Week 6, Green and On the Scene!

Week 5 ended with the Red Dragon's Victory! The Theme for week 6 is "Green and On the Scene!" The Princeton YMCA Family campers will be learning the principles of being "green."

Specialty Camp started off week 6 with another goofy arts and crafts activity.  The campers were given a challenge to see who could build the tallest tower made of marshmallows and spaghetti!  Everyone is looking forward to the upcoming activities celebrating this week’s theme, Super Science.  Tomorrow, the campers get a fun and educational trip to the Liberty Science Center, while on Wednesday they continue learning new things at the Peyton Observatory.  Here the campers will study the sky and will have the opportunity to learn more about astronomy.  On Thursday, we are receiving special visits from 3 scientists who will each interact with the campers teaching them about their fields of work.  Fran McManus of the Princeton School Gardens Cooperative will present, “Connecting the Senses through Food.”  Dr. Alan Gelperin at the Department of Molecular Biology in Princeton University will show campers the incredible things noses can do in “The Nose Knows.”  Lastly, Ms. Karen McCullough will present, “Microbiology and Horseshoe Crabs” to describe the field of microbiological testing and control. Campers will even get to experiment with real horseshoe crabs! This science filled week will end with a trip to Community Park North where the campers will observe and enjoy the wildlife and nature of the park.


Discovery Camp ended with last week with a color war a trip to go bowling and this week's "Green and on the Scene" is sure to bring about some educational fun. In arts and crafts with Ms. Carissa, campers painted about environment related topics, on a banner made out of recycled material. Throughout the week, their arts and crafts will incorporate recycled bottles, cans, paper shreds, and more. The campers also played Crossover Dodge ball, among other activities. Stay tuned for updates about the tons of environmental arts and crafts and games that discovery Camp has coming this week!

MVP has an awesome week ahead of them as well. After finishing up last week with their field trip on Friday, this week started off with the campers getting creative and decorating lacrosse sticks. After lunch, they then got to use their lacrosse sticks to show off their catching, cradling, and passing skills. They've definitely improved since they last played! Tomorrow, they will get to toss around the pigskin as they learn the classic game of football, followed by basketball on Wednesday (in time for the Olympics!) and soccer on Thursday. On Friday, MVP will join Discovery campers for an awesome camp barbecue!

On Friday, Leadership Academy had a blast playing in the arcade, laser tagging, and bowling at Colonial Lanes. Campers Hao and Du from China had never bowled or played laser tag before, and had a great time. On Monday, campers started off the day with a team-building activity, Water Carry. Later, they spoke with Senior Program Director Kevin Walsh. He discussed with them how leadership plays a part in his role at the YMCA and about what type of leadership opportunities are available at their age. They ended the day with a lesson and activity about the significance of motivation for leaders.

Congratulations to our blog sweepstakes winner, camper Rebecca! She'll receive a gift certificate to a cool local eatery. This week's sweepstakes image is up, so email us at PrincetonYMCAsummercamps@gmail.com with your entries and you could be our winner next week!


Parents, we've posted our 2012 Midsummer Camp Survey on the right side of this page, in the Links section. Please take a minute to evaluate us so that we can make camp better for your children for the rest of the summer and for future years. The survey closes this Friday, August 3rd at 11:59 PM, so please respond by then. Thanks in advance!