Appreciating Nature and Learning to Cooperate
On September 12, the entire 8th grade class boarded the bus and began their long journey to Shimen Mountain. Despite the length of time it took to arrive at their destination, the students all said they enjoyed the time on the bus. For some of them, this was the best part of the trip.
Once they arrived at Shimen Mountain, they gathered on a large field and practiced survival skills. The students were divided into six teams. Team members designed their own distinctive team flags through brainstorming, shouted out team slogans, and waited for the next task with confidence.
The instructors showed them how to tie a tourniquet around someone’s head to stop blood from flowing. The students of each team carefully followed the first aid procedures to bind, fix and tie. They fully felt the love and warmth among the team members in learning and helping each other.
They also practiced using primitive tools to start a fire. Some were successful in starting the fire and others were not, but no one felt discouraged because they were all bolstered by their classmates.
The students also learned how to build temporary shelters in the woods at the base of the mountain. Throughout all these activities, evidence of collaboration and connection were seen. After the temporary shelter building, the students gathered in groups to eat lunch and share their snacks. Finally, they were instructed in how to build a raft using long bamboo poles and plastic barrels. The students worked together, sharing their combined skills, to complete the activity. Once they were finished, a few pairs of students put on life jackets and tested out their finished rafts. Since some rafts were more seaworthy than others, the students were able to cool off a little bit in the water as their raft slowly fell apart.
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This field trip was a very unique experience, the students not only learned the survival skills, know how to live in harmony with nature, but also felt the importance of teamwork.
Linda Luo 8L
THIS annual community-building activity has finally come. For 8th grade this year, we went to Shimen Mountain to experience wilderness survival and learn survival skills. We learned how to wrap bandages, drill wood for fire, build camps, and make bamboo rafts. These not only exercise our cooperation, mutual respect, and courage of the Spartan spirit but also let the new students more quickly integrate into our big family. I hope everyone has a nice and meaningful school year, like riding that bamboo raft down the stream!
Anastasia Dong 8P
幽路斑驳树成荫，潺水漱石淼呈清。
野火何用棍木取，竹筏应自乐声境。
Vivian Xu 8L
Wind blows, stroking the fire that sparks. Leave falls, landing on the raft which enters the water. Walking in the trees, how many buggies have you seen? Immersed in laughter, someone screamed, not surprised. The sky is clear, the road is smooth, and the way back to school is bright.
Megan Ray
After all the classmates were dry, and with popsicle in hand, they began the walk back to the bus. Some used the long drive back to school to take a nap, but others enjoyed the connection they were able to form with their classmates through laughter. All in all, it was a successful community building trip.
Autumn 2023
排版 Editing | Fontaine Yang
审核 Auditing | Scott Pare, Toni Dong, Wenping Li
本篇文章来源于微信公众号: 清华附中国际部
