Norval

Norval, an amazing experience. This being my first time going there, I was a tad bit nervous, but I ended up having a great time. When I woke up that morning, I was really exited, because I thought, “ Yes! I don’t have to do work at school today!” which, yes, was correct, but also, I learned the true meaning of teamwork.

Norval is not a chance to get away from schoolwork, but instead, a chance to go towards teamwork. I will admit, the bus ride was a bit tedious, but it was greatly worth it. The first activity which we did, was something called, Inuit Blanket toss (Pig toss), which was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G group work. How to activity would work is that somebody would go and lay down in the middle of the blanket, and then, everybody would hold onto part of the edge of the blanket. Then, the councilors would count, “1, 2, 3, Pull,” and as you expected, everybody pulled. The reaction would send the person flying into the air, (Especially Remy, it seemed like he almost exited earth’s gravitational field). After the activity, grade 8’s went of in two different groups.

The next activity was called, “Mission Impossible,” based off of a scene in a movie. The idea of the game was to have 4 groups of three, each pulling a rope, which would move the person in the middle through the air. The person in the middle then must pick up the balls scattered across the field, without touching the ground, although this seems easy, it’s requires great balance and patience. Tristan, and Lizzie were usually the people who would guide everything, as in telling Mike to pull really hard, etc. Probably the hardest part about this challenge is that when you pull on your rope, not only will he move in your direction, but he will get higher and higher. After this fun challenge, my group went to have snacks.

After snacks, my group went to a challenge called, “The Wall.” This challenge is what people would have to do if they had to get up onto a boat, but there was no ladder, rope, or anything to help hoist them up. The only things you could use were other people. What our group decided to do was to have the two tallest people at the bottom, and then have other people stand on top of them, and have someone on the ‘boat’ to grab their leg/arm, and help get them up, which was a very difficult challenge, that required a lot of teamwork, which, in my opinion, our grouped slacked in slightly. Since somebody fell (Not saying who :-\), that shows that the group did not have great communication. Directly after, everybody went inside to participate in a Drum Circle.

The Drum Circle is where everybody, including the teachers, would all play drums together, to create their own song. Though this does seem extremely simple, it was probably the hardest part of the trip. What almost everybody was lacking in was a constant beat between everybody. The councilor helped everybody with this by counting, and then giving us hand signals to tell us what to do. When everybody was with the same beat, things were spiced up a bit. What happened next was that people were given different instruments, which made everything ten times more difficult, but at the same time made everybody work together even a little harder. This was difficult since instruments make different noises, which would distract other people, but, if you were good enough, you pulled through.

The drum circle was probably the highlight of my trip, since it required the most group work, which is what this whole field trip is about. Sadly, this does not continue in grade 9, which is depressing, but, all I can say is good look to the grades behind us, and have fun!