Director’s Notebook

February 2010 Recap:

February break brought new discoveries and productivity reached a new level of craft and skill.

The weather was kind with warm breezes and crunchy snow, which allowed for many enjoyable hours on the pirate ship as well as other outdoor games such as tag play. An attempted camp fire proved unfit for anything but smoke signals. 

Inside was a hive of productivity.

The count for rewinding  the sewing machine bobbin was seven times - an all time record. Quilts, doll's clothing, stuff-ties and loads of pillows were made during the week.

The crock pot of hot wax swallowed crayons, corks and foam. Coming out were fingers covered in a thin veneer of wax.

Our new counselor, Erica Layton, a Sculpture major graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design brought new ideas and energy to our Art Smart curriculum. She led work with soapstone, chalk, sticks, latex gloves, ribbon, and netting - all used to create form through shape and dimension. 

A likeness of Hanna Kearney, our Upper Valley Olympic gold medallist, was crafted from tongue depressors and corks. I saw other other olympic heroes emerge from the hot glue table. 

This was the week for mixtures: what would happen if... we mixed this or this? or this and this and this?, can we bake it? can we freeze it? can we leave it? 

Along with the inedible we had a series of edible successes: sugar cookies and meringues along with cake and bread. 

Productive fun, imaginative play, shared jokes, stories and science all happened throughout the day. I can't wait to have the Summer Days Camp neighborhood together for April break as we investigate making pasta, and start to see the signs of spring.

Fondly,

Janna Genereaux 

SDC director

Early summer 2009

As Summer Days Camp completes it's fifth season, I look back on the first summer
and have seen them grow so much. It has been a pleasure to grow the offerings of the camp at the same time. I see the children smiling  joyfully coming to camp early each
morning. I too still love to come to camp early to get ready for them.

Following is a recap of projects on which we have been working:

Art Smart

We have had the expanse of the outdoors! Everyone is taking
advantage of the fresh air and sunshine. We had a week of dry hot heat in
early July where the campers explored water works on every level. They built
tunnels and dams, a lake, and used a ramp, gutters and pools to move water
three dimensionally in which they made boats and other craft that raced down
the course.

Fair Play

We have played games outside in  big groups and in pairs. We have added two
new Zip Lines that provide  "safe challenges" to the children. The
zip is really zippy. The bouncy castle is still one of the
children's favorites, and now we use the flat covered surface under the tent
to do group games and obstacle courses.

Kitchen Science

We have been making bread, We have added an additional 30 new engaging and entertaining science experiments.

Our new CIT program has been a big hit. Children are participating and
gaining skills and confidence. The multi age camp benefits everyone.

Two new counselors have joined us and they are terrific. Heidi Robbins,
and Fuller Henriques - check out their bios on our webpage.

Two more weeks in July and all of August are in front of us. I have lots of projects, games and ideas to present to your child. Feel free to sign up for any period of time.

Until then,

Janna Genereaux, Director

Recapping 2009 April Camp

Cultivating creativity through Play
April is my favorite vacation camp week. The cold of the winter breaks and we all race out to enjoy the fragile sunlight and watch for the new growth. Capturing the sweetness of this time I celebrated by bringing two lambs to camp. They were fourteen days old Black and white and joyfully spent the day in the children’s arms or sucking at their bottles filled with warm formula.

Art Smart
The Day at Summer Days Camp unfolds gradually. The tables are laden with project materials and the choices of activities follow seamlessly.  The children investigate their creative potential through exploration and experimentation. The crayon table is a favorite. I discovered that a hot pot and a pile of crayons along with some graters, tools,  molds, and cups of ice makes the most wonderful activity. The crayons melt down and become the consistency of a warm chocolate sauce.

Kitchen Science
This was our most successful endeavor at ice cream. It had a firm smooth consistency and a sweet and simple taste!   Everyone is developing their skills in the kitchen.  As for the Science piece we pulled out the classics, egg in the bottle, blowing up a balloon with baking soda and vinegar, and the wonderful discussion about explosions in a confined chamber and what happens? We demonstrated with a potato cannon.

Fair Play
The bouncy castle had a tremendous amount of activity. Jumping without snow boots and gear was such fun. There is now a rainbow ball that is five feet around which gets used in group activities.  It is a glamorous new piece of equipment.  Imaginary play with the lambs, the little house and a continuous stream of play dough paper dough sand dough shaving cream sauce…etc. made for endless play.

Recapping 2009 February Camp

Our rooms were filled every inch with projects and activities.  The weather was cold and the snow was unforgiving.  We compensated by having many talented staff inside with projects. I am always amazed at how quickly the campers of all ages fall into a routine of participating and playing together.  We have created a neighborhood, and in neighborhoods everyone appreciates each member.

A Listing of April Camp’s Activities:

Art Smart – Sewing: pillows, aprons and stuffies.   Clay: modeling, rolling pressing cutting.  Wire: sculptures, collage, painting, embroidery needlepoint.

Kitchen Science:  A list of our supplies from the experiments we did:  dry ice vinegar, eggs, fire, Alkaseltzer tablets, baking soda, Pepsi, balloons, bottles, fire, water cardboard, milk and food coloring.  Can you guess what some of our experiments were?  Baking: We made meringues, popcorn, bread and oatmeal cookies.

Fair Play:  Included a lot of inside time.  The children constructed a boat from cardboard.  We celebrated with Bennie Baby tea parties.  Outside we experimented with making and keeping a fire.  It was a struggle with our materials and the wind.  There was some sledding, hide and seek, tag and pirate ship play.

Highlights from Camp, Sarah Heimann made a pinch pot as a demonstration – it was amazing!  We also invited “Gramma Joy” to give a cooking demonstration. The children responded enthusiastically with our performances.  Our many shared experiences at Summer Days Camp brings us all together, and we look forward to next time.

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Entry 12/29, 12/30, 12/31 and 01/2

Recapping December Camp

Our December Summer Days Camp was a wonderful success we were blessed with all types of snow during our four days, we had building snow, sledding snow, crunchy ear squeaking snow and ice making cold. 

Fair Play consisted of inside and out side play. The theme of telling stories and creating stories was the back bone of all our play. We saw imaginative play in dress up, our children became kings and queens nobles and warriors.  The Beanie babies discovered the joy of being carried to different corners of the room and were told many stories.  There was a raft of new books read at “read aloud”, Peter and The Wolf we enjoyed from a fabulous CD and everyone became a wolf.
 
Kitchen Science was filled with the simple concept of turning liquids to solids. We froze water, melted snow, melted and cooled wax, melted crayons, made crayons with molds and with our fingers. We explored fire, making fire, igniting magnesium or using a flint and magnesium to make a fire and then we assembled and used potato cannon.  Potato cannons use the simple technique of an explosion in the chamber.  The potato inside the barrel creates a blockage and the build up of pressure causes a ballistic explosion.  We shot the potato cannon hitting the pirate ship, smashing the potato into tiny irretrievable pieces.
 
Art Smart was in the back ground, the hot glue gun table allowed for many creative constructions to be built. We had four sewing machines and few sewers; the technical aspect of the machine is a wonder for both genders.  I provided the campers with a printer, a toaster and a computer.  Using screw drivers each component was taken apart and each component was examined as it was disassembled.
 
I know that the children I embrace during the day at Summer Days’ Camp get a chance to experience this important aspect in their selves, and during that exploration they experience joy.  Jeanette Winterson, an author and authority on creativity on children says, "The truth is Artist or not, we are all born on the creative continuum, and that is a heritage and a birthright of all our lives."  
 
 
Fondly,

Janna Genereaux