Week 5 Recap - African Safari Adventure
We’ve reached the halfway point of our Summer Camp here at the Boys & Girls Club of Vista. Here’s a recap of what happened this week!
For the first field trip of the week, our Teens took in the sights, sounds, and stories of San Diego during their boat tour on the San Diego Harbor with Flagship SD. They saw sea lions, Navy ships, and historic landmarks. Back at the Club, in the STEM lab, Ian had our Club kids use Legos, Jenga blocks, or magnetic tiles to replicate a historic building in Petra, a historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. In the Art Room, Miss True showed our kids a piece of art made by Mohammed Racim. She explained that Mohammed was an Algerian artist who created miniatures or illuminations like those seen in medieval manuscripts. Then, the kids got to make their own illuminations and miniatures using markers.
On Tuesday, our Club kids and staff, visited the Birch Aquarium, to learn more about their aquatic animals. Everyone enjoyed playing in the tide pools, some even brave enough to touch the sea anemone, they learned about the aquarium’s rescued Loggerhead Sea Turtle, and jellyfish. Our kids who stayed at the Club, learned how the word “love” is written in Arabic in the Art Room. Our Club kids learned about Sudanese painter, Osman Waqialla, and how Arabic letters can be used in a modern, graphic form of art. Miss True gave them watercolor kits to create their very own art pieces, some wrote their name and other chose to draw words like ‘kind’, ‘love’, and ‘moon’. In the STEM lab, Ian built a D.I.Y. water filter using an empty water bottle, craft sand, cotton balls, rocks, and aquarium gravel. He showed the kids how the water filter made muddy water clearer over time. In the Music Room, our Teens got to practice on the piano, write lyrics, and record their own songs.
The next day, our Career Launch Field Trip took our Teens to the Brooks Theater. Our friends at the Oceanside Theatre Company gave a tour of the venue, talked about their current projects, and discussed possible employment opportunities in the field of the performing arts. In the Art Room, Miss True taught our kids about Egyptian hieroglyphs and how the Egyptians managed to make a language by using a combination of letters, syllables, and tiny logos. Our kids got to make their own language by converting English letters into logos or symbols. They made their own code so others could look at their new language and decipher their messages. In the STEM room, Ian walked the kids through a “Choose Your Own Adventure” game that had vampires where they decided how the story went by selecting a variety of twists and turns to tell their very own version of that story.
On Thursday, a group of our kids and staff went to the San Diego Animal Sanctuary, “Lions Tigers and Bears.” Their tour guide talked about the history of some of their rescues, like their white Tiger, named Crystal, who was rescued from an Ohio tiger cub breeding facility. Some of our staff fed Rocky, a former entertainment bear, sweet potatoes. Our kids learned that bears could eat fish, plants, fruits, and vegetables. Back at the Boys & Girls Club of Vista, in the Art Room, our kids made masks with cardboard and string. Miss True showed the kids a few photos of some Kanga masks that they could use as a reference for their masks. For the STEM lab, Ian prepared slime using clear glue and baking soda for everyone to pick a color for their slime. The colors of their slimes were blue, green, pink, and purple.
The Teens went to Invasion Laser Tag on Friday to conclude Week 5 of Summer Camp. They split into two teams, Red and Blue, and had to score points and defend their bases from their opponents. After gearing up in the vesting room, everyone entered the space-themed labyrinth and ran, hid, and dodged lasers to aim for their team’s victory. At the Boys & Girls Club, the Club kids learned how to play Achi, a traditional game originated from Ghana, in the Art Room. They drew their own Achi boards and played against each other to try to get three in a row. After coming back from laser tag, the Teens went to the kitchen and learned how to make a delicious Peruvian dish, known as ceviche. They diced tomatoes, onions, avocados, and shrimp. After squeezing the juice from limes, they placed their ceviche onto tostadas and enjoyed this delicious appetizer.
