Day 8: Settling Disputes

Howdy partners!

Today the camp was transformed into a western paradise complete with authentic hay, cowboy hats and themed activities. We began with a simulation of a day in the life of a rancher! Campers cycled through lassoing a counsellor, milking a cow, pinning the tail on the donkey and herding cattle.

Please use the arrows to move through the photos

Following the morning activity, we galloped into the ranch (cabin) for a quick snack before moving to social skill. Today, the focus was on settling disputes and we learned the acronym S.L.A.M. It stands for Stop, Listen, Ask and Make a decision. Everybody gets into disputes or disagreements from time to time, and S.L.A.M. helps us have respectful and productive conversations with a person we may not agree with. It may even help us come to an understanding or to recognize the other person’s perspective! A great question to potentially ask your camper is, when can you use SLAM in your everyday life? Is there a disagreement you have had where S.L.A.M. would have helped guide the conversation? To practice using S.L.A.M., we applied it during a game of life-sized rock paper scissors, in role playing games and when playing with Play-Doh.

Following social skill, all the cow-folk and cow-pokes (campers and staff) went to their clubs! In Sports Club we played field hockey, in Outdoor Skills Club we learned about compasses, and in Art Club we painted balloons and made buttons!

After clubs we re-fuelled in the ranch and then headed to our choice activities. Today, campers chose from canoeing, archery or sculpture building!

We then headed to Steps in the Right Direction before saying goodbye for the day. This western theme was one to remember and we can’t wait until next time, y’all!