Somers students learn survival skills at camp

All was quiet in the forest surrounding

Grizzly Base Camp — except of course, for the sounds of nature:

birds chirping, leaves rustling and insects buzzing.

Then came a scream from inside one of

the teepees.

“Spider! Spider!” yelled one of the

girls from a group of Somers Middle School sixth-graders.

Despite all the commotion, finding a

spider hiding in a sleeping bag was probably one of the least

exciting parts of the students’ two-and-a-half-day camping

trip.

The trip was organized as a fun way to

reinforce the school’s sixth grade science curriculum, which

includes a unit on wilderness survival.

Staff members from the Ravenwood

Outdoor Learning Center taught the educational segments at the

camp, which also emphasized awareness and appreciation of the

natural world.

“A big theme is teaching sensory

awareness and learning through experience,” said Brett Holmquist,

who is the director and co-founder of Ravenwood. “It’s about making

connections to the land, and learning about yourself is the other

side of it.”

Over the course of their stay at the

camp, the students gained experience in a variety of survival

strategies and techniques.

Ravenwood offers classes on many

different topics. The group from Somers focused on skill courses on

subjects ranging from wild food gathering to spearing to shelter

construction.

Using sticks, leaves, grass and mud

found in the forest around them, the students built a shelter that

they could recreate to shield themselves from the elements if they

were ever stranded in the wilderness overnight. They also learned

how to start a friction fire using a hand drill.

The activities were also designed to

help reinforce the team-building skills that the students have been

practicing throughout the school year.

“Bringing them here at the end (of the

year) is like one big team-building activity for them,” said Dalia

Jeude, who teaches sixth-grade math at Somers.

After the students arrived at camp,

they were divided into clans of five to six kids. Each day, the

members of each group worked together on various projects and

problem-solving exercises.

One day, for example, each cluster of

students had to build a travois — a traditional Native American

transport device — using whatever materials they could find in the

woods around them. The only item supplied to them was twine.

“That was an example of the kids

working together as a team to build something necessary,” Jeude

said. “Later, they used it (the travois) to gather dry grass to

build the shelter.”

Camp organizers were sure to include

plenty of games to balance out the educational sessions. Somers

sixth-grader Desiree Morris said the “screaming game” was one of

her favorites.

“It’s an Indian game where you take one

big breath and then yell while you’re running to see how far you

get on one breath,” she said.

The group also played a night game in

which they dressed in dark clothing and tried to sneak into other

clans’ camps and emerge with a stolen item.

“We put charcoal from the fire on our

faces,” Morris said. “I think my face was the blackest.”

Holmquist said kids often learn best

when they are having fun.

“We try to keep the whole thing really

fun and playful,” he said. “There are underlying themes and

objectives, but the kids don’t really know that. They just know

they’re having a good time.”