If Week Four Showers bring Week Five Flowers...

...what will those flowers bring?

It wouldn't be spring without a little rain, and today we are happy to see it. It's easy to wish it away when camp is in session, but it gives us an opportunity to remember how important it is to the health of our gardens and our planet!

We have had a busy start to our penultimate week. Yesterday, inspired by Friday's puppet show at the Puppet Showcase Theater in Brookline, our Lower Campers made puppets. In the next few days, they will work with the Group Leaders to write and perform skits about spring using their puppets as props. They also had yet another opportunity to enjoy the sunshine at Houghton's Pond. This summer has been fantastic in terms of our utilization of state parks for recreation. The children love having the opportunity to go swimming, and it's been wonderful to watch them become increasingly comfortable in the water as they develop essential water safety and swimming skills.

Today they have stayed at camp working through programming inspired by spring. In Cooking, they made crudite and homemade ranch dressing to celebrate the planting and harvesting of nutritious and delicious vegetables. In Studio Art, they made butterfly collages, and in Movement, the campers had fun playing a variety of team-building activities as a metaphor for the many symbiotic relationships found in nature. This afternoon, they had Choice Time in which they could choose a variety of activities to get busy with, including Open Studios in the Art Barn, Legos and Board Games, and even a movie (Pixar's Ratatouille). We will use the movie to inspire our own CADC Ratatouille in Cooking next week.

Upper Camp spent the morning yesterday working through their third design challenge, which was to build a zip line that would transport a ping pong ball from top to bottom in four seconds. The zip line was four feet long, so the activity was a bit more challenging than campers originally anticipated. Nevertheless, many of our teams were successful and able to move on with extension activities, including slowing down the speed of the ping pong to a travel time of ten seconds and creating a zip line that could transport multiple ping pong balls simultaneously using the same amount of materials. 

In the afternoon, they headed back to Dealtry Pool for some sun and splashing. This has become a favorite activity that resounds with laughter and squeals of delight.

Today, thanks to the generosity of Associated Grant Makers, the campers had an opportunity to visit the Record Company in Boston. As stated on their website, the organization is "committed jointly to the innovation and revitalization of youth music education and the advancement of independent record-making." Our camper groups selected songs that they were able to mix and record during a real-world studio experience in TRC's commercial recording facility.

IMPORTANT: We still have a few spots left for our CADC Extension Week! During the week of August 5th through 9th, a limited number of campers have the opportunity to continue their adventures with us at Nature Linc. The schedule remains the same; our program will run from 9am to 4pm every day, with transportation from and to Cambridge provided. If you are interested, please contact Kristina at the Cambridge Camping office as soon as possible. (617-864-0960)