Little Canada day 4

The event lots of the children have been looking forward to all week has finally arrived- the disco!
As I write this about 600 children are packed into a tiny hall, bouncing around to very load music and to complete their happiness, the shop and the vending machines are available! Glitter and sequins are in abundance, as are football shirts. Jamie Coombes, who used to be in Miss Cleveley's class last year has joined us for the evening and received a very warm welcome from all his old friends.
Other activities have included Archery which the children really enjoyed and Ladder Logic- a team building and problem solving game involving ladders, mud, and lots of wooden obstacles.
We are booked onto the 1.30pm ferry tomorrow, which is due to arrive at 2.25 in Southampton. Please allow yourself plenty of time to get into town and park as the Boat Show is still on, and please allow us and all the other passengers to disembark from the ramp. See you tomorrow!

Little Canada day 3

Another busy day here, and some lovely weather for us to enjoy. Just as well really as the activities have all involved getting wet!

Today 4 of the 6 groups have been playing games in the pool and this afternoon all the children took part in dragon boat racing on the river. The white helmets won, however yellow helmets wanted a steward's inquiry amid allegations that they were deliberately rammed so couldn't win.

Mr Howard joined us this morning, bringing news from school and much needed milk for teacher's tea, taking over from Mr Hinton who left us to attend a course.

Another highlight of the day for some groups was the sensory trail which involves tackling a variety of obstacles whille playing follow my leader and being blindfolded. After last night's heavy rain the course was particularly muddy but this actually seemed to add to the enjoyment of some of the children!

The day ended with a campfire in the grounds and a range of songs and stories from some of the centre staff- much enjoyed by all, although there were a cuple of complaints that all campfires should involve marshmallows and we forgot to provide them for this one...

All children are now in their bunks, in various stages of settling down and we are all looking forward to our last full day of activities tomorrow.

Little Canada day 2

Its been a day full of highs- lots of climbing ladders, sliding down zip wires, abseiling down walls, swinging on trapezes and balancing on wires all at dizzying heights above the ground!

And when we weren't doing that we were wading through mud, climbing through tunnels or learning the art of fencing.

Most, if not all children, have surprised themselves, and the staff, with just how much they were able to do and how high they were able do it.

Our evening activity involved exploring the grounds in the dark, looking for questions about countries of the world. Luckily for us it finished about 3 minutes before the heavens opened so we managed to stay dry!

All children were settled down, if not asleep by 10pm so we are hoping for a peaceful night, unlike last night when one group made the mistake of disturbing Mrs Taylor's sleep by messing about at 2.30am....
We are hoping the rain blows itself out overnight so we can have another great day tomorrow.

Little Canada day 1

Despite all our worries about traffic bedlam, we all managed to get to the terminal on time, and the ferry left at about the expected time.
However, it did leave minus one teacher and his car as there was no room aboard, and we did have to wait in the Solent for about 15 minutes before docking in Cowes as the previous ferry was still loading cars and festival goers.
Once at the site everyone quickly settled into their cabins and we were all fairly happy with the accommodation- except for the odd spider or two who had to be evicted from bathrooms!
The afternoon was spent exploring and finding out where our various activities were going to take place. The BBC let us down and their forecast of sunshine was replaced by a reality of drizzle for a couple of hours but no one got too wet!
A very welcome dinner of lasagne or fish fingers was followed by a rather loud evening of 'Wacky Races' in the sports hall- the shoe race and the ballon race both proved rather popular.
Hopefully all the activity will give the children plenty of exercise and they will settle down for their first night's sleep without too many problems! (here's hoping!)