This morning opened with a great big community meeting! Everyone aced their first quiz by remembering the YMCA’s four core values: Respect, Responsibility, Honesty and Caring. Campers performed a camp song that they learned yesterday and several campers were given the privilege to help lead it. Everyone had a blast!
Discovery Camp’s summer theme is a Road Trip Across America. This week the campers will be adventuring through the New England Region: visiting ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT all in one week! Today the campers visited Massachusetts and Maine where they learned about old traditions and events from the Boston Tea Party to the first Thanksgiving.
Mr. Paul starting off camp in the morning
Did you know the first Thanksgiving celebration was in Massachusetts? For today's all camp activity, counselors dressed up as turkeys and played games with the campers. The counselors celebrated Maine’s official dessert, digging their faces into blueberry pie to try and pick out the individual blueberries. Did you know that blueberries in Maine look and taste different than the ones grown in New Jersey?
Our campers painting Hannah, one of our counselors!
For the Discovery Camp Week One kicked off to a great start as the campers improved on their fundamentals in soccer! The sports and games rotation started with World Cup Soccer. The campers burst onto the the field, each representing a different country. At the field activity rotation, the campers worked in teams to get through an obstacle course, jumping through hoops, throwing frisbees and hitting baseballs. They learned the importance of teamwork and perseverance to push their team to victory. Discovery campers continued the theme of interactive learning by making their very own tea bags in memory of the Boston Tea Party at the arts and crafts rotation. These works of art will surely be coming home soon! Campers are looking forward to a big day at the ballpark tomorrow, as they will be traveling to Trenton, NJ to see the Trenton Thunders, a Yankees triple A minor league baseball team.
Pioneers Camp (4-5 yrs) practicing their soccer skills
MVP Camp kicked off their first Tuesday with basketball and spent their morning practicing the fundamentals! They began the practice session with a simple dribbling drill. The MVP campers all dribbled their basketballs in place for 1 minute. The next exercise improved the camper’s handling of the ball. They were required to run 2 laps around the gym while dribbling. The campers also practiced passing and defense drills. This was all a good source of exercise, skill improvement and teamwork while being fun at the same time! During their break and the afternoon session they were able to put their new skills to work on the court outside, showing off their fancy new tricks and improved fundamentals. They could really see their hard work paying off.
Dance Party at the Princeton YMCA!
Later in the day, the campers had their afternoon swim. The kids could not wait to “cannonball” into the water! However, before the fun, our certified swimming instructors had to give them an important swimming lesson. The older campers practiced proper techniques for backstroke, while the younger campers practiced fundamental skills for swimming like proper breathing technique by blowing bubbles.
The campers have already had quite an exciting week and have much to look forward to in the coming days. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to get all the updates about what’s happening at the YMCA camps this summer!
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