We are still building our food supplies to donate to charity – our goal is 500 items. Please bring any items you can to help us reach our goal and have Camp Director Chris Horan’s head shaved for charity. Thanks to all the parents for sending your camper to the J Day Camps and specifically Maccabi Sports Camp – we truly appreciate and enjoy every moment.
Camp Essman Gadol It was another awesome week at camp! Our theme this week was Nature, and everyone enjoyed the activities related to it. Campers had fun going on a nature scavenger hunt. They found things like seeds, leaves, and pine cones. In Art, the campers got to make their own pet rocks. It was exciting to watch their creativity as they turned an ugly rock into a cute animal. In Music, the campers sang a variety of songs. The nature theme continued into TAG as the campers talked about The Lorax, and how humans affect our environment. Then they created their own pictures of Truffula trees. In sports this week, we played a variety of games that the campers loved. Especially fun was a game created by one of our own campers! Cooking was delicious as always, as the campers got to make their own taco dip. Our Wacky Wednesday this week “dress like a hippie day.” It was great to see camp so full of bright tie-dyes! We interacted with animal puppets in Nature with Chuck, and learned some fun facts about animals.
2013 JCC Day Camp Splatter
Camp Essman Katan
June 28, 2013 / 20 Tamuz 5773 Vol. 7 - Issue 4
Who can believe we have finished week four of Camp Essman Katan? The summer is flying by and we are having so much fun! At the pool, our campers are becoming little fish. Everyone is learning so much in their swimming lessons. This week in Nature, we got to listen to the ocean with Miss Debby’s sea shells. In TAG this week, campers learned about Dr. Suess’s the Lorax. We all made our own little nature world. We missed Miss Sapir this week! She went to Nashville with the teen camp. But we sang lots of songs with Miss Sally and we made dirt cups with gummy worms in cooking with Miss Debby! Yummm.
Nature is in our backyard Article by Chuck Hardy The symbol this week was Love of Nature, or Ahava Sh’mirat Haguf. J Day Campers have the opportunity to explore nature, which gives our camps a “built-in” programming advantage over other camps. The acreage at the campground at the Millstone Campus has almost any type of habitat one would find in Missouri: woodland, scrubland, grassland and wetland. There are many interesting plants and animals which either live there permanently or pass through; nature puts on a show which is sometimes subtle, but ever-changing.
The very best part of the week was on Friday when we celebrated National Mud Day! We played in the mud and slid on the slip-n-slide! We had the time of our lives! We welcomed a new friend, Mason, and had to say goodbye to our friend Payton. We can’t wait to see what next week will bring!
This week, campers helped make some changes to the environment to make it more suitable for ourselves and the wildlife. We planted bamboo in a bare spot; perhaps in a few years we will have material for crafts grown on site. We planted sunflowers to feed birds, and planted a shade wildflower garden in the old nature area. The wildflowers will provide nectar for bees and hummingbirds, and then seeds for birds when the flowers go to seed. We have also been checking on the progress of our two Pawpaw trees. The Pawpaw is the largest fruit indigenous to North America. While few Americans have eaten one, Thomas Jefferson prized them, growing them at Monticello and taking the seeds to Paris so he could grow them while he was there. The leaves are eaten by Zebra Swallowtails, and the bark contains compounds useful as a natural pesticide and compounds which show promise in fighting tumors. Pawpaws are an under-story tree which spread, so perhaps we will have a stand of them someday.
On Friday, our camp traveled to Powder Valley to enjoy a day among nature. The campers loved walking through the woods and seeing wildlife up close. It was another amazing week here at camp!
We also put two bird feeders up this week, one with seed and one with suet cakes. Woodpeckers are very fond of the latter. In past years, we had a hummingbird feeder, but this always filled with huge black ants. We did plant wildflowers, so hopefully the hummingbirds will be content with those.
Shabbat Shalom
Staenberg Family Complex 2 Millstone Campus Drive St. Louis, MO 63146
Marilyn Fox Building
16801 Baxter Road Chesterfield, MO 63005
314-432-5700 jccstl.org
A kindergarten group at the Millstone Campus got an unexpected thrill
Monday: Workers were cutting the grass on the ball fields, and apparently a deer was hiding in the greenery near the tennis courts. Right at noon, the doe took off and ran west into the grass, leaping the fence . . . But then pausing, looking back to see what had scared her, and finally grazing a bit before moving on! On Thursdays, Chuck Hardy, our nature specialist, heads to the Fox Building, and although the Fox Building does not have the acreage that the Millstone Campus has, there are interesting things to see in the outdoors there. The Fox Building sits on a bluff overlooking Bonhomme Creek and the old Rock Island railroad tracks. Buzzards kettle over the bluffs; there is scrubland and a stand of sand willows along the edge of the playing fields. A variety of animals leave trails into and out of the vegetation there. Although the camp season is short, campers do get to witness the changing of seasons during the summer. When camp starts, spring flowers are still blooming; there are May Apples (a.k.a. American Mandrake) and Linden trees in bloom. Birds are sitting on their eggs; the mornings are sometimes so cool that campers are reluctant to get in the pool. Then comes the heat for which Saint Louis is famous. There is still a lot of summer left when camp ends, but still, young birds have left the nests and are starting to congregate and give some thought to flying south. Spiders are getting busy catching the bugs they will need if they are to survive the winter; spiders are creepy to begin with, but the increased number of webs one sees in the late summer and fall may account for their popularity in Halloween decorations. By the last week of camp, yellow leaves fallen from the walnut trees carpet the ground. Soon, the campers are back in school, and the J staff is planning for the following year’s camp. Happy Camping, Joey Boime, J Day Camp Director
Discover the Spirit
Camp Kehillah
Hyman Multin Sports Track In addition to the sports activities the campers play with their counselors, each group also has a “Sport Focus” of the week. Sports coordinator Kyle Harrigan provides campers with sportspecific skill instruction followed by games. With LeBron and the Heat’s repeat NBA championship less than a week old, this week’s sport focus was basketball. Like the Heat’s run to consecutive championships, this week’s activities were built upon the fundamentals of basketball. With different drills and games such as knockout, dribble relays and lay-up lines; campers were able to work on their shooting, dribbling, and passing skills. Afterwards, campers divided into even teams and competed against each other in a round-robin tournament in an attempt to crown the new kings and queens of (J Camp) basketball.
a special performance by the competitive tumbling team, getting to jump and flip on trampolines, and play in the pits filled with foam! During Arts and Crafts on Wednesday the campers made pom pons to use in their rocking dance performance during Shabbat. Gymnastics campers had a great time learning new gymnastic skills this week while also improving on other skills during their lessons. Camp Kehillah
Milton Frank Camp of the Arts
The sports camp award winners from week four? were Lindsey M. from Girls Got Game & counselor Max F. from group #2. Congratulations to both!
Camp Kehillah
Gymnastics, Cheer, & Dance Track The theme for J Day Camps this week was Nature, so campers and staff dressed in hippie outfits to encourage peace and friendship for Wacky Wednesday! The highlight of gymnastics camp this week was the field trip to Gateway Kids World on Thursday. Campers had a blast watching
Camp of the Arts FOX Camp of the Arts took a trip around the globe for Around the World in a Week! On Monday, they made passports with pictures and pages for each country. The first stop was Kenya, where campers made lion footprints and listened to Broadway’s The Lion King. On Tuesday, they went to Japan for a day full of Eastern art. Campers made Anime puppets, koi fish kites, decorative fans and 3D sushi art. They listened and interpretive danced to Japanese folk music and even learned phrases in Japanese. Wednesday, it was off to Mexico and dress like a hippie day, and we won most spirited! Travelers learned about Day of the Dead, and made skulls and sombreros while listening to mariachi music. In cooking, they made seven-layer dip with chips and especially loved the taco seasoning! Thursday was Israel day, when campers learned about the map, letters, Hebrew, and made falafel. Finally on Friday, Arts Camp “visited” England where they recited Shakespeare, threw a Beatles-Mania
dance party and enjoyed tea and biscuits! Campers swimming skills are getting stronger every week and they had lots of fun racing down the slides at the pool. Camp of the Arts SFC Camp of the Arts lived up Nature theme this week. The Apples group, led by Jody Gerth, started the week by making leaf rubbings, drawing their favorite outdoor place and painting trees. They made keepsake boxes out of recycled strawberry boxes with feathers and jewels. The Apples got a taste of theatre by performing “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” The Oranges, led by Alex Woodruff, made owl candy containers from mason jars and colorful flowers out of tissue paper. They played lots of theatre improv games and acted out nature. They also made Wanted posters from the Wild West! Both groups enjoyed a taste of Mexico with 7-layer dip and tortilla chips in cooking class. Campers also experienced the thrill of learning fencing techniques with a specialist this week, complete with all the gear. On Friday, the Gesher Music group performed especially for Arts Camp! Camper’s swimming skills are getting stronger every week they stayed cool with free time at the pool.
Camp Nat Koplar I can’t believe that we have already had four weeks of camp. The weather has finally turned to summer. We had a great beginning of the week – then the heat hit. We actually enjoyed the change. This week in Art, campers made paper out of pulp that was almost prepared. Then they were able to flatten it out and then form it to a bowl mold. We also put bleeding tissue paper on the bowls so they would take on color and look pretty. As expected, the swimming pool has been a bustle of activity. The campers were tested to see if they have improved their skills enough
to move up to the next swimming level. Part of the swimming program is for the children to gain skills in floating, strokes, and the ability to flip over from front to back and then back to front. They are also working on bobs (which is going up and down in the water, bouncing off the bottom). All of these skills are ways for the campers to be safe in the water and gives them the ability to help themselves if they find themselves in an unsafe water situation. Most of the campers are already moving up one Swim Level! We had a fantastic time celebrating International Mud Day. We slipped and slid. We had bowls and tins, spoons and strainers. We have never had such a great time at camp before. The campers enjoyed being able to play in mud and nobody yelled, and no one said, “NO DON’T DO THAT!” What a great time to be a kid. In Nature, Hillary showed the kids what soap does to oil and water when dropped in. It was a very hands-on experience for the kids. We used milk and food coloring so they could see what happened. It was really cool – ask your camper about it. They also learned what happens when you mix vinegar and baking soda. The vinegar was in a water bottle and the baking soda was in a balloon connected to the top. When the campers mixed the two, “GAS” formed. Ask what happened to the balloon! Have a wonderful and cool weekend. Shabbat Shalom. Camp Kehillah
Sidney R. Baer Track The rising temperature didn’t exceed the degree of fun we had this week at Baer. The outdoor heat was foiled by interest in our main indoor event of fencing. Campers assumed the basic ready position once the instructor called, “En Garde!” “Allez” and “Advance” were a few other terms campers learned as they battled each other in full gear. In Mitzvah Mania, we learned to value nature through stories. We even learned some Hebrew colors as we searched for specific leaf colors. Groups learned some Israel trivia during Israeli
Alive, and in nature, campers scattered some flax seed for our forest creatures. Campers also enjoyed Wacky Olympic Games in the gym, which included paper plate races. Nature scenes were painted during art, and brought back by popular demand was Minute To Win It, which included games of Twister and pyramid-building with cups. In Drama, kids acted out the Little Red Hen while campers created a 7-layer dip to recognize the significance nature played on biblical Egyptian times (reflecting 7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine). Knock-Out was one game played during sports. We cheered for our cool hippies on Wednesday and our week concluded with a visit to the Science Center. Talk about an action-packed week!
Ben Akiba Teen Mitzvah Camp As Minnie Pearl used to say, “HowwwDeeee!” Teen Camp took a road trip to Music City – Nashville, Tennessee. One of our first stops was the world famous Grand Ole Opry, where everyone from Hank Williams and Roy Acuff to Taylor Swift and Blake Shelton have played. On Wednesday, we visited the Hermitage, home of the seventh President of the United States, Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson. It was hot in Nashville. But when it gets hot, Teen Camp stays cool, so we spent the rest of the day at Nashville Shores Water Park. We relaxed that night with a little shopping and a choice of Monsters University or World War Z at the movie theater. It was a great time, y’all!
Maccabi Sports Camp The Race for the Cup has come to an end! It was a fun and exciting four weeks. The games, competitions and point-gathering all concluded today (Friday). It was a close battle all summer long, with the Gold team holding a lead for the first two and a half weeks and then the Blue team surging to the lead the last couple of weeks. More than 80 campers competed on each team over the course of the Race for the Cup – and everyone contributing to the legacy that was started in the summer of 2011. The campers played more than 20 different sports and games over the past 20 days, gaining points for winning, losing or tying. The score has been so close the past two weeks that neither team has ever held more than a 20-point advantage. The campers have really given 100% all summer, motivated to succeed and become the third ever winner of the Maccabi Sports Camp Silver Cup. Everyone was a part of the celebration and awards ceremony. We had a BBQ to celebrate the end to a wonderful fourweek Race for the Cup. Next week is the inaugural Wet and Wild Camp, where we will visit water parks and enjoy all sorts of water-based activities. After that we are bringing back J Baseball week and then NFL Flag Football week, and then Chaminade head basketball coach Kelvin Lee will be here. In addition, we are adding to our Girls Got Game Camp this summer with three weeks of sports and fitness geared for girls. Let us know if you’d like to hang with the girls and play sports all day long.