It's almost time to say goodbye...

As we approach our final week of summer camp (next week: Just Dance!), we are taking a look back at the amazing time we've had these past six and a half weeks.
In our Art All About Me/Art Explosion Camp session, our campers had a blast painting, drawing, spraying, kneading, and molding to create beautiful and vibrant works of art. We painted with pinecones, created play dough, made beautiful sculptures, and gorgeous flags to decorate our sunshade. Our Mini-Campers honed their fine motor skills by creating beautiful pictures with stickers and markers, using colorful fabric strips to make a vibrant woven collaborative art piece, and were introduced to a number of new materials and loose parts in their sensory bin.
Our second week of camp (Kitchen Science) was an absolute blast! Our campers got to use kitchen staples in fun and creative ways! From making snow and slime to exploring the colors and textures of fruit to painting with ice cubes and salt, our campers had a ton of slimy, salty, stretchy fun! Meanwhile, our Mini-Campers made edible sand out of ground-up graham crackers, finger-painted with dyed yogurt, and explored the ins and outs of the kitchen in our homey playspace. The biggest hit with our Minis turned out to be their play with kinetic sand. Our Minis had a great time scooping and molding the sand into a variety of pretend treats!
During the Backyard Bugs session, our campers had such a fun time looking for and learning about the creepy crawlies that live in our backyard. We got up close and personal with ladybugs, earthworms, and pill-bugs. We also talked about which bugs need more space like bumblebees and spiders. Our campers also had time to create! We made bug art and bug hotels and habitats that will help our backyard pollinators thrive. Our week last week culminated in our very first water day of the summer! Campers had a blast playing in our kiddie pool, splash pad, and so much more! It was a great way to roll into the next session which was all about... (drumroll, please)... games and sensory exploration!
Our Game Time session was spent playing games and having sensational sensory experiences! Our campers got to play games they knew and they got to learn some new ones too! From Connect 4 to tetherball to bowling, our campers had a lot of fun in the sun all culminating in a wet and wild water day! Our minis had a blast as well! Our mini campers spent the week exploring colors, shapes, and textures with puzzles, kinetic sand, pompoms, stickers, and much more.
During our Book Art session, our campers had a great time making book art! We drew inspiration from Eric Carle and Dr. Seuss to make beautiful creations. They traced their feet (The Foot Book), made beautiful seascapes (One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish), and decorated a stunning butterfly (The Very Hungry Caterpillar). Some of our campers even made their own books! Meanwhile, our minis celebrated winter in July. They enjoyed a number of sensory experiences including making snowmen out of clay, creating paintings with pom-pom snowballs, and playing with fake snow.
During our Full STEAM Ahead session, Ms. Charissa's bunnies were a HUGE hit! Our Campers absolutely loved Snow White and Oreo/Leafeon/Cow Bunny and spent time feeding them, giving them water, and observing them. We spent our STEAM week learning about the science of plants. We planned a garden and got our hands dirty preparing the soil. Our Minis also loved spending time with the bunnies. They delighted in spending time outside playing in the soil and sand, blowing bubbles, and playing with chalk. Cars and ramps were a huge part of our Minis' STEAM exploration and they greatly enjoyed rolling different cars and trucks down the ramps and seeing how fast they could go!
This upcoming week is all about Animal Environments and we have a lot of fun projects planned. In addition to (possibly) another visit from our bunny friends, we will be creating birdhouses and bug hotels, examining nests and other animal habitats, and much more!