Green Magic

Hello families,

The weeks are flying by so quickly! This week, the children explored fairy tales and their different components. When asked the question, “What makes up a fairy tale?” was asked, the children knowingly shared that they:

• Start with ”Once upon a time

• It’s make-believe

• Includes magic

• Has unicorns, fairies, elves, and gnomes

• Has a hero

• Has a villain

• And ends with “lived happily ever after” and the “the end”

Right after, the children got into small groups and worked together to create their own fairy tales. When they were done, we read each group's fairy tale out loud. The fairy tales were all amazing!

Please take a look at all of them with these links:

The Princess:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oJ-AB3nu8f0OBx9QzfR2R5_f71El1A_0/view?usp=sharing

Ellie loves to Dance: ttps://drive.google.com/file/d/13BEbeJ--oHWyM1KgdILg6nadz1AE7gKt/view?usp=sharing

The Evil Queen at Midnight Who Didn't Know How to Dance:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PlvSP4ot44ffaHVqbsp7l_qQWtu8CHxG/view?usp=sharing

Prince Wants To Dance:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JVinwCowzTgL4guuImQFNu-aV-9svhD-/view?usp=sharing

In addition, we collaborated again with Hollywood and made giant flowers to help decorate the stage for Friday’s camp show. The children did a nice job decorating and cutting their flowers out as their contribution to the show setup.

Until next week!

For this week’s theme of Green Magic, students were inspired by nature and created projects that incorporated materials from the outdoors.

Our first project consisted of a nature-inspired self-portrait. Students were instructed to sketch a self-portrait and were taken outdoors to collect leaves and flowers to glue as the hair on their portraits. On our second day, students were shown a demonstration of printmaking and were taken outside to gather leaves and flowers to incorporate into their prints. Students used paint to color the leaves they gathered and pressed them onto their paper. They were then instructed to carefully lift the leaf and a print of the leaf was left on the paper. Students continued these steps until they created a medley of colorful leaf prints!

For week four of Just Do It we got to play around with our navigation skills as we maneuvered throughout an obstacle course!

All students got to play Cross the River where they used scooters and their quick feet to make it through the course with their team.

Campers also got to show off their agility with the game Poison Water, where students had to use various objects of their choice to stay off of the floor as long as possible.

This week the kiddos also got to enjoy some free time where they flaunted their gymnastic skills and showed off how AMAZING they are at sports!

For the fourth week at club Just Do It, we blasted Monday with some summer fun and played giant beach ball floor hockey. On Wednesday, the winners of our Just Do It challenge chose to play a game of all-out dodgeball with doctors, nurses, barriers, and jailbreaks included. The other groups navigated a foam block obstacle course blindfolded and then on roller scooters, working as a team to retrieve 3 balls without touching any of the obstacles. Friday was a fun-filled day of "boccer", where campers combined the games of soccer and basketball for a wild new game.

Hi everyone!

Happy end of week 4!

In STEAM this week we have been doing all things green magic. We learned about earth day and caring for trees. We made a fun earth day crown and learned about recycling. We also learned about the butterfly life cycle and read The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The last fun thing we did this week was plant seeds. Students put seeds in dirt, and compostable pots that can be buried in the ground. We hope students see them grow. We watered them and students got to take them home.

We are looking forward to next week and all the fun it has in store!

What a busy four weeks it’s been at camp! Steam has been up to a few different projects this week. In honor of Green Magic, we started Monday by making our very own solar ovens to cook s’mores in! It was a lot of fun and very tasty. Along with our ovens, students have been working on propagating house plants and creating coil pots to plant them in! Students got creative making pots shaped like hearts, moons, lightning bolts, and even an octopus! We are all looking forward to potting our plants next week after a restful weekend!

This week our nature fairies are coming out to show us this beautiful world. We’re four weeks into camp and at our peak of dancing, singing, and puppetterring!

The kiddos have not, one, not two, but three groups performing dances this week. We love to dance here at summer camp. Don’t forget to check out some of the wonderful camp show videos to enjoy the cool dance moves, costumes, and songs. Yes, we do them for us, but we also share these experiences with you, the families. Though we can’t be in person, yet, we love to share what we can to bring the spirit of summer camp to your fingertips.

Our camp show has a fantastic lineup of the ‘W’ Show featuring some magical “nature” creatures. A fabulous fashion show, of course featuring recycled materials. A beautiful song about Unicorns! And Of course… count them. ONE, TWO, THREE, dances.

Enjoy the show!

It’s hard to believe we’re more than halfway through our time here at camp! All of our campers have stepped up to the plate throughout the week to put a variety show together that we’re excited to bring to the stage.

Some of our groups explored the “Green Magic'' theme this week with superhero puppets whose powers help save the environment, an original skit about a mad scientist attempting to pollute the Earth and the heroes who attempt to foil his plan, and a fashion show with couture ensembles made entirely out of recycled materials (or a “TRASHion Show”, as we’ve been calling it!).

Turning our attention to the mysteries of nature, we choreographed a dance to a song about a strange weather phenomenon causing it to rain tacos.

Finally, our musically-inclined friends are testing their rhythm on the bucket drums and paying tribute to a local celebrity, Boston’s own Keytar Bear.

Hello and good morning,

Coming to you live from the LIT group. This summer has been an experience that we will never forget. During our time we have been enjoying ourselves by going to to the pool, beach, and even playing in the park.

Our time here in the summer has been interesting either building a corner store and selling healthy snacks and drinks to everyone. When we aren't selling snacks we are making homemade lemonade to sell. That's right if you are thirsty in this beautiful heat come by and grab a cup of our fine lemonade. If you are also just by the neighborhood and just want to drop by and say hi.

This Friday we decided to get our revenge on the councilors by challenging them to a world cup soccer game.

“My Strong BRAIN”

In the Counselor’s Choice, this week, we read Social Stories on how strong our Brain is. We learned about making mistakes along with behavioral tools to self-regulate, staying clam when things are challenging and avoiding giant meltdowns. Below are some thing learned from some of our campers.

“My brain gets stronger when I try hard things” Meklit

“I am going to keep trying “Ella

“Sometimes it's normal to feel upset when you are trying something new” Yago

“Getting strong is not always easy.” Percy

“Taking deep breaths helps your brain calm down” Allie

“When I learn new things, my brain will get stronger” West

“If I don’t understand something, I can ask for help.” Lia

Happy Week 4 of Summer Adventures!

Welcome to the power of YET!

This week in Counselor’s Choice, we talked about how by adding the word “YET” to the end of almost any sentence, we can change our thinking in a positive way.

YET can transform any fixed phrase into a statement of hope and determination. For example, we learned that saying “I can’t do this….YET” helps make us feel stronger than just saying “I can’t do this.”

YET is almost like a magic word that encourages us not to quit when we get frustrated.

To reinforce our growing mindset, we listened to the “Magical Yet” story and we made YETIs. The kids had a great time cutting and decorating their magic monsters and really showed a lot of creativity and imagination in their activity!

I hope you can practice the power of YET with your kiddos at home and remind them that YET goes with them, even as grown-ups, to get closer to reaching their goals!