Proposal in the dining hall? Bizarre costumes? Smells like a promo to me…
Good morning everyone! Luna Bug here to tell everyone about the big day yesterday and the big day that’s unfolding today!
Yesterday began with the beautiful reunion of our art poobah’s Max and Elise. Don’t know what poobah means? We don’t either, but we like it. Max and Elise are in charge of all of the visual arts programming here at HVC, and they’ve been doing it for a few years together so they were really excited to both get back on camp after Elise had been running the show for a few days on her own. After a brief paint party, the two got to work organizing things like screen printing at the buckhorn and the darkroom.
I guess yesterday was a day of arrivals, actually. Juan arrived yesterday, and settled into his cabin Poo (as in, Winnie the) before getting to know everybody during red barn time. He’s a great guy and we’re lucky to have him join our always excellent nursing staff.
Our priorities continued as usual yesterday, with our sports and dance staff meeting for the first time to discuss what needs to be done organizationally in those areas. Our second group of staff got a chance to complete the ropes course, and we heard that Mitch climbed the cargo net on the backside with JUST HIS ARMS! No legs! Do you understand?! Wow! Olive Oyl doesn’t seem quite as excited as I am, but all l know is my arms hurt just thinking about doing that.
At 4pm the whole staff met in the front yard for the big reveal of what we’ll be teaching in the first two weeks of camp! Everybody was super eager to see what was on tap. Some fun classes to start getting excited about are acapella, basketball fun, How to Be a Popstar, and sooooo many others I could go on and on so I’m stopping myself right now.
During dinner, the shift heads performed their promo to introduce the staff talent show. Olivia, Lucy, Taylor, and Rob played a southern grandma, a no-nonsense mom, a moody granddaughter, and a ridiculous businessman, respectively. We’re not entirely sure what happened, but all we know is that there was a proposal in the dining hall last night and that for the “wedding” they need at least 15 performers, which is why the staff talent show needs to happen. A strange and funny setup for what should be a great night! See photos below if you have no clue what I’m talking about!
After dinner, the whole staff rotated through a series of four stations to learn about effective teaching styles. Peter brought us through a mock lesson about how to properly clean a toilet, we learned about how its important to explain, demonstrate, and allow a camper to practice when learning a new skill, and finally we wrapped up our discussion about how to navigate differences and talk respectfully towards one another. Oh, and Paul also took us through a lesson on how to start a fire. Three key words: Kindling, tinder, and fuel. Boom, fire created, I think. Don’t try this at home, folks.
After these stations everyone went in to the dining hall where we worked on our lesson plans for the classes we’re teaching. Returners led the new counselors through what was effective in past classes, and everybody got a chance to really talk about the new classes coming up!
Talk to you all later!
Over and out,
Luna Bug