A School Camp program of environmental education and nature recreation.

LightFoot Nature and Sustainability Camp

Sequenced activities for Years 5/6 children on a four-night stay

The aim of ourLightFoot program is to provide an enjoyable variety of hands-on activities:

• to build children's physical confidence in the natural environment.
• to increase children's appreciation of  the structure, diversity, dynamics and particular values of the rainforest and river environments.
• to enable children to explore real-life stories of Aboriginal and Settler history.
• to help children understand the impact of our lifestyle on natural habitats, and to encourage, through a variety of practical examples, the adoption of LightFoot approaches for sustainable living.
• thus to provide practical experience relating to Stage 3:  

Human Society & Its Environment K-6 Syllabus (2006)                                                                                  Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (1993-currently being reviewed)                                                     PDHPE K-6 Syllabus (2007)

LightFoot programs strive to be non-sexist and non-competitive.

DAY ONE

 

Arrival mid-morning at Wangat Lodge.  Welcome and Morning Tea.

Texta "tattooing" of names on hands.

Introduction to our LightFoot Nature and Sustainability program and bush safety talk. 

Bush Ramble to Bunyip’s Bath on Jerusalem Creek:

Past Shaky Knees Lookout, exploring Aboriginal uses of native plants in the Gringai Supermarket.

A wet-feet ford crossing (ankle deep) over the Chichester River.

Picnic Lunch by the riverside.

A cross-country walk (one hour...) to Jerusalem Creek Wilderness.

Quiet TIme in silent appreciation of Aboriginal culture and history.

A drink from a pristine creek in the rainforest?

We return to Wangat Lodge via forest and paddocks, pausing en route for a Coo-eeing Challenge!  Return to Lodge by 4pm. 

Afternoon Tea

Children are told the rules about staying at Wangat Lodge. and settle into their rooms. 

Free time (swimming, volleyball, journal-writing, board games?).

 

Dinner (6pm, served in the Main Hall)

Evening Program (7pm)

Children are given an introduction to percussion music and learn The Earthsong.  We explore the night-life of the forest with a short Spotlighting Walk (possums, wallabies, spiders etc.), a Quiet Time in the darkness or listening to The Frog Chorus.  Before bed-time there is a Slide show introducing Wangat's history and wildlife.

 

DAY TWO

 

Breakfast (self-serve in the kitchen)

Mime (beginning at the BBQ area at 9am)

The children meet Jean Paul, the mime, who helps them learn the "usefulnesses" of the forest. 

 

Morning Tea on the deck (weather permitting).

The Way We Live Questionnaire followed by a short walk to re-create the history of the Chichester Valley.  Continuing on following the water-pipe to Chichester Dam.  Children act out domestic uses of water and identify past and present water conservation approaches. 

Picnic lunch at Duncan Park.  There are toilets and a bubbler here.

 

Wilderness Walk back to Lodge via Hauler Gully Rainforest (on the edge of Barrington Tops National Park).  Face-painting using river-rock ochres.

Afternoon Tea back at the Lodge.

The Survival Game.  The art of story-telling: how hunter-gatherers, subsistence farmers, and modern industrial society meet their survival needs.  We then consider the LightFoot alternatives....

 

Free-time (swimming, volleyball, journal-writing).

 

Dinner (6pm, served in the Main Hall)

Evening Program (7pm)

The Garbage Game  (re-use, repair, re-cycle, reconsider) challenges children to face up to the demands our garbage places on the planet and come up with creative alternatives for the way we live. 

 

DAY THREE

Breakfast (self-serve in the kitchen, around 8am). 

Pond-dipping in search of aquatic invertebrates at Mudbrick Dam.  Identification of the creatures using a simple dichotonous key and recording a water quality index from our results. 

Morning Tea

Sketching of a pond chosen creature using magnifying lenses and close observation.  Labelling the diagrams.

Percussion Workshop.

Lunch at Wangat Lodge.

Boat-building - making biodegradable boats from sticks, string and bark.  Sailing them down the river!

Dinner (6pm, served in the Main Hall)

Evening Program (7pm)

Story-telling: The story of Wangat Lodge and a Frogging Expedition (with some star gazing, cloud permitting?).

DAY FOUR

 

Breakfast (self-serve in the kitchen, around 8am). 

The Orienteering Game is a series of c-operative team puzzles in the Lodge grounds, which develop navigational skills and awareness of LightFoot practices of sustainable living.  The first part is a training session in compass use, map-reading and measuring distances.

Morning Tea

The children work in teams to find markers hidden in the Lodge grounds and sovle a puzzle relating to caring for the environment at each stop.

Lunch at Wangat Lodge.

Afternoon

Craft and Music Workshop to prepare for our evening concert.  Afternoon tea in between.  Swimming in the river (in season) or volleyball.

Dinner (6pm, served in the Main Hall)

Evening Program (7pm)

We perform The Earthsong Concert!

DAY FIVE

Packing of bags and storing luggage in the Lodge before program starts.

LightFoot Tour of Alternatives

Children discover all the ways they have been treading lightly on the planet whilst living at Wangat Lodge.

They then help further by making Mud-bricks, planting trees, and perhaps a little lantana-wrestling...!

 

Morning Tea.

Our LightFoot Camp Memories:

A recap of the program so far leads into our final activity: a special Solitude Session is where children spend twenty minutes in their own spot in the forest, a little away from others, to reflect, draw, write a letter, poem, prayer...

We share our writings/drawings and have a LightFoot presentation ceremony.

 

Lunch, then pack the bus ready for Departure (around 1pm)

 

We appreciate the freedom to allow more time where children are particularly absorbed in an activity, or to modify the program to suit the mood of the moment, weather or wildlife.  This usually happens!  Please talk to us about what you want your children to get out of the camp and how you feel about the activities.

Activities in reserve for sustained wet weather: Sculpture, Collage, Creative projects with leaves/sticks/mud/string, Mask-making, Journey-sticks, Drawing, Percussion workshops.

Optional outdoor activities for your program: Pond-dipping for aquatic invertebrate life, Pitfall Trapping for minibeasts.