Monday – Fizzy Fun
We kicked off the week with all things baking soda and vinegar! Our campers started off working on some fine motor skills while having a “fizzy tea party.” Campers scooped, pinched, and squeezed to add food coloring, baking soda, and vinegar to mini teacups to make lots of different flavors of bubbly “tea.” They then headed to the gym to tackle an obstacle course, adding a test tube full of colored vinegar to a bottle with each turn through. After a lot of hard work to fill the bottle with vinegar, the kids got to watch as a balloon full of baking soda was secured to the top of the bottle. As the baking soda fell down into the bottle, the balloon inflated!
Tuesday – Ocean
We had so many fun ocean activities that we needed to take another deep dive for a second day under the sea. Our campers (and staff!) started with a lively game of “fishy fishy cross my ocean.” Each camper had a chance to be a shark while their “fish” friends raced from one end of the gym to the other. If a fish got tagged, they became seaweed! With their feet planted to the ground, our seaweed friends helped to tag fish as they swam by. After lots of running, we cooled off with some “fishing” with nets in a kiddie pool and a hunt for ocean animals through bins full of…..BLUE JELLO!!! Our campers worked hard to capture slipper animals while digging through the “water."
Wednesday – Minute To Win It
Wednesday was a day full of racing against the clock! Divided into two teams, our campers tackled lots of “minute-to-win-it” style challenges, working hard to see how many points they could rack up before the timer buzzed. It was so much fun to see everyone working hard and cheering on their teammates! First up was a sticky ping pong ball challenge, with campers using their affected hand to roll ping pong balls across a long table to see how many they could get to stick to a row of sticky tape. Next, we got a little messy with a hunt through piles of whipped cream for gummy worms! Out in the gym, our campers played a game of block bowling, both by laying on a wedge and rolling a ball with their affected arm as well as by standing and kicking balls toward the targets. We are finding that we have quite a few soccer stars in our group! Last, we raced the clock to see how many tissues we could pull out of a tissue box in a minute.
Thursday – Rainbow
Summer camp would not be complete without some parachute play! Our campers all worked hard to hold on to parachute handles with their affected hand while shaking the parachute for a variety of games. They participated in playing “popcorn” with beanie babies, running under the parachute to give a friend a high-five, and crawling under the parachute “ocean waves” to choose a prize from the deep sea treasure chest. We also worked on pinching and scooping to make rainbow skittle experiments – lining a paper plate with skittles, pouring in warm water, and watching the magic! We ended the day with a game of hot potato, passing around small mystery items and working on grasping and releasing while music played.
Friday – Anything Goes!
We kicked off the camp hour with a game of “messy backyard.” Campers were divided into two teams and worked together to “clean” their yard before time ran out. Campers practiced grasping various items (pretend snowballs, pretend food, scarves, etc.) and throwing them over a “fence” to their “neighbor's yard,” working to make sure they had the cleanest yard when the buzzer sounded. We then headed to the table for some messy play with slime and play-doh. As the theme of the day suggests, anything was fair game! Our campers cut shapes, blew bubbles, searched for treasures, etc. We ended the day with a game of Simon Says, targeting specific movements that are challenging for many of our campers.
CIMT Camp at the Boston Ability Center...where FUN and FUNCTION go hand-in-hand!
