On Monday the 17th of June Year 5 and 6 from KVPS went to our first camp this year.
We went to The Tops in Stanwell Tops. When we got there we met our tour guide Damo. He was really funny and we all had a good time when we were around him.
It was such fun and on the first day we climbed up the vertical cluster and we had a disco after dinner. On day two we did archery, giant swing, kart racing and then we did newspaper fashion after dinner. On our last day, the 19th, we did the abseiling tower. We had an incredible time and we also took on challenges and learnt so many new things and we were all really sad to leave.
By Madelin
On the first day, Monday, we did the Vertical Cluster. It was the first activity. First we put on our harnesses and helmets and then Abbey gave us a demonstration. Everyone got into groups and one person went at a time while all the other people were belaying the person up there. Everyone had so much fun, and everyone got along.
By Daisy and Mia
So we got to the start of Survivor and we got the flags for each team. One team was called ‘ The Blue Ringed Octopus’ and the other team was ‘ The Red Ropens.’ We all went for a walk in the bush for about four minutes. Then we got to the first challenge. The first challenge was a tyre on a pole. We had to reorganise the order on the right pole. After that we had to do a maze with a tennis ball whilst tilting a table from start to finish. Then we played connect four. It was fun and amazing and we loved it so much.
By Jamo and Levi
On the first night of camp we had a disco but there was a twist. It was in the middle of a black out! We also had one of the staff from the Tops, Abby, as our DJ. Even though we were in a black out Abby had charged the speaker so we still had music and still made it fun. DJ Abby had really good songs for us and everyone was having so much fun because DJ Abby was dancing too.
By Wyllow and Lily
We did 3 activities until the funnest activity by far finally arrived – archery. First of all we did a practice round and by the end of the practice round everyone was hitting the target at least once. Then we started the points round and everyone was determined to win. The points were white 2, black 4, blue 6, red 8, outside yellow 10, inside yellow 20 and bullseye 50. Sadly no one hit a bullseye! This is how it worked: we all got 3 arrows each and had 4 people in each group. By the second round everyone got red or better then we all started doing a different game. First we had to hit white or better with one arrow so if you missed you were out. Almost half the people got out by blue. There were 3 people left – Albie, Sam and Caleb. Caleb got out and it was between Albie and Sam. Sam missed, then Albie missed, then it was red or better. Sam missed again then Albie hit the red and won 15 points for his team for coming first. Sam won ten points for second place and Caleb won 5 points for third place. Then we continued with the points round and the winning team was Albie, Caleb, Jamo and Miss Arnott.
By Albie
On Tuesday, our second day, we went to the Giant Swing which was 18 metres high. We had a full body harness and we had a demonstration from Abbey at the top. The Giant Swing was next to the cliff and it would swing you over the cliff with a great view of the beach.
There were levels you could choose to start from – green, blue, yellow, and red and one person could go at a time and everyone on the ground would pull a rope to lift the person that was swinging. To release the rope to swing you had to pull a green bit of string and it released you to swing.
Our principal Miss Arnott went to the top of the swing and everyone was excited and then she pulled the string and she did the biggest scream ever. Everyone had so much fun on the Giant Swing and we would all do it again.
By Wilson
The kart racing was fun because the karts were very easy to drive and we had to lean over to steer the kart. We had to get into groups of four or five
and we had to do twenty laps as a team. There were lots of corners around the course and there were two races, one with half the track then the other with the whole track. Most of the kids agreed that kart racing was the second best or best event. Milton said “this is the most joy I have ever had.”
By Harry and Milton
On the second night we did newspaper fashion. A lady called Laura helped us create/make our designs. The theme was Disney, which includes Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars. The competition had 5 competitors: Jamo as Rapunzel, Izzi as Ariel, Maddi as Elsa, Levi as Micheal Jordan and finally Wilson as Ariel’s responsible brother. The Instructor, Laura, had a challenge in the competition. It was that we had to do a dance, give a joke or just make her laugh to get sticky tape for the design. To show our designs the models had to do a catwalk where they had to spin, pose and talk about the crew and the reason we chose to do the character. The crew for each team were Abby, Mia, Daisy and Jamo did Rapunzel. Our crew was just me and Adelie. The next crew was Lily, Wyllow and Maddi did Elsa while Milton, Harry and Levi did Micheal Jordan and finally Sam, Elsie, Albie and Wilson did The Little Mermaid.
By Izzi and Adelie
On our last morning we went to the abseiling tower. First we put on our harnesses and got a demonstration from our guide Damo about how to abseil properly so we don’t get injured. The first tower was 5 metres high and it was a little bit scary. Once everyone had been on the 5 metres then there was the 10 metre abseiling tower. Harry was first on the 10 metre and made it down safely. The experience was fun and we all enjoyed abseiling and had a great time at the Tops.
By Abigail
After a fabulous three days at the Stanwell Tops we sat down together and we reflected about how amazing the camp was. Personally I thought that the Tops was the best camp I had ever been to.
Almost everyone thought that The Stanwell Tops pushed them past their limits.
We discovered we could do things that we never thought we could do.
The accommodation was great, a 5 star review if you ask me. Everyone was having fun and I think we made some memories that we will never forget.
When we got on the bus it was really loud but it did get quieter as the trip went on and Levi and Jamo even fell asleep for a bit.
When we got off the bus it took a little while to unload but after we did we got to burn off a little steam up in the back fields. Lastly our mums and dads came to pick us up to have a relaxing afternoon at home.
But why did we go to the Tops? For having fun and games, but also a lesson that we were taught was that we should encourage each other and that if we believe we can do it, we can do it.
By Sam