Activate offers full-day camps for incoming 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th graders.  Each week has a different focus. We call this the workshop. This summer’s workshops are Graphic Design, Photography, Animation, Music Production, Printmaking, and Engineering.

This summer, we are adding an optional 60 minutes of literacy instruction to every morning of camp. We’re doing this because there is a growing demand for academic summer offerings and because we have experience and expertise in offering high-quality literacy instruction to multi-age and multi-ability groups.

We want to emphasize that summer programming will still be summer camp and not summer school. We’ll swim three times a week, play at the local park, and have plenty of time for Free Explore. That’s when children can delve more deeply into workshop projects or choose other activities, like building in the maker space or making music in our sound space.

On Mondays, students new to studying words at Activate will learn about the three basic morphological elements (bases, prefixes, and suffixes) and how those can be graphically organized on a matrix. Students who have experience with word studies at Activate will do independent or small-group word studies.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we’ll study words related to the week’s workshop. For instance, during the Graphic Design camp, we’ll examine the word ‘design,’ and its morphological relatives. 

On Thursdays and Fridays, we’ll cover additional topics like syllable stress and suffixing rules.

There will also be dedicated time for independent reading. We’ll work one-on-one or in small groups with the lowest-level readers at that time.

We’re confident that kids of all ages, abilities, and experiences will gain new insights that will help them to be better spellers, readers, and critical thinkers.

Week One: 6/24/24 - 6/28/24

Cost: $400 or $450

Workshop: Graphic Design

Kids will work through a design process to create logos and other images using paper/pencil and digital tools. They will learn about the heat transfer vinyl process and print one of their images on a t-shirt. Other images will be printed on high-quality paper. Here are some projects from last year.

Literacy: Word Studies, Vowels & Consonants, Phonemes & Graphemes

On Monday, campers new to studying at Activate will learn about the basics of morphology (word structure) and Activate’s word study procedure. The more experienced campers will collaboratively complete word study assignments.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the campers will study words related to graphic design.

On Thursday, there will be a general introduction on the basics of phonology (the sounds in a language), and the minimal unit of phonology: the phoneme. Phonemes can be categorized in many ways. One way that we’ll categorize them is by vowels and consonants. Campers will study what makes a vowel a vowel and what makes a consonant a consonant.

On Friday, they’ll study graphemes and how they are different from letters. They’ll learn about digraphs (two letters that spell one phoneme, like <ea> and <sh>) and trigraphs (three letters that spell one phoneme like <igh> and <tch>.) They’ll also get some exposure to IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), the symbols that are seen in dictionaries that indicate how to pronounce words.

Week Two: 7/8/24 - 7/12/24

Cost: $400 or $450

Workshop: Photography

Campers will learn about digital photography with a focus on composition. They’ll learn to edit photos using the Pixelmator app. They’ll also create collages comprised of photos and other media. At the end of the week, campers will go home with several high-quality prints, one of which will be framed in a wood frame that they hand-oiled. Here are some photos from last summer.

Literacy: Word Studies, Content Words & Function Words

On Monday, campers new to studying at Activate will learn about the basics of morphology (word structure) and Activate’s word study procedure. The more experienced campers will collaboratively complete word study assignments.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the campers will study words related to photography.

On Thursday and Friday, the campers will study the subject of content (lexical) and function words. Content words are words whose purpose is to convey lots of meaning, like <happy> and <book>. Function words serve more of a grammatical purpose. They are words like ‘the’ and ‘of.’ Campers will learn about the differences between these two types of words, and they will learn about related spelling rules. For instance, content words always have at least three letters.

Week Three: 7/15/24 - 7/19/24

Cost: $400 or $450

Workshop: Animation

Campers will plan and shoot stop motion videos using the Stop Motion Studio App. Then they will learn about post-production and add titles, filters, sound effects, music, and voice-overs. They will also create traditional 2d digital animations using the FlipaClip app. At the end of the week, we’ll post their videos on our Youtube channel. Here are some animations from last year.

Literacy: Word Studies, Stress, and The Schwa

On Monday, campers new to studying at Activate will learn about the basics of morphology (word structure) and Activate’s word study procedure. The more experienced campers will collaboratively complete word study assignments.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the campers will study words related to animation.

On Thursday and Friday, the campers will learn about the schwa. The schwa is the most common phoneme (sound) in English. It’s the first sound in ‘ago.’ If you listen carefully, you’ll also hear it in ‘Activate,’  ‘vinyl,’ ‘campus,’ ‘solid,’ ‘the,’ ‘mountain,’ and ‘famous.’ To understand the schwa, one must understand word stress and syllable stress. Children will learn about the connection between the schwa, stress, and spelling.

Week Four: 7/22/24 - 7/26/24

Cost: $400 or $450

Workshop: Music Production

The campers will learn about electronic music composition using the Garage Band App. They’ll start with drums, then chords, and then a melody, effects, and more. They also learn how to use hardware synthesizers and drum machines in Activate’s Sound Space, and they’ll have some time for improvisational jams. At the end of the week, we’ll send parents a link to the camper’s music.

Literacy: Word Studies, The Purposes of Final <e>, and The Final <e> Suffix Rule

On Monday, campers new to studying at Activate will learn about the basics of morphology (word structure) and Activate’s word study procedure. The more experienced campers will collaboratively complete word study assignments.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the campers will study words related to music production.

On Thursday we’ll study final silent <e>. Most elementary-age kids know that a final <e> can make a vowel long, like in the word ‘take.’ However, in the words ‘love,’ ‘loose,’ and ‘blue,’ the final <e> serves other purposes.

On Friday, we’ll study the first of the three main rules to consider when adding a suffix to a word (technically a base or a stem). It involves replacing the final silent <e>.

like/ + ing → liking

Week Five: 7/29/24 - 8/2/24

Cost: $400 or $450

Workshop: Printmaking

We are bringing back our popular printmaking camp! Campers will use a variety of techniques to create prints, including using professional-grade lino blocks, inks, and carving tools. At the end of the week, campers will go home with several high-quality prints, one of which will be framed in a wood frame that they hand-oiled. They will also take home a t-shirt that they hand print. Here are some prints from a previous summer.

Literacy: Word Studies, The <y> to <i> Suffix Rule, and The Doubling Suffix Rule

On Monday, campers new to studying at Activate will learn about the basics of morphology (word structure) and Activate’s word study procedure. The more experienced campers will collaboratively complete word study assignments.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the campers will study words related to printmaking.

On Thursday, campers will study the second suffixing rule, which involves toggling <y> to <i> when adding a suffix.

cry/(i) + ed → cried

On Friday, campers will study the third suffixing rule, which involves doubling final consonants when adding a vowel suffix.

swim(m) + ing → swimming

Week 6: 8/5/24 - 8/9/24

Cost: $400 or $450

Workshop: Engineering

Children will imagine, plan, create, test, improve, and share a variety of machines. Early in the week, the focus will be on non-motorized machines, like catapults and propeller cars. Later in the week, they will explore circuits and make motorized cars and other electronics.

Literacy: Word Studies, Homophones, and Homographs

On Monday, campers new to studying at Activate will learn about the basics of morphology (word structure) and Activate’s word study procedure. The more experienced campers will collaboratively complete word study assignments.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the campers will study words related to engineering.

On Thursday and Friday, campers will study homophones, which are words that sound the same, like ‘there’ and ‘their,’ and they will study homographs, which are words that have the same spelling, like the word ‘bass’ in the following sentences: I caught a bass at the creek. I play bass guitar. They will also learn about the homophone principle, which explains that homophones will be spelled differently if a reasonable alternative spelling exists.