A day at Green Thumbs Camp

It can be hard pondering summer camp selection, with heaps of snow outside your windowpanes. So take a journey to summer camp with me:

Green Thumbs Camp started at Charlotte Central School with a big bang. Six kids came together to do yoga and celebrate the garden. They did some garden activities, such as weeding and watering the plants. Cooking was another big part of this camp. On this day, campers created pesto and pasta. The pesto had three ingredients the came from the garden—basil, sunflower seeds and garlic. The campers got to harvest basil and garlic for the dish. We had the chance to try raw garlic. It was spicy! Some of the teachers from CCS came in to see what was going on.

Campers decorated garden journals and created Garden Names for themselves. Examples of some of the names were Sarah Sun, Hannah Hyssop, Rachel Rain and Meredith Mint. There was free play on the playground and sharing a story. Finally, we gathered together at the end of the day to make Friendship Rocks. We heated rocks in the oven that crayons could melt on. The kids took crayons and drew on their rocks. As they cooled, we wrote about our garden observations in our journals and then went home. Fun day!

Green Thumbs Camp will offer two one-week sessions this summer (July 24–28 and Aug. 14–18) at Charlotte Central School. Camp is open to rising 1–4 graders. For more information or to register please contact Charlotte Rec. Department, or Deirdre Holmes.