First week of 2015 Summer Program

During the first week of the 2015 summer program, we welcomed four programs out to Farrington Nature Linc. Malden Family Housing joined us for an fun afternoon filled with farm animals, tasting in the garden, and a most excellent visit to the pond. This year, the tadpoles have been out in force. Within 10 minutes, the young visitors had found at least a half a dozen tadpoles. Some had even already sprouted their legs and become froglets (a frog that has already grown their legs, but has not lost its tail). Some campers choose not to go into the water, so we make sure we bring our findings into a bucket near the water’s edge so everyone can see.

Next Keylatch came to visit. This was the first day with our full staff, including all of our new staff. Water dodgeball, a perennial favorite, returned again with force. Meanwhile, with the support of Senior Staff Anthony, Maya practiced the challenging art of handing off a chicken to a child.

Then Daybreak came for their first of two visits to Farrington. This year, we’ve brought in a new art activity, painting animal track casts.

Our Daybreak crew was the first to test out this activity with us. In addition, we found frogs on the trail, and taste-tested some vegetables in the garden.

We finished up the week with a visit from a large group from B-SAFE St. Augustine-St. Martin. 54 K-5 youth, 10 teens, and 8 staff came out and spent the day making their own bird masks. They also had a great time visiting our play structure in the woods, challenging each other to monkey bar challenges and climbing over the climbing ladder.

In addition, Van, our Staff Pick for Staff of the Week, successfully picked up and shared his first chicken with a camper! Here’s a picture of Van introducing our compost experiment in the garden to some kiddos.

As we all head off to enjoy our weekends, we are buoyed by the positive comments and happy faces waving and yelling “Thank you” by the campers as their bus drives away.