Grade 5/6 Camp Reflections

On Monday 26th to Wednesday 28th May, the Year 5/6 students embarked on a camping trip to Camp Coolamatong. This is a water based camp where the students had the opportunity to participate in activities such tubing, stand up paddle boarding, raft making, sailing and the adventure race during the day. Although the weather was quite cool, the students participated with great enthusiasm and confidence. Some students performed in our ‘St Simon’s Got Talent’ show, where they showcased their skills and talents to the rest of the year level. We had a variety of items from comedians, to plays, piano performances, singers, mimes, soccer skills, magicians and dancers. A great night was had by all. Here are some reflections from our students:

Alina 5/6 Blue

The funniest thing at camp was definitely during the Talent Show when the Honey Sharks (Keira, Sophie, Daisy, Matilda, Nia, Scarlett were all dressed up in inflatable sharks)were doing their performance and then Keira’s shark deflated. It was so funny!!! However my favourite part of camp had to be when Aunt Cassie, the instructor of the Indigenous walk, gave some people leaves that make your mouth burn. Call me cruel but it was hilarious!!!But as soon as I tried it,I stopped laughing. IT  REALLY BURNS YOUR MOUTH !!!!!

Matilda 5/6 Blue

My favorite activity at camp was tubing. Most groups went on it 3 times, but mine went on it 5! I almost fell off ! The scariest had to be combat archery. I was the only one that caught an arrow! The funniest was definitely St. Simon’s Got Talent. I dressed up in an inflatable shark costume with the people in my group; Sophie, Keira, Nia, Scarlett and myself. We got the golden buzzer and everyone loved it!

On the last day, I woke up at 5:am and left at 6:am to get ready for cross country with all the other people; Rebecca, Samia,  Jadon, Jayden, Kyan, Brayden, George and myself. We got to Kings Park just in time for our races. I missed out on making Regionals by one spot but I am very proud of myself. Considering that we all had 2 nights of no sleep we all did amazing. We should all be very proud of ourselves. 

Milia 5/6 Blue

My favourite activities at camp were tubing and sailing. I loved tubing since it was really adrenaline rushing and exciting. I loved how fast it went and how it felt like you were going to fly off. I also enjoyed sailing since I got to lean back and dunk my head into the water without falling in. The water activities were my favourite along with the talent show as it had so many funny and cool talents including mine!

Daniel 5/6 Blue

The scariest activity we did at camp would probably be stand up paddle boarding because every once in a while I lost my balance and was about to fall. The funniest moment was when we were playing gladiator and I pushed my friend Kaiden into the water and he got annoyed.

I enjoyed camp even though it was raining a bit because the activities we did were still fun which is all that matters.

Neve 5/6 Blue

All of the groups went on an Indigenous walk with an elder called Aunt Cassie. We learnt many amazing things along the way such as how a certain bottle brush can be used to make natural cordial or to brush hair. Or another plant called pigface which could kill mossie bites. There was even a plant we have here at St Simon’s that can be used to repel insects, even plants that if you scrunch them up and add water they make soap which you can use as washing detergent. Aunt Cassie also taught us how to weave a plant that you could use to make baskets. Going for this walk was such an amazing experience.  

Joshua 5/6 Blue

Camp was so fun! Everything was a new experience. My favourite activity was canoeing, working together to beat the ocean waves. I also loved tubing which turned into the scariest activity after the tube went underwater for what seemed like forever. The food was so tasty. We had Mexican, wraps, chocolate moose and who could forget rice and butter chicken. 

My favourite moment was the talent show. It was so fun to watch everyone perform. I also loved it when I aced my performance. I practised so hard and when I finally got to perform I was so happy.

I enjoyed camp so much. It was such a memorable experience. I am so glad I took part in everything because things are better if you try.

Emma 5/6 Blue

My camp was exhausting! Windy,cold and rainy the whole time. There was one bit of sun, but of course it went away so quickly! One of the many activities we did (my favorite one)was tubing. You sit in these inflatable donuts and a boat takes you across the freezing water. I was screaming, my heart was pounding, my hands were sweaty from holding on to the handles so tight.

Louis 5/6 Yellow

In my opinion the Indigenous session was one of the most fun activities but also the scariest activity. It was fun trying all the different foods like pigface. We used tree sap to cover our scratches and act like a band-aid. The best food was definitely the spicy leaf, which if you drank water the spice would worsen which I made the sad mistake of doing.

Niraan 5/6 Yellow

One of my favourite activities was tubing on the first day  because you would go really fast and you would nearly fall off and combat archery was really fun . I did not feel scared for any activities and one of the funniest moments was the talent show on the second night because it had drama and comedy. One of my favourite foods there was chicken curry with rice on the second night and I really liked my cabin because I had all my friends. I really did not like the weather because it was raining on Tuesday and Wednesday and some people did not get to do their water activities. One of my favourite moments was the combat archery on the third day and second day  because we got to shoot people with arrows which had a soft tip. Tubing was good because the water was splashing on my face.

Kaiden 5/6 - Orange 

The next day we went sailing and I did not like it because it was like Antarctica because of how cold and freezing  it was. Then we did stand up paddle boarding 

but before that we had the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever tasted before. But the best activity was tubing for it being the funniest as well, because Daniel was right next to me and flipped over and went flying into the deep ocean but safely retreated back to land.

Elijah 5/6 Orange 

The first activity that my activity group did was an Indigenous nature walk, and that was my favourite activity of the whole camp because I learned so much. I learned that there are leaves of constipation, leaves that help you get better if you have a cold if you put them on your feet when you sleep, leaves that set your mouth on fire! (not literally) And there are leaves that have a laxative effect… But the best of them all, is a yellow pine cone looking  plant that if you put it in your water bottle it will turn into Indigenous cordial, and that was my highlight for camp

Erin 5/6 Green

Tubing had me speeding high on top of the waves, like I  had invisible wings that helped me glide through the air at tremendous speeds. My face was frozen and my feet were numb, but it wasn't enough for me to notice because my hands were in the air and screaming at the top of my lungs. I was having too much fun. That was a whole new experience for me, which I really enjoyed. The funniest thing that happened on Camp was how one of my friends set herself in a whole different character for the play we did at the Talent Show. She pretended to be a man, dabbing up on everyone she saw. It was incredible how people expressed their talents in front of everybody at the Talent Show. St.Simons has really got some special talent up its sleeve.

Spencer 5/6 Green

The scariest thing that happened at Camp would have to be the Adventure Race. When I was participating in the rock climbing activity, I nearly got attacked by a kangaroo and to make it worse, everyone in my group had left me behind on the rock climbing wall. Miss Wong had to pull me down to safety. 

Meera 5/6 Red

It all  started on Monday morning, When I woke up very early to go to camp Coolamatong. It was a 3 hour bus ride but we stopped half way for a snack, at a park. When we got there we did tubing, tubing was definitely my favourite activity in camp. We did an adventure race in the rain with our raincoats on so we would not get wet. When we were doing the adventure race some people saw a kangaroo. We saw it in the oval at night too.