The Hi-Hills Herald Issue #1
June 27, 2014
Top News at Hi-Hills Day Camp!
The Summer Has Officially Begun! Mad Science Week at Hi-Hills
Celebrating our 47th Summer!
Table of Contents: Note from Camp Director
Hello campers! We hope you are excited for the start of Hi-Hills Day Camp, because we certainly are! We started out camp with Mad Science Week with a featured Robot Invasion dress up day to wrap up the week on Friday. All of the campers have been getting to know each other and their counselors and are settling in perfectly! To open up the season, all campers have been particpating in daily activities like archery, swimming, nature and athletics. Big news for the week is that Hi-Hills is starting its first Color War! Each camper is either on the Blue or the Green team, and throughout the summer they will be competing for points! So exciting!
Along with these competitions, Leagues has just begun and everyone is getting fired up! Campers have also chosen to be a part of different clubs where they can either try something new or do a little more of what they love. Keep it up campers! As we roll on into next week, we are excited to welcome more campers and to get each bunk joining in on all of the fun activities that Hi-Hills has in store for them! Welcome to camp everyone, and let’s have the best summer ever!
Bunk Updates
2 3-5
Birthdays This Month
7
Dates to Remember
8
Program News
8-10
Upcoming Dress Days 11 Weekly Photography Tip 11 Kinder Camp 11 Athletics 11 Trivia Winners 12 Counselors in Training 12 Teen Travel 12 Special Events 12
Gill St. Bernard’s School, 25 St. Bernard’s Road, Gladstone, NJ Phone: 908-234-0067 • Fax: 908-234-1611 • Email: info@hihills.com hihills.com • www.facebook.com/hihills
te o N A ur o m fro Camp rs to c e r i D
Hello Hi-Hills!
Dear Hi-Hills, Welcome to Hi-Hills Day Camp 2014! The summer kicked off with a week packed with all the fun, fun, fun displayed here in the first edition of the season. The aim of The Hi-Hills Herald is to share the “magic” we create each day with our entire camp community. Summer is off to an incredible start. The beautiful weather has allowed for great times by the pool and fun games of gaga. Our amazing staff has taken creativity to another level and demonstrated their skills through leading various activities. We’ve been having so much fun it’s hard to believe the first week is already coming to a close. The activities, new events and traditions that have been introduced are getting campers even more excited for the weeks to come. Highlights from the week have been revisited throughout this publication. Campers have participated in everything from athletics, swim, and tennis to the arts, archery and nature (just to name a few)! We hope you enjoy reading this newsletter as much as we enjoyed creating it. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you Monday for another action-packed week here at Hi-Hills. To all our campers: rest up! Week #2 is going to be AMAZING! Thank you for a memorable first week with your campers!
Cindy Wyatt - Director of Summer & Auxiliary Programs Nicole Spiotta - Assistant Director of Summer & Auxiliary Programs
Bunk Upda tes
Bunk 1: Miss Kathleen’s Little Lambs Kinder Camp was off to a great start this past week! Ariel jumped right into everything, including the pool! Lucas and our lifeguard Erin made an immediate connection and love swimming together everyday. One of Ryan’s favorite things to do at camp is pottery and he can’t wait for his bowl to be finished! Brooke loves playing in the playhouse. She invites all the other children to join her and calls them “sweetie.” Ryden got along with everyone and wanted to be like “the big kids” in the pool so he is learning quickly! The children are all so interested in the activities we do in camp. It is exciting to see their little faces light up each time they see something new!
Bunk 2: Miss Stefanie’s Playful Piglets Bunk 2 kicked off a great summer at Hi-Hills Day Camp with four awesome campers. Mark learned to blow bubbles under the water and touch the bottom of the pool with Lifeguard Paige. Isabella showed off her sporty side at tennis by hitting almost every ball with her racket. Ellie carefully created and glazed her earth bowl in pottery. Barrett loved to touch and ask insightful questions about each snake Mr. Nature shared with us. We have already become great friends and we are excited to welcome new campers in the coming weeks!
Bunk Upda tes Bunk 9: Electro Scorpions This bunk has had a wonderful first week. Campers are smiling, eating healthy, and running around. Zach and Alex shot bulls-eyes in archery, Ethan and Lorenzo have become temporary scientists in science camp and Roberto is becoming a tennis star! Jack was a strong contender in gaga, while Anthony and Colton swim as quick as fish and Matthew was a rocket at tennis baseball! We can’t wait to see what next week brings. -Ethan
Bunk 10: Bedazzled Cheetahs We had a super successful first week here at camp! In addition to making new friends, all of our campers excelled at multiple activities. Out on the range, Arianna shot numerous bulls-eyes at archery, while up at the courts Isabelle was able to help our whole bunk learn some new skills at tennis. Ava really enjoyed making the spaceship cup in pottery this week, and Annabelle learned some impressive new swim skills. Way to go, girl! Angela decided to try something new and join the gaga club this week. Not only did she find a new sport she enjoys, but she won in an intense game against the older boys bunk. Ellie joined arts and crafts club only to find that she has a hidden talent for making lanyards. We look forward to “blasting off” into seven more awesome weeks here at camp! -Betsy
Bunks 11 & 13: T he Whalers These great bunks had an awesome first week at Hi-Hills! All of the campers hit it off great and now we have a very close bunk. The campers were all well behaved, ate healthy, smiled and, most importantly, had fun. Some of the activities we did were swim, gaga and archery. The campers loved getting to go into the pool twice a day to escape the heat. They also all had a great time at gaga and our bunk played it multiple times a day. The campers helped make my job easy and let me have a great first week. I now eagerly anticipate the fun that we will have in the second week! -Matt
Bunk Upda tes Bunks 16 & 18: Magical Minions Welcome back everyone! We are excited for this summer at Hi-Hills because there are so many fun activities and the girls are ready to participate and show their magical skills in every single activity. These Magical Minions are excited to try new things and to meet new people! We are happy to see returning and new campers to our bunk starting with Rebecca Fernandez, Madison Gesualdo, Ella Baker, Christina Tamchin, Ashley Peck, Emily DeCotiis and Grace Rubenstein. Have an awesome weekend! -Maria & Emily
Bunks 12 & 14: Double Trouble Bunks 12 and 14 combined this week for double the fun! The girls were always enthusiastic about every activity. Ellie touched a baby salamander that she found in nature club, and Bella was able to show everyone her soccer skills at Leagues. Cassidy, hesitant at first, liked archery so much that it ended up being her favorite activity! Anna well deserved the title of “most improved” by Matt, and Anjola is an archery superstar with a bullseye on day one! Zoe’s tennis skills from the enrichment program are really shining through! Even though we’ll be two separate bunks next week, “we’ll give a smile all the while ‘cause we made so many friends!” -Dylan and Sarah
Bunk 15 & 17: T hunderStruck There has been no shortage of fun with this group! We have had a very full week of activities and we are getting excited for the seven weeks left. While most of the campers have chosen gaga club, a couple of campers have gone with archery and performing arts to star in the Disney classic Cinderella. The group loves all of the specialties offered, by swim and lunch are something we look forward to everyday, especially on these hot summer days! -Taylor
Bunk Photo s
Bunk Photos are now online and available to download!
Birthdays T his Month June 2 : Dasha Crean, Liam
June 16: Max Orosz, Luca
Jones
Pizzale
June 3: Peyton Klein, Alyssa
June 17: Olivia Escousse
McGuirl, Quinn Abbott,
June 18: Filip Scassellati
Charles Cooperman
Sforzolini
June 4: Charlotte Tuohy
June 20: Ethan Yerow
June 5: Charles Porr
June 21: Patrick
June 6: Elsa Hinrichs
Henderlong, Gregory
June 9: Molly Meenan,
Massey
James Rivello
June 22: Jake Vollero
June 11: Isabella Propper,
June 24: Charlotte
Ruben Kivits
Steinhorn June 25: JW Gustafson, Lila McNamara June 26: Callie Silvey June 28: Michael Hlavaty
m a r g o r P News Low Ropes
The low ropes activity has been a huge success thus far. All campers have been enthusiastic and are active participants. Campers were introduced to the course and were given safety instructions before starting the pursuit. Campers played name games, ice breakers and trust challenges, all activities that encourage working together and supporting one another. We worked on our balancing skills, basic rope skills and tire climbing. Next week, campers will continue to develop more confidence so that teamwork is a part of every camp activity. -Chris
Performing Arts
In music this week we talked about how science is incorporated in music. We showed examples of how sound waves and sound frequencies would travel through the air by making different motions to show the high, low and constant frequencies. We also made tom-tom drums to show how pitch can change depending on the drum. In drama club we began practicing for Cinderella, and it is off to a great start! We look forward to more campers joining so we could have a full cast! Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo! -Stefanie & Taylor
Swimming
This week at the pool the campers had gallons of fun on the AquaClimb and the splash pad. During instructional swim the Kinder Campers excelled as they swam around the shallow end with lifeguards and noodles. The older bunks had lots of fun diving for rings and practicing the freestyle stroke. Many of the campers enjoyed showing off their blue Hi-Hills bracelets representing that they passed the deep end test. We hope to have more fun in the sun at the pool next week! -Ethan
Program News
To all campers: Remember next week is July 4th! No camp on Friday!
Mark You r Calendar
Dates to Rememb er!
Fishing
This summer of fun has started out with a bang! The CITs started the fishing season on Thursday. It was a learning experience and they had a lot of fun. Be sure to hand in those permission slips! Each bunk will get the opportunity to fish twice during the summer. Each trip is at Schooley’s Mountain Park. Let’s hook some big ones this year! -Em
Tennis
Greetings from the Hi-Hills tennis courts! Even though the robots have invaded our campus, the tennis courts are where the action is hot! We have begun to teach the foundations of our lovely sport. The campers are eager to learn. We have begun with the volley in honor of Wimbledon, where the volley is the most prized shot of the game. To lighten the mood, we have played tennis shark, Survivor Island and the ever popular thunderballs. We are delighted to be back on this beautiful campus. We expect the next few weeks to be an incredible, fun-filled experience. -Marc
Archery
In archery this week the campers learned about proper shooting form. We are using the NASP Model (National Archery In the Schools Program). The bows are state-of-theart Genesis bows and the campers are learning JOAD style archery without sights. Archery club members Grace, Emily and Ashley had a fantastic round of shooting at apples, each successfully hitting an apple within a few shots. -Matt H
Program News Pottery
Mad Science Week was an outer space odyssey! Campers blasted off and crafted some rocket ship cups, made earth cereal bowls and molded awesome moon rock cups to take home! The older campers made some planet-themed piggy banks and scientific beakers. We sculpted and formed our masterpieces, gave them a nice coat of paint and fired them in the kiln. They all turned out so great! -Savannah
Nature
Nature is off to a great start. The campers have had the opportunity to learn about a variety of animals as well as hold a snake, hamster and beetle! They have learned about where the animals come from, what their habitat is like and what they eat. Next week we will take our first walk into the Peapack Brook in search of salamanders, fish and macroinvertabrates. -Mr. Nature
Arts & Crafts
In arts & crafts campers were given projects based on the Mad Science theme for our first week. The girls experimented with watercolor and elements such as salt and wax, then observed their artistic experimentation. The boys created sculptures made from hollowed-out eggs and learned about how eggs and their shells are stronger than one would think. Kinder Camp practiced with the science of color mixing and opacity, then ended the week by creating X-rays of their hands! -TT
g n i m o c Up ays D s s e r D
It’s Heritage Week! Wear the colors of the country that you are from!
Weekly Photography Tip:
s c i t e l h t A Corner
From Mackenzie
Zoom In The camera is one of the best tools to document moments. There are so many things you can discover with a camera that you couldn’t see before. Here is what you do: take your camera and zoom into an item that you use every day. It could be your sneakers, your kitchen table or even your favorite pet! Look at what you will discover!
Greetings from Kinder Camp Kinder Camp was off to a great start this past week! We enjoyed getting to know all the children. Each one of them is wonderful! They all had a fantastic time swimming in the pool. It is surprising how quickly they adapt to the water and how confident they are about their swimming ability. Our extra activities have been so much fun. We can’t wait to meet the rest of our playful friends in the upcoming weeks!
Athletics was a blast this week. It was great watching the campers shake off their “school cobwebs” by playing money ball, kickball and side line soccer. Campers also showed off their skills in tennis baseball, soccer and basketball to prepare for another exciting year of Leagues! As always, Hi-Hill campers showed great sportsmanship towards each other. Just a reminder: Leagues officially start on Monday, June 30th!
-Marc and John
ia v i r T y l k Wee Winners
Wednesday: Madison Gesualdo, Oscar Kirk Thursday: Grace Rubinstein, Dylan Vaidya Friday: Christina Tamchin, Andres Castano
aining lors in Tr
Counse
g (CIT) rs in Trainin vities lo e s n u o C cti the out camp a involved in The Teens have been learning ab eir own group. This Program eriencing them in th specialist to learn through expare meeting with eachpecialty. The group week they programs and each s with handling a about the d learned about safety of fishing. The CITs fished an well as the process skills. In working ry as fishing rod orking on their archeforming and they are w ips are eeded. are also eir friendsh and help out when n nacks, th p u ro g a as anded out s w to pitch in learning ho gether our go-carts, hand much more! They put to in t-shirt distribution assisted
Teen Travel It was an awesome first week in Teen Travel at Hi-Hills and on our first trips! On Monday at camp, James Toolan & Morgan Champey scored high in archery in one round. Tuesday we traveled to NYC to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! The campers really enjoyed the mirror where you roll your tongue and make silly faces and then found out we were filmed and we were able to see it on video later. On Wednesday Teen Travel went to Jenkinson’s in Point Pleasant for a day on the boardwalk and the beach. On Thursday we went to Dorney Park where we rode many roller coasters. Friday we prepared a skit for the
Mindy
whole camp to see and enjoy! -Monica
Special Events!
We have had a great start to camp this year and we cannot wait for what is ahead! Wednesday we started Leagues and Trivia and both will continue into the start of next week. For dress up Friday, campers created shiny robotic costumes to celebrate Mad Science week. Keep up the good work!