Soaring to Salem: 8th Graders Enjoy First Field Trip

On Thursday, September 20th, the MMS 8th grade Green Team made a special trip to the Mountain Workshop in Salem, New York. This year’s trip, just like the one for the 7th graders, was centered around fun team building activities.

After the 45 minute bus ride, the Green team arrived at the campus of Camp Rockstar, a sleep-away camp in the middle of the woods. They were greeted by the Mountain Workshop staff and got right down to business. The students and their teachers were told that the day would consist of three rotations: the high ropes, the low ropes, and rocket launching. Each of the (3) groups the teachers had put together would be starting and ending with a different activity.

At the high ropes, students got the chance to go climbing if they wanted to, using Camp Rockstar’s climbing course. After a long safety talk, they took to the sky. All the obstacles were climbed on: The Floating Islands, The Rope Climb, and many more. The teachers watched as their students made new friends, laughed, and had a blast on the course!

At the low ropes, the Green team got to experience the thrills of a team-building ropes course safely on the ground.

“The low ropes were my favorite thing on the trip,” Truman W., a Green team student told The Dragon, “we got to play tons of cool games that tested our ability to work together.”

Indeed they did! The students played a variety of team building games such as Code Breaker (a game where everyone had to swing over to platforms on a rope to break a “code”) and Whale Watch (a game in which the students had to figure out a way to get themselves on a rocking beam of wood). Lots of laughing was heard throughout this fun activity!

At rocket launching, students got the chance to put their inventive skills to the test. Their task was to work together in small groups to build a paper rocket and a launcher out of materials. They got to decorate and name their rocket. At the end, the Mountain Workshop staff held a launching contest! The team had to stomp on a pump-like object filled with air to make their rockets fly off of their launchers. The group that got their rocket across the basketball court and back first won. The Green team seemed to fly sky high at this activity!

Overall, the Green team’s action packed trip to Salem was a success. However, when asked, the students came up with some things the Mountain Workshop staff could do to improve the trip.

“The Mountain Workshop people told us to eat our lunch during high ropes when we got a break from climbing. I wish they had made a longer period of time at some point in the day for lunch, instead of having us eat during a rotation,” Ally S. said.

Allyn R. later added her two cents. “I saw there was a zipline there, but for some reason going on it wasn’t an option, and it looked really cool. I hope next year the staff lets the students give it a try,” she said.

Though the trip had a few things that could be improved, the team seemed to have loads of fun both on and off of the bus. All 8th graders are scheduled to enjoy this great trip!