'A beautiful partnership': Children take part in 'Summer at Sem, Explorations with the Y' program
Turning to the 6- to 9-year-olds in her classroom, Wyoming Seminary science teacher asked them to remember their previous experiments.
Did the store-bought solution work best?
"No!"
What about the homemade solution with sugar?
"No!"
Could it have been the homemade solution with glycerin?
"Yes!" came the answer from a dozen budding scientists, who eagerly blew huge streams of bubble using their best solution and bubble blowers that had been handcrafted from plastic bottles with the bottoms cut off and replaced by a cloth that was held in place by a rubber band.
The kids vied to make the tallest towers of bubbles, and some of them used their hands to sculpt bubbles into interesting shapes. It was all part of the fun at Summer at Sem, Explorations with the Y, a 3-week program that attracted 113 campers to Wyoming Seminary's Lower School campus in Forty Fort for sessions as diverse as LEGO robotics, photography, basketball and waterplay.
"We have everything here," Cheryl Connolly, Wyoming Seminary director of advancement, said Friday, as children took part in the final day of camping activities.
"It's a beautiful partnership," Sara Hargadon Michaels, camp director, said of this year's cooperative effort between Wyoming Seminary and the Y, which welcomed students from other schools to join Wyoming Seminary's program, which dates back to the 1990s.
Michaels said she had seen children blossom at the camp. "You see the timidness of their first arrival turn into vibrancy and confidence as they soak up the energy of the camp."
In one classroom, children sang about waddling ducks approaching a lemonade stand as they rehearsed a skit. In another, Wilkes-Barre Area kindergarten teacher Maria Hayward helped them use up some of their physical energy playing with balloons before they headed outdoors to draw with chalk. And in a gym, dozens of campers were dribbling basketballs.
With faculty members from Wyoming Seminary and program specialists from the YMCA facilitating, Michaels said, "what has been provided has only enhanced what has traditionally been presented in the past. Favorites such as LEGO Stop Motion, Chemistry, Magic School Bus, Ocean Explorations, Cardboard Creations and Chef for a Day were joined by Pickleball, Speed and Agility and Sports from Around the World."
While those camps were targeted at first through eighth graders, toddlers stayed busy with waterworks, sensory play and more with their teacher Margaret McCann in Arlington House, a separate building on the campus.
"The partnership has been a fantastic experience, one that we hope to build on moving forward," Michaels said.
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