On 12th / 13th October, Beech and Birch classes spent 2 days and 1 night away from home at the wonderful Kench Hill Centre near Tenterden. The moods in the days leading up to the trip were ones of excitement and worry – excitement about the amazing activities they had heard about, and worry as for many this was their first time ever away from home.
After everyone had arrived, we started with a welcome from Barney and the team and we were shown around the grounds, seeing some of the activities we were going to take part in, meeting some of the other team members as well as the animals – ponies and chickens!
Day 1 – Morning Activities
Our first two activities were shelter building and orienteering. We split into our two classes for these activities, swapping half-way through the morning.
In shelter building, we went into the wooded area next to the Kench Hill grounds and the children built shelters using the living trees, large wooden branches and tarpaulin. The aim was to make them waterproof and they were going to be tested at the end!
The orienteering activity started in the classroom to allow the children time to familiarise themselves with map orientation, compass points (N,S,E,W) and map keys. When they headed outside they were guided to various points on the map, ensuring they kept the map orientated correctly at all times. Once they were ready, different maps were distributed to the teams and they were set off on their task to find codes to release the treasure. The children had to work as a team and no new clues were given unless the whole team arrived back to provide their answers!
Day 1 – Afternoon Activities
After we a shared a lovely lunch, the afternoon was packed with 3 different activities. The classes were split into 3 groups and rotated around the different activities throughout the afternoon. They had a go at the climbing wall and the blindfolded obstacle course, circus skills and soft archery.
Campfire
We finished our day after dinner with hot chocolate and a snack around the campfire, singing our favourite songs and enjoying watching the flames crackling in the fire pit.
Day 2 – Morning Activities
After a night’s sleep (well, most of the night anyway!) and breakfast, we had two different morning activities – animal habitats and breadmaking.
Day 2 – Afternoon – Kench Hill Olympics!
We finished our time together at Kench Hill with team games and problem solving activities as part of the Kench Hill Olympics! The children were in 8 groups and they had to choose a country to represent – we had Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, India, United States of America, Turkey, Australia and Italy. And our winners were… Spain!
The children all had a fantastic time and did not want it to end
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