds with personality.  We even learned what a Barred Owl sounds like at night!

Thursday
For Thursday, we made our own "pretend pets" out of Pine Cones and googly eyes!  We learned all about how to take care of our pets and what types of things pets need to live.  Then we practiced taking care of our pets overnight.  We learned pets are a big responsibility!

Friday
That brings us to today!  Today we started with reviewing how our pretend pets' nights went, and we shared pictures of our favorite animals/pets.  Then we put our creative juices to work and wrote an animal story with Victoria Jarvis.  We were all very excited to input our own ideas into the story. The grand finale of the week was a visit from Andre the police dog with the Burlington Police Department.  Andre showed us some obedience exercises, a drug finding exercise, a person finding exercise (assisted by our very own Maddie), and lastly a protection exercise.  We had many many questions for the two officers, and we liked petting Andre.


This week was an amazing start to a summer full of Camp Paw Paw! The counselors were thrilled to have such enthusiastic and fun campers to spend the time with.  When we asked the campers if they had any suggestions for upcoming weeks, the only one came from a passionate Theo, who said, "It would be better if it was an overnight camp so we wouldn't have to leave."