Wizards, Potions, and Concoctions

Welcome to Destination Imagination!

Our names are Ms. Shirlyne and Miss. Tashmeer.

This summer we are going to explore and get creative with all things magic!

For our first week, we got to know each other and created magical nametags. The magical nametags consisted of the children writing their names and drawing different thigs that they like and represents who they are. Where does the magic come in you ask? Well, the group had to turn on their magical minds and thinking to guess what they believe the pictures tell us about each friend that presented!

During this process, we learned so many things about each other and that we shared a lot of similar like and interests! We even learned that one of our friends this summer has 8 pets living with them!

To end the week, we got a bit messy making Fairy Dough! The children used fairy dust, fairy cream, and glitter to make this soft dough. Of course, they had to use a magical spoon, which transferred its magic onto their hands to mix and mold the fairy dough into a soft stretchy consistency! The glitter alone got most of the children excited, because we all know, glitter makes everything a little bit more magical!

We cannot wait to share more magic with the children next week and look forward to sharing it with all of you! Oh, and one more thing, I suggest the fairy dough is kept for about 2 or 3 days. I’m sure it’s going to get a bit yucky by then!

Welcome to Destination Imagination!

For the first day of Destination Imagination students got inspired by the theme of wizards and potions and created magical art projects. We started our day with ice breakers so students could familiarize themselves with each other and their teachers.

Our very first project consisted of optical illusions and whimsical patterns. The younger students were assigned a goggle project where they created their own unique Spectrespecs inspired by the ones worn by Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series. They traced out goggles using a template, decorated them with creative patterns, and glued playful lenses onto them. The older students were tasked to create an optical illusion drawing and were taught concepts of shadow and depth to produce a convincing gradient effect in their piece.

We hope all the students had a wonderful time! We are looking forward to next week.

Welcome to Just Do it with Ms. Deijah assisted by Miss Rosa and Miss Shekina.

In Just Do It this week, we focused on getting to know each other so we can play as a great team all summer! Our great magical theme of the week made our games so much more fun!

We played category ball as an icebreaker, practiced our animal walk warm ups and played frog and cauldron toss as a way to practice our team building skills.

We are so excited to get to all our energy out playing theme based games while learning about different types of magic!

We're looking forward to more fun and games next week!

Welcome to the Just Do It!

This week, we put a magical spin on some typical gym class games. After a name games to get to know one another (first name and your favorite sport), campers warmed up with a fantasy-themed game of blob tag - that is, escape the evil curse!

On Wednesday, groups played either quest ball (kickball) or monster ball, a twist on dodgeball where two teams each chose two legendary beings. First, a knight, who can cross over to the other side to duel enemies or valiantly score a basket for a “jailbreak,” where all struck players can return to the game; second, a healer, who can save teammates who have been struck with just one tap on the shoulder.

Friday was for games of steal the treasure, where two teams competed to get as much “treasure” to their side as possible, and dragon’s lair, a game of 4 corners.

Just Do It finished the week with each group trying their hands at our Just Do It challenge, where groups nominate a new camper each week to challenge one of our two leaders to a basketball shoot off! The quickest to score a layup, a foul shot, and a three pointer wins. If a camper beats a leader its camper’s choice for the game their group gets to play next Monday!

Hi everyone! I’m Ms. Alison, the STEAM teacher for the Adventure Summer Program at the East Sommerville Community School!

STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math. I’m so excited for this summer and all the fun things we are going to do, build, and explore. The theme of this summer is all things magic, magical, and fairytales. We are going to build, make, create so many fun things related to this theme!

This week was all about potions and wizards. So, in STEAM we made lava lamps or magical potions as we decided lava lamps could be magical potions! The groups absolutely loved making these. They experimented with chemistry and learned that water and oil don’t mix.

We added alka seltzer to the lava lamps to make them bubble. They came out great! We also learned about wizards and threw some Harry Potter into the mix. Students got to make their own wizard wand which they had a lot of fun with.

We are looking forward to what next week has in store for us!

Week one of camp is off to a great start! We spent our first day of STEAM making posters about ourselves to decorate the classroom with! It was great to learn about each others personalities and different hobbies! On Friday we got messy making fluffy slime, which is always a favorite with the campers! We are looking forward to a summer full of fun activities and field trips to come!

Welcome to Hollywood with Ms. Kelsey and her fabulous assistant Brett!

Hollywood started with a fantastical and magical start. The campers will be putting on a show to celebrate this week’s theme of Wizards and Potions. Get ready to see some spellbound dances, fantastical fashion statements, and stories that are magical all on their own.

Since this was a short week the campers had to quickly learn their lines, make their costumes, and come up with adorable stage decorations all in 2 hours! As we say in the magical showbiz world, “The show must go on!”

For our new families, Hollywood is the performing arts activity that introduces campers to creative expression. The campers learn to have fun and showcase their creativity on stage. At the end of the week the kids might learn a new dance, song, skit, or story. Of course, the kids remember this club in a different way. A camper described hollywood as “the club where you make things from garbage.” This is kinda true. Hollywood does use clean recycle materials and create all sorts of outfits for our “trash’n’show”. We love to create and think outside of the box.

We hope you enjoy the virtual show! Watch it here.

Hollywood is off to a magical start!

We hit the ground running on Wednesday and started learning and practicing our performances for the camp-wide show on Friday afternoon. Groups 1 and 3 are looking forward to showing off their moves with an electrifying dance number. The wizards and warlocks of Group 2 will be strutting down the catwalk and giving everyone a glimpse of their (handmade!) fantastical fashion. There’s a potion commotion happening with Group 4, who will be performing improv as they cast magical enchantments on themselves. Group 5 is channeling Blue Man Group with their bucket drumming, and Group 6 is performing a stage adaptation of “The Storybook Knight” by Helen Docherty.

We had a great first show and are excited for the weeks to come!

Lit’s start the summer off with many new beginnings and excitement.

Between meeting new friends, adjusting to a schedule, field trips and more…The kids still find a way to be a leader and helper to their peers and younger campers.

Lit’s not only set but also lead by example in a variety of ways.

Happy First Week!

Welcome to Counselor’s Choice with Ms. Gina at the East Somerville. I am super excited not only to see everyone, but to work with everyone.

In Counselor’s Choice, we meet once per week to build on our Social Emotional Learning skills. This week, we focused on kindness – simple and quick ways to bright up someone's day. We talked about our daily feelings and ways to brighten up our day by being kind.

We enjoyed some calm down coloring techniques. Everyone did an excellent job showing kindness and were awesome during our discussions!

All left the class happy and cannot wait to join class again next week!

Welcome to Adventure Camp 2022 and to Counselor’s Corner at the Healey!

We are happy being with your kiddos at camp and hope you all enjoyed our first week together!

In Counselor’s Corner, we are working on being successful in all we do and helping ourselves have a Growth Mindset. This week, we learned about the difference between moving forward in our thinking as opposed to being fixed in a negative mindset. We discussed ways to change how we express ourselves and focused on ways to calm our bodies and focus our attention. To strengthen our new “mindset,” we learned Growth Mindset Yoga and deep breathing activities. Please use the attached photo and practice at home with your children!

We can’t wait to continue our lessons in Week 2!