The summer isn’t quite over but the leaves have started to take on their red and gold hues and Wonder Camp has finished for another year. The last three weeks of camp were chock full of dancing, singing, art, scavenger hunts, water fun, nature hikes and more!
Magic week started off the last third of the 2019 camp season. A personal favourite that had all the Instructors introducing the children to the wonder and magic of their favourite books and films! It was a very important day on Wednesday July 31 – as any true Potterhead knows, July 31 is the birthday of the one and only Harry Potter. The only thing to do was have a birthday party, complete with Tea Trolley Sandwiches, Butterbeer and Hagrid’s Delicious Cupcakes! With a birthday party to plan our campers got busy in their cooking workshops ensuring there would be enough food to go around. Decorations were a must with house crests gracing the walls and each camper creating their own wondrous magic wand. The Big Wonders created fearsome dragon statues to watch the festivities, while the Little Wonders created magical maps, the paper expertly dyed to look vintage! The Middle Wonders explored their patronuses and learned how to create secret drawings and messages that could be revealed with the brush of water colour. As the day came closer we were in a flurry to finish everything on time! Of course, the birthday party was a smash hit with food for all, games, music and dancing. A little magic goes a long way in a science workshop and our Wonders got to experiment with magical colour changing tea, potions that bubbled and foamed and finger lights. All while learning the scientific principles that made the magic happen.
After magic week we delved into the Four Seasons theme. Our Little Wonders learned all about the water cycle using a plastic bag, water and food colouring to re-create it in our big, beautiful windows. Our Big Wonders made storm clouds and cyclones in jars and became masters of weather. The cooking that week was a big hit! Our little wonders made Summer Chia Seed Strawberry Jam and the Big Wonders made a delicious Apple Butter recipe that had the whole kitchen smelling like fall! For our sewing project that week our Little Wonders sewed sweet crescent moons while the Big Wonders took on the challenge of sewing an intricate tree. The performing arts workshops were definitely a highlight as the Little Wonders serenaded us with the memorable track, Reindeer are Better than People and the big wonders sang In Summer – both featured in the musical Frozen.
It was hard to believe that the last week of camp was upon us as we settled in for We’ve Got Talent week. We started practicing early for the Friday afternoon all-camp talent show, our instructors teaching the song (with choreography!) to I’m Still Standing. All forty-eight of our campers participated. With a lot of hard work, a lot of laughter and an incredible break-dancing workshop with Jacqueline, the campers wowed at the show on Friday. When we weren’t preparing to sing and dance, the campers delved into the world of puppetry. Our Little and Middle wonders sewed monster finger puppets and created shadow puppets, learning all about the rich history of the art form. Our Big Wonders sewed monster hand puppets and had an amazing time creating intricate trash puppets that stole the show. We melded the world of visual and performing arts with these masterful creations! Even our science workshops that week had a bit of performance to them, the Little Wonders shot off film canister rockets, while the middle wonders learned about hydrophilic vs. hydrophobic substances with magical jelly beans that swelled when they touched water!
With Wonder Camp finished for another year it’s time for us to look towards the fall. All our incredible memories of camp will further enhance our programming for the year to come! With a plethora of fresh experiments, avant-garde art workshops and of course some new breakdancing moves, we are more ready than ever to continue to be a leader in quality educational programming! Our Wonder Campers left camp with a head full of ideas, new skills and new friends, and we can’t wait to see them in their schools this fall!
A very special thank you to our absolutely incredible Instructor team this summer: Jacqueline, Katrina, Michelle, Renae and Shiyomi; Ariyana, Beka, Danielle, Gina, Hayley, Kathryn, Maggie, and Meryl – and our very talented Camp Leader, Sarah. Wonder Camp would not have been as Wonder-ful without you.