Check out the descriptions for activities we’ll be offering throughout the summer. Please readthrough each with your child and use this information to complete the session pre-registration form, keeping in mind your child’s interests, attention, and abilities.
The nature of some activities is more appropriate for certain developmental ages/stages. Please not any bold info following the activity description.
For sign up, include your top 5 choices for each week.
PLEASE avoid having your kiddo sign up for the same activities every week.
AdventureQuest: Have you ever daydreamed about being a hero? Well, in AdventureQuest, we play a role-playing game where you create a character of your own in a world full of dangerous monsters, magic spells, and amazing treasures. Your character, along with your friends at the table, can become a hero. Which would you choose to play, a tough warrior, a sneaky spy, a brainy wizard, or an animal-loving druid? Come join AdventureQuest, a storytelling game where your char- acter is the hero of an amazing adventure. AdventureQuest takes up TWO periods each day for one week. Offered July 22-25 and July 29-August 1 ONLY. Must be going in GRADE 4 or older to participate.
Quilting: Learn basic stitches and design elements so you can embroider and sew your own quilt square which will be stitched together into a Summer of 2024 quilt! Go home with enough materials to make a square on your own! Ages 7 and up. July 8-11 ONLY.
Bike Maintenance and Repair: You love to ride your bike so why not learn how to take good care of it and to fix things that break? Tire repair is a must as well as basic maintenance like cleaning the chain and adjusting brakes. Learn to correctly adjust seat heights & handlebars for riders of different size. Requires ability to use tools and focus on detail. Must have a bike dropped off at camp for the week.
Yoga and Mindfulness: Stretch your body. Breathe deeply. Learn ways to calm and soothe your mind and body. Build strength and stamina. Have fun with different yoga poses which center you in the moment. Grades K-4. July 8-11 and July 15-18 ONLY.
Obstacle Course: Feeling strong? Feeling fast? Want to get stronger and faster? Build a challenge obstacle course and then compete against other campers and against your own times. Use a slack line for balance. Lift, jump, spin, climb, balance, sprint, hop.
Mini Movies: Work as a group to make up little stories, act them out, and make quick movies. Add costumes, song, dance, acting!
Bearcamp Boogie–Karaoke and Dance: Get your sparkle on as you sing and dance your time away with sparkling coun- selors leading the show. Like to perform? Sing? Dance? You can do it all, either working up an act by yourself, with a friend, or a small group. Costumes provided! Put on a show Thursday afternoon for the rest of camp.
Swim Lessons: These are offered through the Tamworth Rec department and slots go first to Tamworth campers with a waiting list for all other campers. Sign up for multiple weeks is acceptable. There is an additional fee for these lessons that will be invoiced separately: Tamworth $25 for summer/Out of Town $25 per week
Green Thumb Gardeners–Planters, Veggies, and Flower Beds: Have you ever raised a vegetable to eat from a seed? Can you take care of plants by feeding and watering? Help build our new raised beds in their permanent location. Build a compost system. Learn to compost with worms! Take home perennials (plants that come back every year) for your own home!
Fairies and Fairy Houses: Calling all friends of the ‘fey folk’ (fairies, brownies, broonies, sprites, and pixies)! Join us in the field and forest where we will construct welcoming fairy dwellings from the forest’s store of building supplies. Make your own fairy creature to live in your fairy house!
LEGO Building Challenges: Using your math and building brain, work with LEGOs to tackle challenges, solve problems, and get super creative. Opportunities to dive deep into a project on your own or to share your vision with a partner. Get creative! Relax into the fun.
Campfire Cooking: Can you cook a whole meal in tinfoil over a wood fire? Have you ever baked a cake in a cast iron frying pan? Can you safely use a knife to peel and chop? Did you know that vegetables taste better when cooked on a campfire? Learn to build and safely care for wood fires which you’ll use to prepare meals to share and eat.
Crafty Crafts: Welcome to the craft room! This year we’ll have opportunities for individual choice in crafts, as well as other fun projects. Clever use of materials makes glorious crafts to display and keep! Tie dye or decorate a bucket hat! Tiles! Goop! Much more!
Swamp Rats Habitat Exploration: Use your senses to explore the environment around us, from swamps to river banks to boulders, forest floor to fields. Who lives in these habitat? If you take away one of your senses, what do you notice filling the gaps? Can you identify any scents or sounds? Trust your fellow campers on a trust walk! Prepare to get mud between your toes.
Leave No Trace Forts: Use all sorts of materials–from branches and huge old pine trees, saplings and wild flowers, rocks and logs, to fabric and found objects–to make individual nooks for play and exploration. Learn about Leave No Trace camping and hiking principles as you create your space in the woods and then leave everything as you found it when done.
Wood Shop: Design, make, and embellish a sword using wood, leather, fabric, and jewels. Make a shield to protect your- self from other scoundrels with a sword! Create a puppet, a ship, a simple stool. Use your imagination! Learn the basics of woodworking and tool safety.
Snapdragon Theater: will present a Snapdragon play in just a week! Costumes and props and a real stage will give the full flavor of a theatre performance, which will be tailor-made for our group. Music and sound effects will be partly created by our actors themselves. An exciting taste of real drama! This session takes up TWO periods each day for one week. July 15-18 and July 29-August 1 ONLY.
Music Jam for Experienced Musicians: Jude and Heidi will coordinate your efforts to learn a song or two together in time to perform on Thursday for the whole camp! A professional jazz singer will work on vocals with you! This is for campers who already have experience playing an instrument (guitar, uke, drums, keyboard, etc) or singing. No beginner in- struction is included in this activity.
Creative Writing and Stories: Learn the parts of a story and create your own or with the entire group. You can write for yourself or dictate your ideas to a counselor or even draw the story in pictures! What makes a story good? Does every story need a hero or villain? How does setting impact mood? Be serious or silly; it’s all fun!
Junkyard Challenge: Repurpose items to create clever tools or toys to use for challenges. How tall can you make a tower of marshmallows and spaghetti? Can you design and build a container that will protect an egg dropped from a second storey window? Build a catapult or a slingshot and compete for distance and more! Work in teams.
Fishing: Big Louie, 5 pound bass living in the depths of Jackman Pond, is waiting to meet you! Learn the basics of fishing- -hook safety, casting, safe handling of fish for catch and release. Get to know the species living in our local ponds.
Reading Club: Bring your best-loved book or choose one from our library. Read aloud a thrilling passage. Draw illustra- tions from your favorite scenes. Listen to read alouds. Create a reading journal. Curl up inside or out and simply read. Sometimes there’s nothing better, even at camp, than sitting quietly with a book. Help the librarian and the storyteller who come in the summer set up their exhibits.
Dungeons and Dragons: This role-playing game builds excellent communication skills, enhances creativity, boosts collab- oration, supports problem solving, and is super fun! “The core of D&D is about storytelling. The group of players essen- tially tell a collective story, guiding heroes through dangerous quests to search for treasure, battle deadly foes, and even carry out daring rescues. The adventure itself is only limited by the imagination of the players around the table.” Dungeons and Dragons takes up TWO periods each day for one week. Offered July 8-11, July 15-18, August 5-8, August 12-15 ONLY. Must be going in GRADE 4 or older to participate.