What a fantastic week we had at Elmwood! As we are halfway through the summer, we have realized how quickly camp flies by. All of the friendships, accomplishments and achievements we have seen within the past four weeks is magical. The next four weeks ahead will only continue to produce more amazing memories with our camp friends.
Project Morry Walk-a-Thon
On Monday, we were walking on sunshine as each camper participated in a Walk-a-Thon to help raise money for Project Morry. Project Morry is a year-round youth development organization that believes all children, regardless of economic status, should experience the life-changing gift of summer camp. Each group was given a pedometer to track how many steps were taken over the course of the day. Our total number of steps was 241,536 steps! If you are interested in making a contribution, please click here
Camp Kindness Day
The rain on Tuesday morning couldn’t stop Elmwood from celebrating Camp Kindness Day! Although Elmwood believes that kindness should be practiced every year, we participated in Camp Kindness Day which was being celebrating at camps throughout the country. As one of the rainy-day activities in the morning, campers discussed kind actions that can be practiced during the summer and throughout the year. They then each drew/wrote acts of kindness on strips of paper that were pieced together to make a very long Elmwood Kindness Chain. It was very impressive to see how long Elmwood could spread their kindness. At the end of the kindness activity, campers took a Pledge to Kindness where they promised to be kind all year long. Campers were encouraged to keep this pledge somewhere at home where they can see it and be reminded of it every single day… even when camp is over!
Whodunit Day
Whodunit Day was on Thursday, and every camper learned to be a detective to help figure out the camp-wide mystery! At our all-camp meeting on Thursday morning, Hillari and Gregg hosted a dinner party where they invited all of their old friends to gather together as they presented a new sign dedicated to a staff member. When they went to reveal the new sign, it was discovered that the sign went missing! A note was left in place of the sign from the thief. It turned out that the thief was a dinner party guest! Hillari and Gregg tried calling all of their detective friends to help figure out who it was, but this task was way too big to do alone.
The detectives needed help from the campers. Throughout the day, campers attended detective training courses such as: The Art of Questioning, Forensics, Police Training Courses, and Finger Printing Painting. Once they learned their skills, they partook in a scavenger hunt to try and find the missing signs. They each received a clue which was put together at our end of the day meeting, and the thief was revealed! Thank goodness for all our campers, or we may have never gotten the sign back and would have never figured out the mystery!
Stepping Stones News:
Stepping Stones had quite the week! In performing arts, they played a game with balls where they practiced saying please and thank you as they threw the ball to one another. They learned to make eye contact with whoever they threw the ball to and then learned to say thank you once they received a ball from someone else. They also played “if you’re happy and you know it” where each camper could choose their own emotion to sing about.
At arts and crafts, the bug boxes that our stepping stones campers created last week will no longer be empty after this week! Campers created bug critters to put in their bug boxes. They were able to choose between creating either a caterpillar, a lady bug, a butterfly or a bumble bee. They made these bugs out of pom poms, pipe cleaners, googly eyes and clothes pins. They then added a magnet to the critters so that they can be hung up at home!
For Thursday’s special event all of the stepping stones helped solve a ballpark mystery: all of the t-ball equipment went missing! In order to find out who took the missing equipment, the campers participated in an obstacle course where they each received a puzzle piece for completing it. When they brought the pieces back together to solve the mystery, they found that the equipment was taken by characters from PJ Mask and Cars!
During the rest of the week all groups continued working on their t-ball and soccer skills. As a camper favorite, they learned some new parachute games with Jess! On Friday, the campers participated in a treasure hunt inside of ballpark where they kicked their treasure (soccer balls) into the pirate ships (soccer goals).
On Tuesday, the four-year-olds went under the sea for their very own special event day! They danced to groovy under-the-sea themed music, completed an obstacle course that included leaping to and from lily pads and crawling through seaweed, and created beautiful oceans in a bottle during arts and crafts. The highlight of their day came when they learned friendly pirates had visited Elmwood the night before, leaving behind special treasures for each camper to take home.
Lower Village News:
In performing arts, lower village campers played “I Have a Blue Ball”. In this game, all campers stood up and had to actively call on someone in their group and throw the ball to that person. Once they all had a turn throwing the ball, they made the ball imaginary which made things super fun and challenging! They also played a game called lemonade where campers were each involved in performing a short skit. Each camper was able to cycle through the three different characters. The catch is that each scene had a different theme, such as performing as a dog, without saying a word, with an accent, or even dribbling a basketball. All of the campers had so much fun learning how to improvise and use their friends and work together to make a successful performance.
Lower Village campers had some instrument exploration this week in music! By playing the game “Conductor”, campers were about to learn about different rhythmic instruments. Each camper was given an instrument and one camper at a time was given the opportunity to be the conductor. The conductor was able to tell the band when to play and when to stop playing. The challenge of this game is for the band to watch the conductor because the conductor can choose to stop or play the music at any time. The campers’ favorite instrument was the accordion!
Lower village loved all of our athletic activities this week. They particularly loved Elmwood’s newest activity archery. Tyler has been teaching all of our campers proper form and how to aim. Several of our campers even got very close to the bullseye. At adventure, Matt and his team opened up the aerial drop. Even though it is very scary, many of our campers took the plunge.
Lower village clubs this week included: Make a Mess Art, Tic-Tac-Toe Boards in woodworking, Glow in the Dark Science, Breakfast, Rise and Stir, Pirate Adventure, Paper Party: Airplanes, Puzzles and Origami, Soccer Superstars, Pokemon Club, Animal Safari Yoga/Gymnastics, Super-Secret Spy Training, Homerun Derby and Archery.
Upper Village News:
Upper Village campers continued to work on their improv in performing arts this week. Of course, they began each activity with fun warm up games, but they really enjoyed learning how to work together with their group to figure out how to understand each other without discussing it first. Their favorite game that they played was called “I am a Tree”, where one camper goes out on stage and says, “I am a tree” taking a position as a tree. A second camper then goes out and adds to the picture they are painting. A third person goes out and finishes it.
In music, upper village campers learned the percussion to various popular songs. Their favorite was learning how to play the percussion for Old Town Road. They also played “Sing or Dare”, where campers were able to pick between singing Elmwood songs or silly dares.
Our third and fourth grade campers created Batik shirts in SOHO this week! They painted wax on white t-shirts in all different designs and dyed them with many colors. Once the wax comes off, it leaves a white design in place of where the wax was! During Discovery, campers built cars out of popsicle sticks and wheels out of soda cap bottles and straws. The league campers had track and field tournaments all week-long lead by Seth and Steven. Campers said it was the most epic week of league yet! Our performance campers are putting the finishing touches on the show for next week. They could not be more excited.
Our fourth-grade campers spent the week participating in “Pick Your Program”. Campers were able to choose between five different activities. At fencing, they learned and practiced basic skills against each other. During 2D Art, they created pictures of landscape images and did screen printing projects. Lacrosse campers learned skills and competed against one another in friendly competitions. Lilli led our dance program where campers learned a routine to Black Eyed Peas’ “Let’s Get It Started”. The final choice was Guitar, where the campers learned different chords and about song writing. They ended with a performance to Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds”.
Upper Village Clubs this week included: Set Design Club, Backpack Keychain Buddies, Rockin’ Rockets, Super-Secret Spy Training, Sports Showcase, Tennis Academy, Archery: Terrific Targets and Bracelets and Barrettes Bonanza.
Seniors:
The Seniors finished their Majors that they began last week! Campers continued all week long to improve and make progress in each of their activities. Our seniors cannot wait to start their new majors next week.