Day 9

It was a ROCK STAR PAR-TAY at Bubbles Camp today!

The concert started in circle time when we pretended our scarves were different instruments! We sang all sorts of songs in our rock star voices and then learned how to put our pinky and pointer fingers up to say, "rock on!"

Miss Tamara did a rock star encore while leading our imagination activity! All of the Bubbles Campers created their own band name, banner and signature song and dance. Graham put it best when, while coloring in his band's banner, he said, "This is going to be a great success." And he was right!

Meanwhile, Miss Steph was outside with other Bubbles Campers leaping, crab walking, side stepping and running backwards. On the roof, Bubbles Campers played Wonder Ball, Duck Duck Goose, Chase, and a self-started game of What Time Is It Mr. Fox? Everyone was really supportive of their friends today, especially during Duck Duck Goose when campers were chanting the name of whoever was running around the circle. It's worth noting that the campers did an excellent job playing a new game called Captain's Coming where they had to do all sorts of motions before the captain (Miss Steph) caught them being too slow. It was a pretty complicated game, but everyone picked it up very quickly and did an EXCELLENT JOB playing!

Then we read a story and ate snack. At snack we talked about our favorite songs, our favorite animals and discussed whether or not Oobleck has to be green or if it could be a different color -- and if it is a different color, what does it do and what does it mean?
...We got pretty philosophical, just like real rock stars tend to do.

After snack, Bubbles Campers dressed up and performed in rock concerts for each other. Sweet dance moves were displayed by all.

**Can't seem to get the video up, will try again tomorrow!**

Once our shows were finished, we all went backstage to make guitars and shakers during art time -- so that Bubbles Campers could practice their mad music skills at home. In fact, Alex and Ben both started practicing their air guitars at Bubbles Camp. Ben practiced so hard, his guitar ripped! Talk about cutting teeth!

Then, it was time for music which ended in a HUGE BREAK DANCE CIRCLE! Even Mr. Mark got down with us and taught us some new moves!

Finally it was time to go, so we said goodbye during our closing circle!

Rock on 'til tomorrow!
Steph

Day 8: Pirates Are Great!

Ahoy there, me hearties! Avast ye and gather round as I tell you the tale of our Bubbles Academy Camp day!

Our Bubbles Buccaneers weighed anchor and hoisted the mizzen by singing and dancing during opening circle time! Then each lad and lass talked about what they would keep in their buried treasure chest! Gracie said she would hide cherry ice cream in there, Matthew said he'd hide balloons and Noah said he'd hide car keys in his treasure chest!

Yarrrr!

Next we all sang songs about being fish in the sea and pirates on a boat during music!

After music, we split up into two ships and set sail. Some of us went to art to make treasure holders (AKA piggy banks)...

While others went to drama to pretend to be pirates!

After that, we took turns going outside and eating our snacks! We had SO much fun playing games like Freeze Tag, Duck Duck Goose and The Wonder Ball! Some Bubbles Buckos even started their own game of What Time Is It Mr. Fox? Then each ship of campers switched places and took turns participating in drama and art!

By the end of the camp day, Joey had learned to hoola hoop, Bianca had played a game of catch without dropping the ball once and Nicholas and Graham ran faster than Old Salt Steph and Old Salt Tamara in a game of Sharks and Minnows.

At the end of camp, Old Salt Steph had the campers singing and dancing again in closing circle time.  Campers shared their favorite parts of the camp day which included, making piggy banks, playing wonder ball and running on the track!

Yo ho ho and a bottle of fun times,
Steph

Day 7: Dinosaur Heaven!

...And we're back and better than ever! The first day in Catherine Cook's gym was a total success! Drop-off open play was REALLY fun today because of all the new cool toys we had to play with:  hoppers, hoola hoops, and balls.

Everyone did an impressive job singing and dancing during morning circle time -- seems like everyone has learned the motions and lyrics to all of our songs!

Also at morning circle, we talked about our favorite dinosaurs which included Thunder Dinosaur, Horse Dinosaur, Small Dinosaur, and Diplodocus. Then, we heard the story of a plant that was around when the dinosaurs roamed the earth! Before the ice age, this plant grew to be even taller than a T-Rex! Since it was forced to mutate during the ice age, the Dino Plant is small and light. It dries up and blows around in the wind until it lands in a puddle and starts to bloom and grow again. Over the course of the day, the Dino Plant opened its leaves!

When we were done watering our Dino Plant, we climbed ALL of the stairs up to the roof and played games outside! We pretended to be Brachiosaurouses...

 Pteradactyls...

T-Rexes and more!

Then we played Dinotail Tag and had some free play on the playground.

Next was art! We decorated some dinosaurs with silly shapes and colors.

When art was over, it was time to do more moving and singing with Miss Tamara during music! She had us dancing like dinosaurs!

During one part we even joined forces with some of our camp-mates to make our bodies into one BIG dinosaur. Zain and Graham made themselves into a Pterodactyl while Miss Steph's group made themselves into a Stegasaurus and Miss Tamara's group became a T-Rex.

The Bubbles Campers were doing such an excellent job with team work, we decided to do some team relay races with dinosaur eggs (balls). We tried rolling a ball all the way down the line through our legs!

Then we tried doing the "Dinosaur Walk" with eggs between our dinosaur legs!

Before our camp day came to an end, we found the time to build some volcanoes out of Model Magic, color them, then MAKE THEM EXPLODE!!!  Everyone was really impressed with the lava that erupted from the volcanoes -- baking soda and vinegar make A LOT of bubbles!

The camp day came to an end with a closing circle time. We talked about our favorite parts of camp, which included making volcanoes erupt, playing Dinotail Tag on the roof and the art project! Then we said our goodbyes and played until we were picked up. DINO-MITE!

See you tomorrow!
Steph

Day 6!

Today's entry will be short -- because we just finished moving Bubbles Academy Camp into our new digs, the Catherine Cook gym! The gym looks GREAT and now we're going to have EVEN MORE space to run and play!

Being in the gym will make everyone's lives easier: Grown ups, now you won't have to walk up all of those stairs to drop your camper off and pick them up! Tomorrow, just put on your flashers, jump out of your car and sign in and out at the gym entrance! 

Here are a few pictures from today -- to tide you over until tomorrow's full post:
 

Camp Day 5

It's FRIDAY! And while most people are happy to see the week come to a close, everyone at Bubbles Camp is sad to have to spend the next two days away from the camp-time fun.

Matthew started everyone's day with a dose of positivity by praising all of his friends for doing a great job building with Popsicle sticks and sugar cubes. For the rest of the day he continued to share with friends, invite campers to play and to help friends out when they needed it. What a great guy! Just one of many very kind and supportive friends at Bubbles Academy Camp. 

When we were done with morning open play, we went to morning circle. There we practiced our "Tudy Tott Tott" rules dance, our "More We Get Together" song, and "Blow The Balloon" scarf play (Zain's self-proclaimed favorite).

After morning circle we all made the trek through the school halls, where we acted like different animals walking and stopping, then over the Bridge of Silence, where our voices stopped working and our feet could only move by tip toeing, up to the rooftop playground to play games.

Once we got to the roof we played games like Crab Ball, a game that required us to walk around like a crab and kick balls around. We played Keep The Ball In The Circle and used team work and some big kicks to keep the ball IN THE CIRCLE!!! We also practiced some gymnastics and chase games!

After Outdoor Games, we went back inside to make some lemonade! We squeezed lemons, added sugar and water and took a small taste of our creation!

The lemonade made us hungry, so we read a story and ate some snack right after we made it! Our story was called Swimmy. It was about a brave fish who helped his fishy friends be brave. All of the campers answered the question, "how do you make a scared friend feel better?" Brooks said that he would sing to them; Joey told us a story about how he held his scared brother's hand to help him feel brave; Lila said she'd give her friend a kitty cat.

Next it was time to get moving again! We acted out the story of Max in Where The Wild Things Are!

After that, we made boats in art -- just like Max's from Where The Wild Things Are!

Then, before we knew it, it was time to go!  So we did a quick goodbye circle and went home for the much-too-long-to-be-away-from-camp weekend.

See you on Monday!
Steph