Ranch Romp: Jojo's Journal

By Husnaa, 6th Grade Student

My classmates, the 5th grade class, and I had a lot of fun at Ranch Romp. I was not there for the first course, which was Pioneer Living and Nature Hike, because of a religious celebration that Muslims have after the month of fasting. Our cabins were small and cozy, and they didn't have much light but you could still see things very clearly. Our bunk beds were lined up by the gray walls. The showers were cut off by the bathroom. There were two showers, two stalls, and three sinks in the bathroom.

After I put my stuff down in the cabin, Kelly took me to where my friends were waiting for me. When we drove up they had just finished baking blueberry and peach cobbler for Pioneer Living. Both cobblers were very delicious! After we ate the delicious cobblers, we started our next course which was Spider Web, a game that needed team work and a plan that would get our team over the other side of a wall without shaking a bell that was attached to the web. The rules of Spider Web are that if the bell rings you and your teammates have to go back to the beginning. Another rule is that if you put any body part in a square and take it out, that square would be closed. It took us an hour or so to figure out a plan that would get all of us over to the other side.

The next game we played was T.P. Shuffle. This was a really fun game. We had to pick an animal, and then the person whose animal started with A moved to the left on the log and the person whose animal started with Z moved to the right. It was very easy and fun and it only took about two or three minutes.

The activity a lot of us enjoyed was archery. In archery we learned how to use a bow and arrow, and in which wars they were used. We even got to try to shoot a bulls-eye! Another game we played was Orienteering. In Orienteering we learned how to use a compass, in case we ever got lost or if we needed to find our way back to someplace.

One of the hardest activities was Whale Watch, a game that used balance and team work. After an hour or so of figuring out our plan, we finally won. Whale Watch was a very slow game. Porthole was a hard game but we got it done in three or four minutes. We all had to get through the porthole and onto the other side of the ship, but there was no real ship sinking, in case you're wondering. It only took us a couple of minutes to figure out the game before we won.

We learned a lot of things at Ranch Romp that we had to use in these games, like teamwork, problem solving, following directions, and not blaming other people. All in all, we had fun at Ranch Romp and we hope to do something like it again.We're especially excited that the 3rd and 4th grades will count the money we collect for UNICEF and report our donation amount at the November 6th Community Meeting. We will keep you updated as we plan more projects!