Grade 10s Have Unforgettable Start to the Year

September 16, 2022

Academics

GNS

It was a beautiful day, there were no clouds and the sun was shining against the bright blue sky. Students were talking about trips they had taken over the summer. Some students travelled internationally visiting many places around the world. Other students went to different summer camps all around Canada.

As the students boarded the bus everyone was laughing and telling stories about their summer. When the bus arrived at Camp Bernard the Grade 10s went to an open field where the teachers and lifeguard talked to us about the upcoming day. Everyones’ eyes lit up with excitement as the students were told about all of the fun activities they would be participating in throughout the day. The first activity of the day was a team building exercise. The teachers read out different questions and the students had to group up with the people that had the same answer; the only catch was that you had to do this all without talking. The first task was to group up with the student who joined GNS the same year as you. All of the students were looking around at each other trying to remember who joined the same year as them. The biggest group was the ‘lifers’ who had been together since 2012.

For the next activities the teachers divided the students into random groups. This was a great opportunity for all of the students to connect with people outside of their friend groups and interact with new students. When the students were in their groups they introduced themselves to some of the new students they had not yet met. It was awkward at first but when everyone started playing the games and working together everyone had a lot of fun and many new friendships were made.

One of the activities the Grade 10s did was stand up paddleboarding. Most of the students were nervous because they thought paddle boarding was going to be very difficult, but once everyone got on the water they realized that it wasn’t so hard. When the students got deeper into the lake everyone sat down on their paddle boards and took in the peacefulness of the water and the beauty of the wildlife and the scenery.

The last game of the day was the water relay. Everyone lined up and the racers were ready to swim from one side of the dock to the other. As the swimmers were about to jump in the water the teachers told us that everyone that would be racing had to wear a life jacket around their waist like a diaper. This made it very hard to swim as you could barely kick! Everyone worked as a team to win, even those who were not swimming helped pull the racers out of the water.

The relay was a fantastic way to end a great day, one where everyone made new friends and new memories that no one will forget.