By Adi Grossman
Camp Shoresh has given all of us campers an extremely amazing part of the summer. Over the course of only 4 days, Camp Shoresh has taught all of us kids a bit about both nature and our Jewish roots. Plus they made it so that that learning was fun!
DAY ONE: Light/dark (Day 1 of the creation story) and plants (day 3 of the creation story)
What a great way to start the week! Adult opening circle, then a play about the 7 days of creation! We learned about hazardous plants that you can’t touch. We played a navigation in the dark tree game and did lots of walking. We cooled off in the Riverdale farm splash pad after lunch, and then we continued on with our AWESOME day.
DAY TWO: Creatures of the sea and sky (days 4 and 5 of the creation story)
We kicked off the day by right away going down to the Don Valley Trail. We made 2 things: Sound Maps and boats. Then, we walked to Riverdale pond, and set our boats asail, thinking about the Miriam Passover story we were just told, and our hopes for the world that we had wrote down on birch bark. Then, we walked through the farm to the splash pad, and that just about concluded our day!
DAY THREE: Mammals (day 6 of the creation story)!
On this day, we had opening circle, then we launched right into our play! We played an animal game, and tried to look for animal tracks on the ground. Then, we trekked all the way to the playground! We even wet our heads in the water tap! We came back to the wagon to do some nature eyes and read a book.
DAY FOUR: Humans (day 6) and Rest (day 7 of the creation story)
We had a great day! We started with a play about Namah and the plants. We made a nature tea/potion and worked hard to clean up all the garbage we saw in the park. After lunch, we had a special ceremony where we said what we like about one person in the circle and presented them with one object from nature that describes them. We ended camp with a show and kvell where we shared our magic nature potion with our adults. What a great week!
Camp Shoresh has been an extremely positive experience for us all, even though we all got mosquito bites and burs stuck to our clothes. But before I go, big shoutout to all of the counselors and volunteers, Iris, Sophie, Zoe, Tiferet, Neil, Ellis, and Cailan.
Have a great rest of your summer! Ta-ta!
