We may be in the thick of April showers, but that doesn’t mean that Summer isn’t well on its way! This summer Explore It! Is thrilled to once again be running Wonder Camp at Branksome Hall. Our Wonder Campers can expect a summer filled with crafts, games, cooking, science, music and more!
Wonder Camp is the perfect place to spend the summer. The campers get to enjoy the natural beauty of the sprawling Branksome Hall campus and the on site swimming pools while parents get the convenience of a downtown, easy to access location and full day high-quality care – including lunch! Each week at Wonder Camp brings a new theme, keeping the kids excited and our Instructors inspired. At Wonder Camp, we ensure that every week we give the students a detailed, fun and skill building workshop in the areas of art, science, cooking, and performing arts!
Our Instructors are all exceptionally skilled, highly trained and enthusiastic about making sure that each camper has the best possible experience. We believe in the importance of tactile experiences for our campers. Whether they’re chopping up fruit for a culinary workshop, sewing their very own stuffy, or building their own parachute for a science experiment we keep them active and activated!
In our cooking workshops, our Littles have spent past summers making everything from strawberry jam to ice cream and cowboy cookies! Our Big Wonders have taken on some seriously challenging recipes, successfully creating chocolate waffles, Mexican street corn salad, doughnuts, and deep fried mozzarella sticks. When we’re cooking with campers we’re not just teaching them a recipe we’re also teaching them the importance of food and kitchen safety! The students are taught to take on responsibility in everything from the preparation of the food to the clean up.
When we look for science experiments to bring to Wonder Camp, we want them to be dynamic, engaging and educational. In years past we’ve explored magic sand, created multidimensional and functional Rube Goldberg machines and built boats that float! We want to keep the students curious and encourage them to try and try until they succeed! While they’re hands are busy building we’re busy teaching them important scientific principles like how gravity works, what salt water density means and how to create kinetic energy.
Arts and crafts are an essential part of any camp experience. When we begin an art workshop with the campers, we choose inspirational artists, cultural and geographical influences, and art movements to inspire us – ensuring that students are receiving a bit of a history lesson while painting, drawing or working with clay! In past years we have looked at the works of Brugel, Matisse, and Kandinsky, examined the surrealist movement, and tried our hand at pointillism – to name just a few. The students get a beautiful piece of art to take home along with a better grasp of various artistic techniques and influences.
Whether they learn a song or dance, or delve into improvisation, we make sure that every student feels comfortable and explores their artistic side. Our campers performed a fantastic dance and magic show in last year’s camp talent show and even in the weeks without a talent show the campers were sure to create a dance routine or song that they could perform for their fellow campers. Explore It! Is well known for its high quality musical theatre programming and our Instructors often have professional experience as singers, dancers and actors, which enables us to give a truly unique workshop to our campers!
We believe in the importance of a well rounded camp experience. Whatever your child is passionate about, they’re sure to find it at Wonder Camp! Camp starts on June 17 and we can’t wait to see you there!
