Camp Highlights: Week 1

Welcome to Camp Revel

After months away, we are thrilled to welcome many of our Rebels back to the studios for a two-week day camp!

Spark Camp Highlights

Wow, what a fantastic week together in the new Spark Studio! The Spark learners love their new space and are excited about our special games room, our new reading tent and our couch that doubles as a super cool fort! All of the learners were so happy to see one another and catch up in person after our long period of remote learning. While the learners all had great ideas about what we should do at camp, we all agreed that over the next two weeks we wanted to have a lot of FUN!

With Mme. Marie, we read Rikki et Rouquin donnent un coup de main by Ruth Ohi and La grenouille trop vorace by Isabelle Pin and Sabina Yoon and we went looking around the new studio for a colour hunt. How fun! We also had a long dance party to some silly songs about a house with paper stairs and one about a little green mouse. The rest of the week was full of all the things that the Sparks love including, board games, building, dressing up in costumes, puppets, musical chairs, painting, Perler beads, and playing outside to name only a few of our favourite activities. We were so happy to celebrate one of our friend’s birthdays together, make some awesome tie-dye shirts, practice for the Rebel Olympics, and pick out some items from the Rebel Buck store!

Using Superheroes as our theme this week, we talked about how we can all be superheroes every day with our power of kindness. We read Be Kind and talked about how even small acts of kindness can change the world! We brainstormed acts of kindness that we can do at school, at home, and out in our communities. We also talked about how we can be kind to ourselves and how important that is. We coloured some beautiful kindness pages and completed thank you notes to show gratitude to a friend or family member. We also filled out a questionnaire all about ourselves as superheroes! Bravo Sparks for asking questions, being curious, and challenging yourself every day! 

Discovery Camp Highlights

You could feel the positivity and energy return to the studios as learners reconnected and explored the revamped studio! We spent our days getting organized, reflecting on the past year and preparing for a summer full of fun and relaxation! Rebels took part in yoga, board games, DEAR, food truck designs, art projects, and naturally there were some great games of mini-stick hockey!

As we were together for the last week of June, we took time to read Who Are You? A Kid’s Guide to Gender Identity. We discussed the importance of staying true to who you are, how you know yourself better than anyone else, and why it’s important to honour and respect the people around you for staying true to themselves, too! We also discussed the NFL’s newest TV advertisement celebrating Pride Month and we are here for it! Rebels discussed the importance of organizations like the NFL speaking out and showing support for the LGBTQ2S+ community. To wrap up, we read 2 more stories about transgender youth (“I Am Jazz” by Jessica Herthel & Jazz Jennings and “My Dad Thinks I’m A Boy” by Sophie Labelle) and Rebels reflected on what it might be like to not feel like yourself in your own skin. On the last day of Pride month, Rebels sat down with Mme Marie to ask her questions about her own experience being part of the LGBTQ2S+ community. We talked about discovering and developing one’s identity, labels, and coming out. Another discussion that was held was regarding the reasons people may have to not want to celebrate Canada Day, especially this year and we each came up with an alternate design for the flag of Canada.

Other highlights from our first week of camp included our Rebel Olympics practice, our epic morning of tie-dye, and our lazy Friday where we watched Luca and played games!

Exploration Camp Highlights

Welcome to our brand new Exploration suite, Rebels!!! The learners enjoyed getting to know the new space and had fun making plans for fall when they return for school! If furniture could talk, our piano would have squealed with joy getting so much attention after months of empty studios.

Week 1 of camp was spent reconnecting, tying up loose ends, taking part in some food truck fun, and playing games such as Poetry for Neanderthals, Spit, President, QBitz, and Minecraft. The updated and much larger Maker Space saw renewed interest as Rebels took time to paint and print creations on the 3D printer this week. They also got creative as they learned the fold and cut method for every straight edge shape!

When we imagine the future, we often think of technology-enhanced human bodies. Is that desirable or ethical? Where should we draw the line? Rebels discussed different arguments for and against transhumanism this week and they thought about many topics including sports, disability, lab-grown babies, cyborgs and the future of mankind! 

Another discussion of interest this week centered on Canada Day. In light of the recent public discovery of the mass graves in the many residential schools across Canada, there were many people calling for Canada Day to look very different this year. Learners shared their thoughts about how they identity as a Canadian and while many felt proud, there were several who also felt conflicting emotions.

Exploration Rebels also took part in the Rebel Olympics practice, tie dyed some beautiful shirts, and enjoyed a lazy Friday where we watched the movie Luca and played games!