The Sense of Wonder Summer Day Camp 2010

The purpose of our program is to nurture the discovery and appreciation of our beautiful world ~ environmental and ethnical diversity ~ to become closer to it and learn how to love and care for it. To appreciate the very small wonders as well as the enormous ones and to realize how one person can make a difference. We blend all the ideas together in our daily creative activities of art, music, nature, community and cultural awareness.

Our Camp Staff:

Pam Benjamin:
Director & Instructor
artist, art teacher, dancer, sailor, mother, environmentalist

Three Adult Instructors:
musician, songwriter, artist, poet, environmentalist
+ Four counselors in training.

Camp Basics:

One or more week sessions.
Ages 7-12.
Monday - Friday 9 - 1 pm.

Summer Camp 2010 Application

Online Application
PDF Application
Info Sheet

Price: 9-1 pm, $250 per week.  
Financial Aid available.

This is the 2009 Schedule below, the 2010 schedule will be up soon.

The Sense of Wonder Summer Programs
and Projects 2009

This is a rough outline of what we will be doing during the summer of 2009, lots more to be announced as we get closer to the end of June. At the Sense of Wonder Day Camp engaging and capturing young people’s imagination is the most important and foremost aspect of the program, this invariably influences the addition or timing of our projects. The weekly themes will stay the same, but the activities might move around or be added. The campers who attend SoW are the ones who are the deciding factor in what we choose for our curriculum. If they don’t like it we won’t do it. The other important factor is to have fun because, after all, it is summer!!
So let us know what your children dream about, imagine, envision, wonder and would love to experience and we will do our best to provide it for them.
All our plays, puppet shows and songs are original and each has a meaningful storyline and message.

Additional Information:
There are principal themes, activities and on-going projects which will be continuing all summer long and not for just one week. The art, music and theater programs will happen throughout the summer. Drawing, Painting, Clay, sculpture, music, theater and more are available every day. We will be Planting and Nurturing our Garden, Exploring Nature, Learning about the Ecology of Martha’s Vineyard, Learning about different cultures, enlarging the understanding of Peace and Justice, Improving social skills and Learning how to be more respectful, tolerant and accepting of Differences: ethnic backgrounds, religion, race, gender and interests…..All of this while having fun at the same time.

Other activities and projects include the Creation and Raffle of a large papier-mâché Osprey to benefit a conservation group on Martha’s Vineyard and the Painting of a mural on canvas to exchange with a children’s orphanage or school in a foreign country. We will have lessons during the summer showing young people how to drum, juggle, walk on stilts, make a hoola hoop, and lots more.
**** Our Very Exciting news is that we hope to have a CD release party for our Sense of Wonder Songs written by the campers and counselors TBA.  It will be sold to benefit local and global environmental and humanitarian organizations. Every Friday at noon, we will have a show and performance for parents, relatives, friends and Community at the Sense of Wonder Studio.
Educational Outreach is inherent in our mission; at Sense of Wonder Creations when we use the word “We” please know that term includes Campers, Counselors-in-Training and Junior & Adult Counselors. Please email or call Pam if you have any questions or concerns  psb@senseofwondercreations.org
508 693 3142

Weekly Programs & Projects:

Week 1: June 29-July 3rd  Creativity and Sense of Wonder Week
This week at SoW we will plant an organic Garden with vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers. The campers will learn about the spiral as well as other planting techniques. This will help them to understand water conservation, natural pest control, companion planting and how plants relate to one another and the surrounding environment. The young people will also learn about eating locally grown produce, sustainability, permaculture and biodynamic gardening.  One of the three core values or ethics of Permaculture is “Fairshare (or placing limits on consumption) - ensuring that Earth's limited resources are used in ways that are equitable and wise.” - Bill Mollison and David Holmgren.  We will add more flowering plants to our Bee, Hummingbird and Butterfly Garden. Throughout the summer everyone will have the opportunity to work and care for these gardens. The SoW Campers will make a field trip to a local Farm and or have animals visit us here at camp this week.

Week 2: July 6-10 Wilderness Awareness and Tracking, Habitat and Creatures
One of our visiting Nature Guides, Geoff Cassel, has studied with Jon Young in California and Washington State and some of our SoW camp counselors have been studying environmental science. The campers will learn about ecology, how to improve their observation skills and how to live in the wild without manmade tools and conveniences. We will play educational games geared toward helping young people become closer to nature. The campers will have the opportunity to talk about their own close encounters with wild animals in a natural setting. We will paint a mural. Focus: Woodlands, sand plains, wetlands, ponds, streams and oceans around Martha’s Vineyard. We will draw, paint and sculpt paper, plaster-gauze, papier-mâché and clay creatures. All these will be incorporated into the mural, a three-dimensional installation and exhibit on view to the public on Friday at noon and in the future at the Vineyard Haven library. We will also plant trees around the island to reduce our Carbon Footprint and to help decrease Global Warming.

Week 3: July 13-17 Puppetry
Master Puppeteer Dan Butterworth will lead puppet making and performance workshops this week. We will be imagining and fabricating all kinds of puppets: sock, shadow, rod, stick, marionette, hand and more. The campers and counselors will research, write and perform original puppet shows. The camper’s puppets and ideas will inspire the writing process. The shows will be on a range of topics with meaningful story lines. The performances for the public will be on Friday at noon.
* There is an extra charge of $40 this week for puppeteer and materials.


Week 4: July 20-24  Expressing and Learning About What it Means to be You and Ocean Life
Rob Shetterly, portrait painter, writer, speaker and activist of http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org and Gail Page, his wife and children’s book author and illustrator, will join us this week. They adjust their workshops to the appropriate  level and are interesting, engaging and fun for all ages and abilities. Rob paints portraits of people who speak and live their Truth with integrity. The portraits Rob brings to SoW will include people who have championed social, humanitarian, compassionate, environmental and other causes in the world. Gail will lead book writing and illustration workshops. We will be making pop up and box books. We will encourage the young people to incorporate these qualities and principles into their own paintings, books and illustrations. We will also be focusing on Ocean Life and everyone’s favorite sea creatures. Rob will be giving a talk and showing his portraits at the Chilmark Community Center on Thursday evening July 23rd. He will also show them at our weekly show and performance at noon on Friday.
* There is an extra charge of $20 this week for the visiting artists

Week 5: July 27-31 Multicultural Awareness and Peace and Justice:
   We will have guest speakers coming in to camp from foreign countries to tell us about
their culture and customs and bring indigenous clothing, folklore, music, art and food. We will do art projects, make masks and 3 dimensional sculptures inspired by different cultures from around the globe. The campers will paint a collective mural on canvas as well as individual paintings and write letters, stories and poems to exchange with an orphanage in a foreign country. We will write an original play and song related to the weekly theme to be performed at noon on Friday. We will start fabricating a large papier mache’ Osprey which will raise money and be raffled off the summer of 2010 to benefit a conservation group on the island.  
The kids will be able to make smaller plaster gauze or papier mache’ creatures if they would like as well.

Week 6: August 3-7 Water and Ocean Life and Alternative Energy Use and Conservation
Guest artist Jane McTeigue will do a pop up book workshop.
The campers will focus on learning about water and Ocean Life and the creatures that inhabit them.
We will be drawing, painting and sculpting these creatures. We will be talking about how ancient, valuable water and Ocean Life are to the earth. We will also be observing solar, wind, water and geothermal energy use. We will cook produce harvested from our oceans in our solar oven as well as constructing Alternative Energy vehicles and projects. The campers will learn about protecting the environment, conserving our natural resources and reducing pollution and emissions. We will work on educating people about getting rid of toxic household products. We will raise money for the Sense of Wonder Walk A Thon taking place this week to benefit an orphanage TBA and The Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary. Every week there will be multiple art projects available for anyone who would like to choose something different from the central theme.

Week 7: August 10-14 Reduce, Re-use and Recycle!
Bobby Brown the Artist and his wife Joan Green, an Artist and Dancer will visit from Cambridge with lots of recycled materials from corporations that have been donated to Excl - Extras for Creative Learning, http://www.exclrecycles.org, a children’s resource center in Dorchester, MA. The campers will create musical instruments, masks, sculptures and all kinds of art with these materials and learn about how to reduce, re-use and recycle. Joan will give a dance workshop. We will participate in community service work to clean up beaches and or bike paths and recycle some of our finds into creative projects during the week. This is the last week of camp so in addition to the art show and performance, we will have a last day of camp party that will be lots of fun and have awesome >Surprise< guests on Friday.

"A Random Act of Kindness" - a song written during camp, Summer 2004. View the lyrics here.

Financial aid available.