These camps offer a blend of traditional camp games and STEAM activities that will focus on honing a child’s creativity through thought, expression, and craft.  

WEEK 1: GOOP & MAGICAL SOLUTIONS

Join us on an adventure in this cool and crazy science camp. Learn about chemical reactions through whacky experiments and fun projects.  Follow the scientific method to build your own volcano and watch it explode, create your own vortex, and design your own edible potions.   A truly magical experience.  Field Trip to National Kids Museum  

WEEK 2: READY TO LAUNCH

The YMCA has partnered with NASA and LEGOs to take campers to the final frontier! Ignite your child’s fascination with space engineering and science as the learn about space flight, space travel, and designing machines to function in space.  Future astronaut will even build their own mini space rockets!  Field Trip to Air and Space Museum.  

WEEK 3: RECYCLEMANIA

We are going recycling-crazy! Campers will learn the importance of recycling and how to re-utilize everyday objects and turn them into STEM and art creations.   Many of the creations are submitted to the YMCA’s Annual Thingamajig Invention Convention for a chance to win prizes!  Field Trip to the Thingamajig Invention Convention.  

WEEK 4: IT’S A THINGAMAJIG

Got a kid who’s excited about science, technology, engineering and math?  Unleash their inner innovator so they can conduct hands-on experiments, make mechanisms and create concoctions to better understand the world around us.  The Y’s annual Thingamajig challenges children to build their S.T.E.A.M. skills as they invent solutions to everyday problems using only what can be re-purposed around them.  Junior and Senior campers can even attend and compete in the 29th Annual YMCA Thingamajig Invention Convention.  

WEEK 5: KIDS GONE CRAFTY

Craft a creation! This unique, hands-on camp introduces young artists to a variety of art mediums that may include drawing, painting, clay creations, plaster of paris, paper mâché, and more! Please send campers in appropriate clothing that allow for freedom of expression or send a smock.  Field Trip to National Gallery of Art  

WEEK 6: LET’S PAINT

Unleash your child’s creative spirit!  In this engaging and enriching class, campers will focus on the various painting mediums of oil, acrylic, watercolor, and inks.  Beyond realizing their own creations, kids will explore new techniques and learn about the artists who made each style famous.    

WEEK 7: FARM TO TABLE

Friends, fun, and farming fresh food!  In this farm–to–table camp, kids build meaningful and authentic connections to healthy food, building healthy habits that last a lifetime.  By making connections between soil nutrients, life cycle of plants, produce gardening, and harvesting, and understanding their place in the food web, kids build a holistic understanding of the importance of what they eat.  A visit to a local farm gives campers the chance to see food systems and processes in action!