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Welcome! Bienvenido!

Hello! Hola! Hallo! Hej! Konichiwa! This week we will travel around the world to see all the amazing cultures and practices from many different countries from near and far. Come fly with us for fun across the pond and beyond!

Day 1

Welcome! Bienvenue! Willkommen! Velkommen! We board our flight filled with lots fun across the globe. Campers in Play class played musical chairs while listening to music from a variety of countries around the world. Games Class today was all about Scooters and Scooter Relays. Campers had a blast scooting across the gym floor forwards, backwards, sideways and on their tummies. Everyone participated in the relays and had fun cheering for each other. On our travels today in Friendship, we learned about where everyone’s names came from by reading a book The Name Jar. After reading, campers got to teach their peers how to pronounce their own name and what is special about it. The craft they did was writing their name inside the jar coloring page and decorating it to show others who they are. Today in Cooking Class we traveled to France where the Orange Team and the Yak Apprentices made French Toast, topped with either strawberries and cream or syrup. Yum! We welcomed our new travelers today in Projects by reading Amy Wu and the Warm Welcome. We then started our own travels by making passports and talking about the places that are special to us. Wrapping up class we had our travelers introduce themselves to others and fill up their passport with new adventures.

Explorers Red kicked off week 3 learning about different countries. We continued our feelings wheel and expert exploration. Today in Explorers Blue we made maracas. We learned about music from different countries around the world. To kick off week 3, our Buddies got to make skull masks and play with playdough! We began our globe trekking in Discovery with a discussion on different cultures and how people live. We then read A Place Called Home, a book about homes from around the world. This book gave us an inside and outside look at homes from eight countries. The world travelers then received their very own “camp passports” where they will be getting a stamp for each activity we accomplish during the week. Today in Mindfulness we visited Paris, France to celebrate with our friends at the Olympics! Campers filled in the Olympic Rings with things we should be mindful of when playing games with friends. We had our opening ceremony as a team. We played “pass the hoop” and then had a dress-up relay race. After we finished our activities, campers packed up and flew to their next activity.

Day 2

Our flight will continue the fun with more crafts and memories to be had! Today in Discovery the world travelers came together for a refresher on homes from around the world and read From My Window. The campers transitioned into designing the home of their choosing; some painted, others used popsicle sticks, some colored. The creativity was flowing. At the end of class everyone gave themselves the three stamps they had earned so far: Nametag making, filling out their passport, and the house project. Today in Cooking Class we traveled to France where the Explorers Red made French Toast, topped with either strawberries and cream or syrup. Yum! Today in Friendship class we learned about the ups and downs of life and how to persevere with a growth mindset by reading Oh The Places You’ll Go. Campers then got to discuss a time they had to preserve and push through something difficult and how they coped through it. They then created paper plate hot air balloons by gluing construction paper squares, yarn, and a paper plate to a colored paper of their choice and decorate it however they wanted. Today in Games class we had some Guest Volunteers come in and teach us all about soccer, aka football. We learned how to do some warm up drills, shooting goal drills and then we ended the class with a scrimmage. Campers had a blast today and can’t wait for them to come back tomorrow!

Today we traveled over to Japan to celebrate and learn about Children’s Day in Projects! We read a book about Isamu Noguchi a famous Japanese American artist called A Boy Names Isamu. We then practiced patience and following directions with our decorations of Japanese Fish Koinobori. In Play class, we played a game called ‘Ring Around the World.’ This is a team-based game in which campers roll a hula hoop out into the middle of the floor with ‘the earth’ placed in the middle and other dots/blocks scattered throughout. Whichever supplies land within the hula hoop, they collect and bring back to their team. The team who either rolls their hula hoop ring around the world or collects the most points wins! Today in Mindfulness we visited China and learned about the ancient art of meditation. We practiced some activities we can do when we might feel overstimulated. Those activities included paper fan-making to literally cool down, Japanese Origami, and some mindful coloring. Our campers also had a paper airplane race around the world before heading to their next activities. In Yak Academy we made lots of different things with air-dry clay, it was so fun to knead the clay! Explorers Red are exploring video games from around the world. We are using the example of video games to learn about teamwork and regulating emotions. Today our Buddies made beautiful leis and played with stamps.

Day 3

We're halfway through our journey, but have a connecting flight that continues the fun! In Play class, we pretended to visit Italy by playing an active spaghetti and meatball team game. Italy was our next destination in Cooking Class! We made a pasta salad delicioso with the Explorers Red. In Projects today we talked about drums all over the world and read Everything a Drum. We then put those creative skills to the test and made our own drums with paper and beads. Today in Mindfulness we traveled down under to Australia and visited the Great Barrier Reef. We talked about the things that make us happy and fill us with sunshine. We then made our own sun-catcher jellyfish. We picked our colors based on the things we talked about in class that made us happy. After an under the sea, bubble dance party, campers swam to their next activity. Today in Explorers Red we continued working on our feelings wheel and expert exploration. We had a great day! In Explorers Blue we went on a scavenger hunt nature walk. We learned about different transportation and housing around the world and made our own with Play-Doh. Our Buddies traveled to Egypt where they got to build pyramids and made salt art.

Today was day two of Soccer activities in Games. My guests enjoyed Monday’s classes so much that they came back for round two today. Campers learned some blocking and passing drills as well as a game titled “Steal the Bacon.” We ended class with a scrimmage. Campers were all smiles as they ran up and down our “field” on the gym floor. Friendship class continued to explore the world and learned about where maracas originated from as well as a cool video about rainsticks. They also learned how both can be sensory tools to calm emotions when feeling different through the book Alpacas with Maracas. The craft was making their own maracas using plastic eggs and/or toilet paper rolls with rice or beads, and decorating them. In Discovery, the world travelers came together to read Where Are You From? and discussed how we all come from our families' hearts. After, we worked on some woven paper art in the shape of hearts. We finished up class by gluing another stamp into our passports.

Day 4

Our flight is starting our descent, but the fun will continue even with the tray tables up! In Play class, we pretended to be Greek statues in a museum by moving around and then freezing in place with different props. Campers tried to stay still and quiet the longest while being viewed by museum visitors. Campers who were museum visitors tried to catch the statues moving. Today in Games Class we put our skills to the test with various board games. Campers enjoyed a change in pace with this calm, and self-paced day. Everyone found a game to play with a friend so that all of our friends could participate! Italy was our next destination in Cooking Class! We made a pasta salad delicioso with the Explorers Red. Today in Mindfulness we traveled to Egypt. We learned about the ancient practice of jarring from many millennia ago. Campers got to make their own emotion jars that create a crazy storm inside when you shake it. After we finished our projects campers went to their next activity. In Yak Academy we got to paint and decorate the clay creations we made yesterday, now they're all pretty and cool!

In Friendship, campers listened to the story The Day You Begin. Then, we watched a video about friendship starring Kid President. Campers then answered the prompt from the video, “the world would be more awesome if…” Their responses were recorded on a large poster. Lastly, they played travel bingo and went around and found other campers who had done a certain travel activity to sign off on. In Discovery class the world travelers came together to read Same, Same but Different, we talked about how we have many similarities to other cultures, but that they might look a little different, especially music. We then listened to traditional music from countries all over the world and took turns playing different instruments. They then glued two more stamps into their passports before traveling to the next class. Today in Explorers Red we used clay to build a game character. We continued our expert exploration. We had cooking today and loved having the food we made for a snack! In Explorers Blue we watched cartoons from around the world and asked if we liked or didn't like them. We also created our own cartoon characters. Today our Buddies traveled to Italy where they cooked paper plate pizzas and painted on paper.

Day 5

Our final flight around the world is landing back home, but we have so many fun memories to bring back! We ended the week in Games class on a strong note with open gym time! Team favorites included scooter races and basketball. Campers were all smiles today from start to finish. Italy was our next destination in Cooking Class! We made a pasta salad delicioso with the Silver Team and the Yak Apprentices. In Projects, we traveled home today and read Peace Train. We talked about our dreams and goals while crafting our cut-out planes. We used cotton balls to make clouds and colored in our planes with markers and other supplies. Today in Explorers Blue we learned about games kids play in different parts of the world. We chose games we thought looked fun and played them ourselves! At the end of week three, our Buddies made dragon headbands and played with shaving cream! In Play, we pretended to visit the country of Switzerland by participating in a ‘Swiss Cheese’ relay (sponge relay). Campers worked as a team to transfer water using a sponge from one bucket to another distant bucket. We also had a chilly day in Antarctica passing balls of ice around the circle with a toy frozen inside. Campers made guesses about how long it would take to melt the ice while passing it to their teammates around the circle. Today in Discovery, our world travelers flew from station to station working on projects from around the world. There were paper lanterns, mosaic tile art, coloring sheets, books from the week, and the opportunity to continue working on their houses from Tuesday. At the end of class, we came together to glue our final two stamps into our passports and filled up our books. The travelers took home all their projects from the week; their globe nametags, houses, woven heart art, and any extra trinkets from today.

Week three came to a close in Friendship class with a friendly discussion about the Olympics, friendly competition, and unity. They watched a video describing that the Olympic rings symbolize unity as well as a video of the USA Paralympic team from 2023 in the opening ceremony. To end the week, they filled out an Olympic ring question sheet followed by getting to make their own country flags either individually or with others. Fun Friday today in Explorers Red! We painted our clay creations and shared them with the class. We played games and enjoyed free time during Games with Katy. In Yak Academy we made slime from scratch, and campers of course got to take this home!

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