Week 4

Global Explorers

Our last week of camp has us globetrotting all around the world, meeting friends new and old to have so much fun!

Day 1

In Play, we played a group game from Greece, called ‘Statues.’ Week four of Games class was a lot of fun! We brought back some of our favorite activities from camp this summer! Campers participated in bead sort relays, flip cup tic tac toe, and the cup race down the line. We started our travels around the world in Friendship, with a story about a Korean girl. We learned about the significance of names and taught their friends about themselves and why their name is special with a name jar decorating sheet. Along with the sheet, they listened to the story The Name Jar. Today in Chit Chat, we explored West Africa and learned about tribal masks. We discussed different roles people play in communities like the hunter, healer, leader, rainmaker, elder, and child. We had fun making masks and discussing what roles we would play in our communities. Today in Cooking, both Yak Apprentices and Orange team learned how to make Italian pinwheel sandwich rolls! Everyone did a fantastic job following their recipe and sharing their creations with others. It was a bit tricky to roll all of our delicious goodies into one tortilla, but we were triumphant in the end!Global explorers from Yellow, Blue, and Red teams took flight with their very own paper airplanes in Discovery class! A variety of styles and colors were offered, along with tools needed to customize, making sure every camper's plane was unique to them. (camp is FLYING by!) We welcomed our new campers in Projects today by reading the book The Suitcase. After reading, we made and decorated our own suitcases with various supplies. We talked about different things we put in suitcases and where we would like to travel with our packed bags. In Yak Academy, we once again made murals. While this activity will seem familiar to many, campers were given a 2D globe floating in space. They were asked to surround it with the things they thought made the world wonderful, things like mountains, cats, houses, or themselves. These murals serve as a great reflection of the many things to love in this world. Today in Mindfulness, we kicked off Global Explorers Week by making passports! The Purple, Green, and Orange teams created their passport. The teams then use these passports when they visit different classes and receive stamps from various instructors. Instructors from Games, Yak Academy, and Chit Chat all got to stamp campers' passports! Today in Explorers Red, we started off with a big welcome to new campers and returning campers. With the theme of global travel, we asked the group, “What do you want to be?” Including job, family, locations, and goals. How does your role contribute to the global community? In Explorers Blue, we made puffy paint planets and read We’re All Wonders. We made passports with Ms. Liv in Mindfulness and played Games with our friends in Explorers Red. In Buddies, we read about a penguin who loses his way on a floating iceberg and sees many sights around the world in this morning’s book, Bye, Penguin! We listened to songs about people and traditions around the globe and made our own fancy fans for our art project.

Day 2

In Play, we played a group game called ‘Four Continents’, similar to the game ‘Four Corners.’ Campers take turns assuming the role of ‘leader’. In Games, the Green and Purple teams, plus Explorers Blue, had fun making friends and playing board games. The Orange team started this week off with tic tac toe relays, flip cup tic tac toe, and the cup race. In Friendship, Red, Yellow, and Blue teams continued to explore Asia by learning how to be a light to our friends when they need us with a paper lantern craft. We read the book Playing With Lanterns to go along with the craft. Today in Chit Chat, we traveled to Chile and learned about their various musical instruments. We discussed how different sounds can alter our moods, specifically white noise and its benefits. Towards the end of class, we got to make rainsticks! Today in Cooking, Explorers Red made Italian-inspired pinwheel sandwiches! We talked about all the different things that we can do with tortillas and other wraps, and how they are used all around the world! In Discovery, campers made their own passports! These passports were stamped throughout the day in the camper’s other classes. The campers tested their building skills in Projects today. We read the book Everybody in the Red Brick Building and talked about what it means to live together in the same world. Campers were then given popsicle sticks, cups, paper, and tape to build their buildings that they could decorate! Today in Yak Academy, campers got the opportunity to try their hand at being architects. They were given a variety of materials like cups, popsicle sticks, and tape to try and make the tallest structure possible. The only constraint was that they had to work as a team, and their structure had to be able to support a mini-person. At the end of class, all of the towers got measured so they could see how tall they were. Campers from Purple, Green, and Silver teams got to design their own paper airplanes in Mindfulness! They got to test out their designs to see how far they could go. If the plane didn’t fly correctly, they could try again or try a different design. We practiced problem-solving and never giving up! In Explorers Red with a riveting discussion using the questions: “Why does connection matter?” and What does community mean?” We discussed the thought experiment, “The butterfly effect.” How does a small change impact others? Today in Explorers Blue, we have fun at Music Therapy! We built houses from around the world with Magna-Tiles and read The Adventures of Beekle. We made paper airplanes with Ms. Liv and played Games in the gym with Ms. Katy. Today in Buddies, we went on a global adventure to other countries when we read Everything and Everywhere and learned how to say “hello” in different languages. We made parachutes for our art project and saw some great friendships taking shape!

Day 3

In Play, we played a group game called ‘Corre, Corre la Guaraca’, from the country of Chile! This game involves a handkerchief and is similar to ‘Duck, Duck, Goose.’ The focus of Wednesday’s Games Class was an obstacle course. Campers had some time to practice the different obstacles on the course before they were put to the test to work as a team to beat the clock. In Friendship, we learned that just like countries have flags that represent them, we have unique things about ourselves that show who we are to our friends. Campers got to express themselves by making their friendship flags of kindness and listening to the story That’s My Friend. Today in Chit Chat, we made Peruvian-inspired shakers. We had so much fun painting them and making them our own. Towards the end of class, we went around and created rhythmic sounds with our hands, and in between pauses, we took turns answering “what was our favorite part about camp so far”, “what is something you like about your neighbor”. Today in Cooking, Yak Apprentices learned how to make fresh fruit galettes! We used rolling pins and stencils to prepare our crusts and then mixed sugar and cornstarch with fresh plums (that our friend brought from his yard!) to create elegant mini galettes which we topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Today in Discovery, campers conducted a lava lamp experiment! By filling bottles with oil, water, and food coloring and then adding an Alka-Seltzer tablet. Yellow, Blue, and Red campers got to watch the magic reaction! Today, our explorers in Projects visited China by reading Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon. We then worked to make flying dragons like Amy Wu. The two-day activity in Yak Academy for this week was balloon cars! These are cars that the kids make, with a base of popsicle sticks, straws, and bottle cap wheels. They move just like the name says, with a balloon! Today we just worked on the structure and made them all ready for tomorrow. In Mindfulness, we are doing a two-day activity! Tomorrow we will be doing volcanoes! Purple and Green teams designed what our volcanoes will look like. The Orange team got to do volcanoes today too! The process of the longer, two-day project provides a good example for campers that some things can take time, and there can be moments along the journey that are just as special as the end result. Today in Explorers Red, we discussed the wonderful world of pragmatic language and talked about examples across the globe. We discussed how our body language, tone of voice, attention, eye contact, and facial expressions can all communicate for us. Why is it important to know about a person and adjust your pragmatics? Today in Explorers Blue, we read If You Come To Earth. We had fun in music therapy, built volcanoes with Ms. Liv, and played games with our friends in Explorers Red! In Buddies, our worldly read for today was The Mountains of Mumbai. We made airplanes to take us on our adventures during craft project time and continued to learn about different cultures and languages through music!

Day 4

In Play, we played a group game called ‘Pilolo’ which originated in the country of Ghana. In Games class, the Green and Purple teams played board games together. Our focus was on being good winners and losers. The attitudes and energy in the gym were great, and everyone had someone to play with! Today in Friendship, we read the timeless children’s story Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Since we are traveling around the world, we made paper plate and construction paper hot air balloons. Today in Chit Chat, we made Ecuadorian-inspired pan flutes out of straws. We discussed different ways we can make sounds and how air travels through them. We had a lot of fun sharing ideas and working together to think of different ways we can make our pan flutes unique (painting, feathers, beads, etc.). Today in Cooking, Red Explorers got their turn to make fresh plum galettes! We used rolling pins and stencils to prepare our crusts, and followed a recipe to prepare our fillings and assemble our French pastry! It was a fun and fancy final baking project to round out the last cooking class of camp! We started our Projects today by reading Are Your Stars Like My Stars? And talking about how we all live on the same planet. Campers then had the opportunity to paint their very own world and star scene. With our balloon cars all built, it was finally time to race them in Yak Academy! We left our classroom and headed to the gym in order to have more room to let them fly. The cars were a bit tricky to get going, but eventually they were able to work. The campers were all able to take these home with them so they can show you as well. It's day 2 of volcanoes in Mindfulness! Today, Explorers Blue, along with the Purple and Green teams, used their planning from the previous day to bring their designs to life! Because Silver team comes every other day, we still created volcanoes, just with less decoration. We made our volcanoes erupt with baking soda and vinegar. Thursday is all about problem-solving in a community in Explorers Red. What is group dynamics? How do we use compromise and cooperation in a group setting? How can we problem-solve a communication breakdown in a group? What do we do if our pragmatic language causes a misunderstanding in our communication? Today in Explorers Blue, we painted with ice cubes and read Lost and Found. We had a great time in our last music therapy class! We exploded the volcanoes we built with Ms. Liv yesterday and played games in the gym with Ms. Katy! Our day in Buddies started off with a book called My Bed, exploring different types of beds that people sleep in around the world. For our craft, we made binoculars to see all of the cool sights on our travels.

Day 5

In Play, we played a group game called ‘Skippyroo Kangaroo’, which originated in the country of Australia. After a fun-filled week of large group activities and board games, campers have earned Open gym time in Games! Campers were given the choices of basketball, hula hoops, board games, or flip cup tic-tac-toe. To end our time in Friendship, we used all that the campers learned about our new friendships to play around-the-world bingo, finding others who have done a certain travel-themed activity. Campers also listened to the book Whoever You Are. Today in Chit Chat, we had a “campfire”! We sat around the campfire and used our musical instruments to create sounds. We used these sounds as the background to the stories we created. We rolled story dice and got to create elaborate stories. Some of our campers time-traveled to prehistoric times! Today in Cooking, Yak Apprentices made yummy snacks to share with our parents and caregivers at our end-of-camp party! We followed a recipe to make hummus from scratch and prepared crudites (raw vegetables) to accompany it. We also made fresh guacamole to serve with tortilla chips! Building on global exploration in Discovery, campers made maps that were special to them. Yellow, Blue, and Red campers made up their islands, continents, or cities. Alternatively, campers could create maps of places that are meaningful to them, like their homes! We wrapped up our worldly explorations in Projects today with the book Woven of the World. After reading, we designed and made our weavings inspired by the book. With camp coming to an end, we wrapped up by making slime in Yak Academy. The inspiration behind it was the wonders of the world. Campers were encouraged to create slime around beautiful things in the world, such as cherry blossom trees, the stars, or the ocean. To end the week off with a bang, campers had access to a whole library of add-ins, glitter, and colors to make their slime as unique as they are. To wrap up the end of camp, we had game stations! Due to our therapy dog friend visitors, Mindfulness was only visited by the Green and Orange teams. There were a variety of activities from previous mindfulness classes, such as cup stacking, paper airplanes, crafts, and more. We also played games, including 20 questions and a Wreck-It Ralph-inspired game. We are tying all of our learning together in Explorers Red. Discussing our highs and lows from this week. We discussed what it feels like in the community at Camp Yakety Yak. We also talked about our goals for next year. We then talked about why we say “See You Later,” and not “Good Bye,” at Camp. Today in Explorers Blue, we made paper bag suitcases and read Scaredy Squirrel. We met some therapy dogs and played games in the gym. We played with water balloons too! Today, our Buddies listened to A Race Around the World. For our craft, we made pizzas with all of our favorite toppings! We had such a fun last day of camp with stories, songs, play, art, friends, and fun!