Summer Camps

REGISTRATION OPENS FEBRUARY 11, 2012!
At Discovery Woods, curriculum is always “negotiated” and rooted in a “passion based learning model.” This means that across all camps, regardless of the age or the camp focus, teachers and students collaborate and share ideas about projects that they’d like to work on and explore more deeply. Teachers have curriculum maps and loose plans for each week, but often the passionate ideas and inspirations of the students lead us in surprising, wonderful and wholly different directions. Throughout the year, our school’s fundamental goal is to awaken the spirit of passion in all our students, and to help them identify and pursue their gifts, and that holds true for our summer camp weeks as well. We believe that the most effective learning happens when young people are pursuing what they love, and truly desire to learn. Equally important is our philosophy that the most effective learning happens when students figure things out “on their own.”

We use the Eight Shields or Eight Directions as our framework, a model that honors the natural learning cycle. The week opens in the East on Monday morning with a coming together and teambuilding activities, and together the group poses questions and identifies a problem they want to solve. Commonalities are found, campers get to know one another and begin to see each others strengths and learn what each other is most passionate about learning. By Monday afternoon, and throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, the group has moved into the South, where the hard work happens. This is the time for creation, implementation, perspiration, and focus. And, each week on Thursday there is a culminating event, an exposition of the work. This is the West, a time for celebration, sharing our learning and understanding and sharing our stories. The North is a time for rest and reflection, for perspective and gratitude. For those that join us on Fridays, we will do this as a group; campers who come Monday-Thursday only will be provided tools for honoring the North independently.

Inventions, Gizmos and Contraptions
Location: “Meadow” campus (near Vienna/Tyson’s/Great Falls)
Offered: Ten week long sessions, June 18-Aug 24
Ages: 6-8

This is a hands-on, working lab environment program  where no failure is left unturned or unexplored, and where children have a real working farm, garden and facility as their workshop. Children will work in small groups of 6-7 — with experienced teachers — to solve real problems and build and create solutions. We don’t know what might emerge, but when you are making and building and thinking and playing and puzzling and passionately discussing and debating ideas, anything can happen. Examples include aerial play trestles for our goats, a garden irrigation system. adventure playground features, tree forts, mechanical advantage systems, or a cob oven. No matter what the chosen project, children will experience the full engineering lifecycle as they design, draft and draw; develop and prototype, and then implement the project with real materials and tools; and test and launch.

Forest School
Location: “Woods” campus (near Herndon/Great Falls)
Offered: Eight week long sessions, June 18- July 20 and Aug 6-Aug 24
Ages 6-8

Spend a week in the woods! During the week, campers will spend the entire day, every day hiking, studying, exploring and relaxing and soaking in all that nature has to offer. The core components of our weeks are: nature observation, awareness, and practical skill building. Campers who attend one or a few weeks will get basic woods experience and solid introductory exposure to practical skills, and those who attend multiple, progressive weeks will have the opportunity to become proficient in one or more skills that they are personally drawn to. The skills we will practice hands on every week include: Woods navigation, Animal tracking and wildlife study, Bird watching & bird language, Tree & plant identification, Wild edibles, Knife safety, Creating field guides and recordkeeping journals. Depending on the core focus of the week, some weeks we will also practice: Shelters and fort building, Cooking over fire, Building bridges, tree stands, pulley systems. All campers must have their own backpack with a water bottle, binoculars, a mid-Altlantic field guide, a camping knife and a sleeping bag. Campers must also have a rain slicker and appropriate, safe footwear.

Farm & Garden Explore
Location: “Meadow” campus (near Vienna/Tyson’s/Great Falls)
Offered: Ten week long sessions, June 18-Aug 24
Ages: 4-5

This program is a project-based camp experience in our farm and garden. Campers spend most if not all of the day outside, studying, exploring and soaking in all that the farm has to offer. We promise that your children will be dirty, delighted, inspired and exhausted at the end of each day! Farm and garden time and projects include things like: Planting and harvesting in the garden, Journaling and illustrating plants, Cooking with harvested vegetables and herbs, Flowers, birds and native animals, Raising chicks & visiting other farm animals, Hiking & meadow walks, Mud, sand and water play, Building with natural materials, Clay work, painting and drawing.

Woods Explore
Location: “Woods” campus (near Herndon/Great Falls)
Offered: 2 or 3 mornings a week over a ten week long summer semester, June 18-Aug 24
Ages: 2-4 (children must be enrolled for School Year 2012 to attend)

Children with mud-streaked faces climb over logs and into dens they have made themselves. We wonder what animals could have left tracks or other signs of their night visits in our wood? We see the markings of rabbits and deer. We track other animals that have visited the water…noticing fox and raccoon tracks. We meander past a gnarled tree. What animals live in the holes in our trees? We see rustling squirrels darting through fallen branches. The woods offers a plethora of learning opportunities for our youngest children as the use their bodies to the fullest; climbing, moving, crawling, carrying, leaping. What’s more, the forest is filled with an abundance of playthings; a stick transforms into a horse or into an oar to paddle a boat. A boulder becomes a ship, a fallen tree a hiding place. Imagination can literally run wild through the trees. For these children, the world is teeming with life: slugs and beetles, woodpeckers and salamanders. What better way could there be to learn about animals, plants and the changing of the seasons? What more effective way to teach children about basic ecological concerns, and the importance of caring for the Earth and it’s inhabitants when they arise so spontaneously and in such a genuine context? Come explore with us!