Children’s Museum summer camps offer science, art, adventures

 

Imagination Station Summer Camp kicks off at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge Monday, June 8, inviting children to a wizard school, Jedi training, CSI adventures, painting and photography classes, cooking, and garden fun. Campers will have opportunities to learn about trains with model railroaders, to create with clay, to build with Minecraft Legos, and to explore cultures around the world.

The summer camps, through July 31, offer activities for children ages 3-5 in preschool classes and for children entering grades 1 through 7. Clay camps with professional clay artist Sherrie Carris will be offered throughout the summer for children ranging in age from 4-13.

Camps for the week of June 8-12 are:

• Pirates & Fairies, ages 3-5, 9 a.m.–noon. Preschoolers will join Peter Pan and Tinkerbell for a swashbuckling good time.
• Kids in Action! The Great Green Adventure, for rising 3rd-4th grades (note special age group), 9 a.m.-noon.  Kids will plant vegetables in an outdoor garden and prepare nutritious snacks to fuel their engines.
• Artrageously Fun, rising 1st-3rd grades, 9 a.m.-noon. Clay, drawing, printmaking, environmental art and photography will all be explored before the Friday art show.
• Secret City Spies, rising 1st-3rd grades, 1-4 p.m. Aspiring gumshoes will love discovering the science behind mystery at the museum.
• Kids’ Favorites, rising 1st-3rd grades, 1-4 p.m. Kids will learn to cook favorites from scratch.
• Studio Stars, rising 4th-7th grades, 1-4 p.m. Get ready for the call of “Lights, Camera, and ACTION”! Shoot a video project and have a screening on Friday.
• Clay for Kids, ages 7-9, 9 a.m.-noon. Kids will sculpt animals, objects, and creatures of their own invention, roll out and decorate tiles and trivets and slab-formed bowls and vases. ($10 material fee included)

Camps for the week of June 15-19 are:

• All Aboard! Ages 3-5, 9 a.m.-noon. Kids will have train fun as they wear a handmade conductor’s hat and build a train with found objects.
• Locomotion, rising 1st-3rd grades, 9 a.m.-noon. Kids will construct a different track daily for Thomas to run on, build a wooden train, see how hobos lived, make an engineer hat, and learn Morse code.
• Animal Adventure rising 1st–3rd grades, 1-4 p.m. Kids will search the museum for animals of all kinds, then return to the classroom to create fish, birds, and animals in a range of media and styles.
• Minecraft, rising 1st-3rd grades, 1-4 p.m. Create Minecraft swords, lanterns, maps, and masks. ($10 materials fee)
• Riding the Rails, rising 4th-7th grades, 9 a.m.-noon. Campers get hands-on experience in building and setting up model train layouts using T-track concepts.
• CSI Bodies: the Living World, rising 4th-7th, 1-4 p.m. Explore the forensic side of the human body, extract DNA, dissect a pig heart, and inflate the lungs.
• Earthen Critters, ages 6-9, 9 a.m.-noon. Create insects and animals found in your backyard and garden: frogs, squirrels, mosquitoes, spiders, bunnies, and birds.
• Cultural Clay, ages 8-12, 1-4 p.m. Make pottery and sculpture inspired by different cultures, using different hand-building techniques.

Camps for the week of June 22-26 are:

• Frozen, ages 3-5, 9 a.m.-noon. Explore the Snow Queen’s realm as you sneak through snow to find Olaf and Sven, play games, and make a popcorn snowball.
• Frozen, rising 1st-3rd grades, 9 a.m.-noon. Science and art will melt away the summer heat as campers experiment with liquid science and make frozen snacks.
• Wizard School, rising 1st-3rd grades, 1-4 p.m. Board the Hogwarts Express for a week of wizardry. Construct a wand and whip up a batch of exploding frogs.
• Dr. Who, rising 4th-7th grades, 9 a.m.-noon. Time travel in the Doctor’s TARDIS, intervening to prevent injustices.
• Donut Showdown, rising 4th-7th grades, 9 a.m.-noon. Check out doughnut recipes and make cake-style and raised-style donuts.
• Harry Potter, rising 4th-7th grades, 1-4 p.m. Enter the Hogwarts School of Wizardry. Decorate an ultraviolet wand to read a constructed Marauder’s Map.
• Drawing on Clay, ages 9-12, 9 a.m.-noon. Draw on a curved interior of a bowl, do split drawing on a tile, and use the sgraffito technique.
• Decorate for the Holidays! Ages 7-10, 1-4 p.m.  Pick a holiday—Valentine’s Day, Easter, July 4, Halloween, and Christmas—and make a decoration.

The week-long camps are offered Monday through Friday each week. Fees for a single camp are $125 for members and $135 for non-members. For combo camps, morning and afternoon, fees are $210 for members and $220 for non-members, with a higher fee for  Riding the Rails camp. Payment may be made by phone with Visa, MasterCard or Discover, by check, or online through PayPal.

The camps are funded under an agreement with the State of Tennessee and the Tennessee Arts Commission. For more information, see the website, www.childrensmuseumofoakridge.org, or call the museum at (865) 482-1074.