Little Canada 2010 Homecoming

Final morning of Little Canada and with the last groups doing Circus skills, Tunnel Trail, Trampolining or climbing coupled with the brightest day of the week (Typical when we are leaving) it meant nobody was going to get too wet or muddy. Here are 3 intrepid miners feigning fear prior to entering our tunnels. Although it was quite scary at first. As with climbing though when children faced their fear they then had an excellent time.

At this point the official trip photographer apologises hugely for no more photos. Fatigue and a manic need to get everything together meant that no more photos got taken. Evidence of some chalet floors prior to packing would have been an amusing site. Wooton Creek in the winter sunshine would have been uplifting. A birthday black forest Gateau expertly cut into 36 pieces would have been mouthwatering. The evidence of happy homecomings would have been emotional.

All that is left to say is that Little Canada 2010 was another hugely satisfying week. A week as ever full of challenges. Can I go down this tunnel, climb this wall, get along with all my Chalet sharers, find any clean clothes, pack my suitcase, make my bed?

Can I go again next year? No but there is of course France to look forward to

Little Canada 2010- More Fun on Thursday

Indoor climbing took place on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. It was always going to be one of the highlights and lots of the children got as high as they could go and those who didn't still had a go and gave themselves a challenge. The other good thing was that because the wall was only so high it meant lots of goes could be had.





In circus skills it was a chance to show off or learn some juggling skills. Spinning plates, angel sticks, diablo and juggling balls. Below are a couple of diablo experts although one of the diablos has run away.

There were two main ways to enjoy yourself at the disco. Here Chris, our group leader, helps the children to "large it" on the dance floor.

Sneaky munching and slushies were also popular.

Little Canada 2010- Rockpooling

Time and tide waits for no man. Here we are walking out on Woodlands beach. It was clear we would not have long in the Lower Intertidal zone and so it was certainly the case within three minutes we were informed it was time to turn around. Even then we needed to do a bit of a paddle. Back on the main part of the beach we got started on some serious pooling.

This shows how busy we all were searching, one of the strangest distractions was a swan bobbing on the ocean having come to see us from a nearby creek.

The hardest find this morning were crabs. We usually find plenty but today we really had to dig deep.

Success at last! This was a green shore crab but sure you knew that already

After a while it was time to gather round and share our finds. Apart from the crab, there were mussels, periwinkles, dog whelks, shrimps, slipper limpets to name but a few. The bit of island in the background is where we had been rockpooling only an hour before.




All the children then exercised their bodies as well as their brain by doing the "crabbyokey"

Little Canada 2010- Midweek minibeasts

Some say all you do is clean things. Some say that it is the most boring activity of the week. All we know is that it is called the Matrix and don't believe all you hear. Today or yesterday all four groups had a go at this. It doe not look much from the outside but looks can deceive. There is so much we want to show you but we are sworn to secrecy.

Here is the smallest of clues as to what we found inside. Curious eh?

Again Some of us had Quad biked before but today the last two groups had their chance. 10 mph does not sound very fast but when you are negotiating a narrow track through the woods, it is certainly fast enough. Needless to say it was safety first though and with the right equipment and tuition ..and tyres everyone was safe. This group all got round without any crashes.

Minibeast Safaris are not that easy in the winter. Things are harder to find so the excitement was all the greater when we did spot something.

Yesterday it was six figure grid references today it was annelids, molluscs and myriapods.

Amongst the habitats we explored were the Meadow, log piles and Pond.
We dipped enthusiastically into a rather stinky pond.

But pickings were slim. Waterhog lice and ramshorn snails were the best we could find. Somebody had thought it would be a good idea to introduce fish into the pond earlier in the year and the results were fat happy fish and not much left for us. Everyone still had fun though, despite the dangers presented by "Wingy" Wednesday and chalets being full of tired/excited children.

We took our knowledge of classification and adaptations to the ICT suite in the evening. this particular minibeast is a Mosquito killer. Scary!

Little Canada 2010 Our first busy day

Lots of Maps came out today. Some had Orienteering this morning and for all of us it was map skills this afternoon. That is definitely a footpath at (037,485)



Having learnt loads the children were not at all worried about the drizzle and took their performance in the map extravaganza very seriously. I'm not sure if this was the winning team but they certainly mean business.




More concentration and serious faces were needed when deciding how to spend money in the shop. Cups of mini eggs and mood rings seem to be amongst the best sellers.



What more shoes?! Not a tower this time but a relay which was part of wacky races. It involved all shoes being removed and then a big mix up before they could get them back. Don't worry. Everybody got their own shoes back. We think... Tried to get pictures of the children running but they were all such a blur as they went so fast.

Two nights in and lots of tired children. All the cards and letters were fantastic from home but poor Glen dore got very upset as he did not get one. Mr. Ralston sent him over from Australia 3 years ago and he has never made it back. Luckily his best friend Bertie was there to cheer him up and promised we would post him back as soon as he finishes his Little Canada holiday

Little Canada 2010 The Arrival

The excitement built as Cowes came into view on a gorgeous January Morning. Red Funnel put us upstairs in own little area. Nice for us. Very nice for the other passengers.















After getting Orientated. It was time to sort the bags, make the beds and dust the curtains.
The first Super Chalets were awarded and then we passed time before ...tea making chalet chants and sculptures.

Dinner as always at Little Canada was delicious. appetites were big but we are not sure if all those Green Beans were eaten.






















We are getting some chill out time each day when we reflect on our day. Share our successes look to what to improve and share our thoughts in our Journals



















The picture below will take too long to explain. Yes it is a tower of shoes. The task was part of the generation game. The idea was to have fun and tire everyone out. Well we certainly had fun but not too many people went to bed tired.