Week Two Morning: Wednesday

We are officially halfway through the week!  This morning we were very excited to get started by sharing hand drawn pictures of our favorite animals.  It was so difficult to decide which animal was actually our favorite.  There were alot of turtles, cats, and dogs. Luckily later in the week, the morning session will be meeting a real turtle!!

After we shared with each other, we met with Nancy.  Nancy gave a great talk in the tent all about the similarities between kid's needs and animal's needs. We were all very excited to share what we know animals need.  After the talk, we went to the pet graveyard.  We really liked learning about Grey Mama, the feral cat that used to live by the shelter
.

Remembering Grey Mama

When we were finished in the graveyard, we learned all about owls from Craig from Outreach for Earth Stewardship.  Our favorite part was when we got to hold owl wings.  We were most interested in the Snowy Owl wing.

Snowy Owl Wing Explorations

We finished the day by visiting the animals in the shelter. We saw the ferret, the rabbit, and some cats. While half the group went inside, the other half stayed outside and played a game.  We had so much fun today and we are excited to see what tomorrow brings!!

Joke of the Session: "What did the 0 say to the 8?? NICE BELT!" - Sarah 

Week Two Afternoon: Tuesday

Good Afternoon!

This afternoon, our girls got their creative juices flowing.  The main event of the day was writing an animal story. The girls wrote a story about an unlikely friendship between a Guinea-Pig and a Cat.  Thank you again to Victoria, who came last Friday to work on a story with last week's group.  The story writing process was so interesting with such smart and enthusiastic girls.   

After we wrote our story, we took a walk to the pet graveyard around the side of the Humane Society.  The graveyard is a beautiful tribute to the many loved and lost pets.  The girls learned that owners love their pets, even after they have passed away.

The girls walking to the Pet Memorial

We finished the day with a reading of  Before You Were Mine.  The girls loved hearing the story and they also enjoyed some relief from the heat and the possible lightening and thunder.

The second day of game was a huge success.  The weather did not affect the camp day, which was very lucky.  We are happy to have our trusty tent and when the thunder came, our indoor classroom.  We are also glad to report that we had a lost tooth today: Mycala lost her tooth before even leaving the driveway yesterday!! 

So far in camp, we have had so much fun telling jokes and riddles, so we figured we would add a joke of the session at the bottom of each post.  Here is our first:

Joke of the Day: "What's brown and sticky?  A STICK!!" - Bea

Week Two Morning: Tuesday

Good Morning from Camp Paw Paw! This morning we were all very excited to meet even more animal friends.

We started the day with an animal card matching game.  We each had an animal card taped to the back of our shirts.  Because we couldn't see what animal it was, we needed each other's help to guess.  We asked questions and gave hints until everyone was matched with the same animals.  We enjoyed this game so much that we played 3 rounds, one of which we acted out instead of talking!

Then, we played a really fun game of charades.  We each acted different animal careers and guessed what we were acting.

After so much guessing, we were all very excited to play a game of red light - green light.  We got some energy out just in time to visit with the gerbils in the shelter.  It was a tough call as to who was faster, Acorn or Amber, but we will keep everyone posted. 

Red light - green light

Gerbil intros

Next, we met Paddy and his Bed Bug Dog.  Paddy talked to us all about our own pets and our adventures with them.  We loved meeting Buster and petting him was our favorite part!

We finished the day with a story read to us by Kathryn.  We read Before You Were Mine. It is a great book all about a boy wondering what his dog's life was like before they met.

That's all for the morning session, soon the afternoon girls will be here!

Week Two Afternoon: Monday

Our afternoon session is filled with smart and rambunctious girls! That's right, a session with 100% girls.  The girls are all very excited to be here, and we started our day with reading some animal books.

After reading, we played inside with the gerbil balls!  A big hit for all the kids, and even the counselors. 

We jumped into the afternoon by learning all about reptiles from Joann.  Joann is the humane society's humane investigator and she was happy to share with us some of her pets.  We saw two snakes, a turtle, a tortoise, and a hedgehog! We learned that turtle and tortoises are not the same - one can swim the other cannot.  Tiki the hedgehog was a crowd pleaser as well!

All gathered 'round learning about Tiki

After learning from Joann about reptiles, we went inside for snack and to hear from the President of the Humane Society, Nancy.  Nancy taught us that kids and animals need mostly the same thing as each other.  We brainstormed both lists just to realize that they are the same!  We learned to be humane to not only pets, but all animals, and to other people too. 

In the classroom at the Humane Society 

After a long day of heat, it started to rain while we were in the classroom - great timing!  We will keep you updated, but one of our campers nearly lost a tooth during Nancy's talk, and surely it will be gone by tomorrow. 

Tomorrow both afternoon and morning sessions will be off to new adventures at the humane society!

Week Two Morning: Monday

Good Morning from Camp Paw Paw week two!

This morning we had so much fun, and we were excited to see a new visitor - Therapy Dogs of Vermont.  After playing a name game, we met Harper and Ritter - both are therapy labs who visit schools and hospitals in the area.   We were all very excited to pet and meet both the dogs.  Ritter was also very excited to meet us!

Ritter

Harper

After visiting with the dogs we decorated water bottles (and the tables) with paint and stickers, this way we will know whose is whose! 

Note the paint on his forehead. :)

The next camp session is coming in now!  We will update how the afternoon went when we finish up.  

Animal 20 questions with Ben.

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."