Thursday 9 July 2015

OH CANADA - summer camp week 2


Our second week of summer camp fell the week of Canada Day so naturally our theme was "Oh Canada!" We celebrated all things Canadian and learned a few things about our wonderful country. We started off by creating a diorama of our beloved capital city which many of us call home. Everyone decided what part they wanted to create and worked incredibly hard on capturing all the details. 




 Everyone seemed to really enjoy contributing their part to our city, and asked to make another one for one of our upcoming weeks!

Another activity we did that the children LOVED was our firework paintings. You cannot have Canada day without fireworks, and because we couldn't do the real thing we decided to do the next best thing.


I quickly boiled up some spaghetti before going outside, taped up a giant paper on our fence, and put some paint out. "What is this?" "Why is there spaghetti outside?" "This can't be happening." "Is this for real life?!" (Were some of the comments) I told them to give it a shot and without any hesitation we had spaghetti flying everywhere. 



Each week I try to give the group a challenge. To tie in a bit of history and culture I decided to do an inukshuk challenge. 


A few knew what an inukshuk was, and a couple have stumbled across them before, but no one had ever tried to make one. (A lot harder than it looks!) We talked about the inuit structures, why people build them and what they mean. We looked at pictures and wondered how some of the gigantic ones were built?!


The key to a successful inukshuk is getting the bottom even and sturdy. The campers learned they had to secure the base and find particular rocks so their structures wouldn't fall. After problem solving, team work, and some hard work, there were inukshuks scattered across our playground; challenge complete! 

I like to incorporate some type of cooking each week, and what better way than a Canadian specialty; beaver tails! (aka fried dough)
 We also had a game day testing our knowledge on Friday! What better way than to have a game of jeopardy! I printed off cards and made our "game board" and put these campers to the test!


Who designed the Canadian flag? What is Canada's national sport? ( not hockey!) What are the structures called that the inuit people built? What is the name of Canada's national anthem?

Do you know the answers??! 

As an American living in Canada I had a blast doing our "Oh Canada" week. We are all so lucky to live in such a beautiful country, and it's nice to be able to celebrate our home!  


                     - Leslie Dionne 




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