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Director's Desk: Camp 2009

 
Dear Campers,
 
Tomorrow, Tuesday 7/14, is PJs day. Please come to camp dressed in your pajama.
 
On Friday, we are going to visit the Corcoran Museum. The program is geared for 3 years old and up. (The group is divided to 2, ages 3-5 and 5 - 10).  We have guided tours for both groups scheduled for 10:50 a.m. at the museum, following by an art project. The Art Project will be a  "Natural Prints of Colors".
If you are a parent of a 3 years old and up, please meet us on Friday at the Grosvenor Metro Station at 9 a.m.  Parents who would like to join us are welcome. We have 5 adult chaperoning the group.
Please make sure to send a hat and a brown bag lunch box with your child.
If you have any concern about the trip, please feel free to email me.
Pizza day this week is on Thursday - no need to send lunch to school on Thursday. Please remember to send lunch in a brown bag on Friday.
 
What a great week we are having...
Ellie
 

Director's Desk 7/10/2009

Dear Parents,
 
This week at camp we enjoyed the theme: Ocean and Creatures of the Sea.
Children worked on art projects representing animals that live in the ocean. We worked with paper, colored construction paper, water colors, shells, glue, strings and other materials to create a fish plate. Using yarn, cardboard, shells and colors we created fish mobiles and fun necklaces. We also worked with crayons to decorate our art work. Working with Efi, we made sea turtles other ocean creatures out of Playdough.
 
Our science project included Black Magic. We tried to figure out what colors are in the color black. We used a coffee filter colored with black and dipped it in water to see what other colors would appear. We discovered some other colors hidden in black. Ask us about it.
 
In Baking, we made fresh cookies and gobbled them all up before the end of the day.
 
Here is the report from Yogi Lisa, our Yoga teacher for YogaKids Session for Tuesday, July 7, 2009:
All of the yogis went on a magical journey today to the country of India, the 'heart center' of yoga.  The yogis first listened to many mythological stories about great Sages.   Then, it was "lights, camera, action" as the yogis re-enacted each of the great tales.  They learned new yoga poses along the way; such as Nakra-asana - a crocodile, Makara-asana - a sea-creature, Matsya-asana - a fish, and Nava-asana - a boat.   We then found special shells shaped like spirals while we dug through the sand.  The shells were perfect for our next pose - Parivritta Parshva-kona-asana, which means twisted side angle pose.  We listened to ocean sounds while we rested in Sava-asana.   Thank you so much for sharing your amazing yogis with me.
Namaste, (I bow to the Light within you)
 
We had great sunny days and enjoyed the pool very much on Wednesday. The pool has little slides that are suitable for young children. We had a great time using the slides and playing in the water on Monday and Wednesday. We do apply sunscreen before we enter the water. The children under 4, enjoyed water play in our little blue pool and a crocodile water slide on our playground. Please make sure to send swim suits and a towel everyday.
 
Lastly, we enjoyed our Friday Shabbat party but the great show of Creatures of the Sea was cancelled for scheduling confusion. We hope to have the show visit us next year.
 
This week we missed Sharmaleen and Adi very much. They will be back next week refreshed and energized.
Our theme for next week is Colors of the Rainbow. Tuesday July 14 is a PJ Day - please send your children with PJs.
 
Have a wonderful weekend,
Ellie Lichtash
 

Director's Desk 7/2/2009

 
Dear Parents,
This week at Camp we celebrated Independence Day. We made lots of activities including various arts & crafts projects of red, white and blue. Our staff helped us to decorate our classroom with a large banner using paints, stickers and other exciting art materials, to depict the colors of the American flag. We read some interesting stories, had a great time at the pool and on the water slide at school.
 
At Yoga class this week was Independence Day for all yogis!  Anyone who  practices yoga is called a "yogi"; no kidding.  We talked about the 4th of July holiday and what it means to be free.  We compared it to when we were all enslaved by Pharoah in Mitzraim.  We had a lot of fun doing different yoga poses as we read HURRAY FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY  by Wendy Watson.  The yogis had the best time marching in our parade with their noise shakers to the tune of THE STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER by the United States Marine Band.  We were so tired from all our activities that some of the kids fell asleep during Savasana - our resting pose.  Our Yoga teacher, Lisa, thanks all our parents for sharing your wonderful children with her and sends - Namaste, be well.
 
On Thursday, children ages 4 and up visited Imagination Stage for the show of LYLE THE CROCODILE and had some serious fun. The show was an interactive play about how being different is not necessarily bad, because we all have our own unique personality. It is a humorous play about Lyle the crocodile who moves into a new neighborhood, where the next door neighbor, Mr. Grumps, is not so welcoming, to put it gently. Grumps and his cat, Lortta, are scarred of anything "different", and they immediately reject the crocodile. In the end, when Mr. Grumps and his cat find themselves in mortal danger, Lyle does not take vengeance of his 'enemies' but instead risks his own life in order to save them. At this point Mr. Grumps recognizes the good beneath Lyle's green hide and all is forgiven.
After the show we had a wonderful time with our counselors eating and playing outdoors at the park.
 
In our science project we tested what floats on the water.  Some of the objects we used were: apples, balls, a boat, a ruller, rocks and so forth. some floated and some didn't. In our Baking project we made brownies and M&M cookies. The children thought they were delicious :)
 
We are so happy for the Maroof Family. Rabbi and Elana Maroof  had a baby boy born on Monday 6/29 a new brother for Nethanel, Zehara and Yedidya. Mazal Tov.
Reminder: Monday  - No Camp.
Next week's theme - Ender Sea Creatures.
Can you send an old T-shirt with your child for an art project, next week. Thank you.
 
Have a wonderful 4th of July,
 
Ellie
 

Director's Desk 6/27/2009

Dear Parents or our Campers,
 
What a great week we had at our first week of camp. This week's thyme was Animals. We did some nice projects relate to animals. We prepared a large sign so that our visitors and parents will know what are we doing this week. We prepared art works from Balloons and paper mache. It is a Big Bird version. We hope to finish it by next week. We also made Animal Visors and baked animal chocolate cookies. In our Drama classes we listened to animal stories and played different animals. Our Counselors helped us to make paper bag animal puppets and and played with Farm Animal Magnets. The Yoga class on Tuesday included relaxation and stretching, just like animals do.
 
On Monday and Wednesday children ages 4 and up went to the pool at Glenmont. The pool has a play area in the water for young children with a slide. We play for an hour and a half, and had lunch at the pool. We had a great time.  Younger children played in our outdoor pool on the playground, and had a great slide at our Croc-Slide.
Our Science project for this week was the question: How do we prevent from a cut apple to become brown? We dipped apple slices in all sorts of ingredients: oil, lemon, salt, sugar, water and air. Please ask us what did we find out.
 
This Friday, we had a visit with a very special animal caregivers. Scales & Tales visit our classes and we got to hear their trainers and see turtles, water turtles, an owl and a snake. We were so excited to see the animals and touch some of them. No one wanted to touch the snake!
 
Our theme next week is USA Independence Day - Get ready to celebrate!
 
Happy camping,

Ellie Lichtash