Astronauts Week

Now that all of our partner day camps are running, we did a full week of programming at camps in Ahkwesahsne, Kanehsatake, and Tyendinaga! This week was Astronauts Week, and campers made bike pump bottle rockets and did astronaut training in our dizzy obstacle course.

We started off by designing our rocket ships. Everyone was very creative and made their own unique ships: some campers made cabins for the astronauts to sit in and some drew flames to show how fast they’d speed by; there were aliens to wave at you through the windows, while others made their rocket ships into flying sharks or dragons!

We put some water in the bottles and corked them, then took turns pumping them up with the bike pump until they launched high into the air. All of the campers had fun watching their creations launch and getting sprayed as they exploded from the pressure. Some camps competed for distance, others for height, and on the chilly mornings others kept warm trying to chase and catch the bottles.

After the rocket launches, campers underwent astronaut training when they spun around and challenged themselves racing in a relay obstacle course. They got to see how difficult it was to keep their coordination, as they jump roped, kept a birdie up with their badminton rackets, and navigated through the track when they were dizzy – just like astronauts going to space would be tested!