Day 5

Sunday 2nd August

We woke up nice and early and packed our bags after our last night in Alton Castle.  We then had the fun task of cleaning up our rooms before quickly rushing through breakfast, as we were all too excited for our day at Alton Towers!

We all packed up the buses and then made our way, full of excitement, but slightly sad that we were leaving today.

We all enjoyed a fantastic day at the theme park, going on lots and lots rides and making the most of our time there.  The madrichim took us round in small groups and we all had plenty of time to go on as many rides as we possibly could!

 

 

 

We then quickly made our way back to the castle for a quick dinner before boarding the bus for our journey back home.  We all took this opportunity to have a much-needed rest before we got home and to tell everyone about the fantastic few days we had at camp!

Thank you for joining us on camp through this blog!

The Tribe Team

 

Day 3 and 4

Friday 31st July

We woke up, had our tefilla session, and started the day with a fun arts and crafts session in preparation for Shabbat.  We had the opportunity to make our own challah cloths to cover the Challot we'd made for Shabbat dinner.

 

It was then time to clean up the site ready for Shabbat before having lunch and a fun afternoon walk in nature (tiyul).

 

We got ourselves showered and changed and had the chance to buy some more tuck and phone our families back home.  It was an exciting time as everyone was getting ready together for our first and only Shabbat on Gad.

 

 

 

Our pre-Shabbat Challenge session followed and then a big camp photo with everyone on the camp!  We had a beautiful candle lighting followed by Kabbalat Shabbat which was filled with much singing, dancing and ruach – an amazing start to our Shabbat experience.

 

Then time for a yummy Friday Night Dinner with lots of chicken soup and even more challah! We then played numerous Oneg games, before we headed off to bed, excited for a full Shabbat day tomorrow.

Shabbat Shalom,

The Tribe Team

Shabbat 1st August

We had a much-needed lie-in this morning followed by breakfast.  We then had a lovely tefillah followed by leining, where we could win some great food-related prizes if we followed closely enough and managed to answer the quiz questions.

We took part in a couple of Shabbat-related activities including a fun game of dodgeball that had stronger links to Shabbat than we initially thought.

This was followed by a delicious lunch and our next session of iClub, before we had some free time and a chance to relax and enjoy the Shabbat atmosphere, whether playing some games are just taking the chance to nap or chat with our friends.

After relaxing we played another couple of fun Oneg games, led by our madrichim, followed by a fascinating Q&A session led by the Rabbi where we could ask any questions we wanted relating to Judaism.  We all tried to challenge him as much as possible with some pretty complicated Jewish questions.

We enjoyed our third meal of Shabbat (Seudah Shlishit) and a wonderful Sikkum that brought out the closing few hours of Shabbat.  We then finished with the highlight of our experience so far – Havdalah. This was a magical service where everyone came together, listened to some stories and sang songs, saddened by the end of Shabbat but excited for what was in store next.

 

 

 

 

After Shabbat ended we all changed into our cosy pyjamas, grabbed our teddy bears and got all cosy for a movie night!  We had popcorn and hot chocolate and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere, in preparation for a big day tomorrow.

The Tribe Team

 

Day 2

Thursday 30th July

The day began nice and early with a beautiful morning tefilla service (Shacharit) led by our madrichim and then a yummy breakfast.  It was then time for our second challenge session and a chance to add to the knowledge we had learnt yesterday.We then began our main activity for the day, a fierce colour war!!!  We were all split into either Blue or Red and given the opportunity to change into our respective colour before waging a war of ruach, creativity and imagination.  It was a fantastic day filled with loads of amazing activities, some a little messier than others, where the two teams battled it out to be the winner. We also made a team song, chants and mascots, coming together at the end of the activity for a final riff off. Congratulations to team Blue, the winners of this years Camp Gad Colour war!

 

 

Next we had our first session of iClub, which is organised free time. Over the next week we’ll be having a few iClub sessions, where we get to spend time getting to know each other as well as working on a project together in our groups. We were able to choose from a variety of activities to try out, before some much needed free time to go and relax before dinner.

 

After a yummy dinner we wrapped up warm and sat ready for the bonfire.  It was a lovely night where we could toast marshmallows and sing as we warmed ourselves by the fire, building on our quickly formed bond as one camp.  It was then off to bed after another busy day!

 

The Tribe Team

 

Day 1

Wednesday 29th July

At 9.45am 40 excited year 5 participants left Toys R Us for the start of Camp Gad.  The coach was filled with laughter, chat and anticipation as the participants began their journey up to Alton Castle.

After a short break at the service station for the much-needed toilets, everyone arrived at Alton Castle and went straight into the activities.  They took part in some great ‘getting to know you’ games run by the madrichim before giant inflatables were brought in.  The participants had a lot of fun climbing and bouncing around and it was a brilliant chance for them to get to know each other a whole lot better and have a lot of fun.

After a quick snack the games continued before it was time to listen to the rules of camp and have a bit of tuck before finding out who they would be sharing a room with for the next four nights.

Then it was time for dinner, with a special birthday party! Happy birthday Noah!

 

 

We then had our evening activity… Who Done it?!  The
participants were incredibly creeped out but had a fantastic time trying to figure out the mystery.  An introductory session to Challenge was next, giving the participants a chance to get to know their madrichim in a more intimate environment before it was time for some much needed sleep after a jam-packed day.

Keep checking back every day for more updates!

The Tribe Team