This summer the Greenbelt Recreation Kinder Camp Connect program has looked drastically different from the Kinder Camp programs of the past. For instance, this summer the pre-school aged campers have worked entirely from the safety of their own homes. With COVID-19 closing down the Community Center, staff quickly shifted their focus from in-person camps to virtual camps. Kinder Camp staff members Taylor Hardy, Teresa Trozzo, Nadia Constanza and
Shantel Morton immediately started working to come up with new ways to keep campers virtually engaged.
Kinder Camp had three camp sessions, each two weeks long, each week having its own theme. To ensure that all campers had the materials needed for camp, the staff created take-home activity bags full of various arts and crafts materials and supplies. These themed activity bags were handed out to parents and then paired with instructional videos on Google Classroom. Trozzo filled that virtual, online classroom with numerous arts and crafts videos for the parents to be able to help their campers, while Constanza and Morton added plenty of fun exercise videos and science experiments.
Each week started with a Monday Morning Meet-Up through Zoom where staff explained to the campers and their parents what was in store for the upcoming week. This was the perfect opportunity for campers to go through their activity bags and see what fun crafts and activities had been planned for them. Fast forward to Friday when everyone met again through Zoom for the Friday Show and Tell. This meeting definitely seemed to be everyone’s favorite since it allowed each of the campers to share their crafts and talk about their favorite activities from the week.
Though Kinder Camp Connect was something new, not only for the campers and their families but the staff as well, it was a big success. The parents’ willingness to take on more in their daily lives to help with this at-home summer camp definitely made all the difference. The hard-working, determined staff and the adaptable parents were able to pull off a fun, virtual summer camp for the kids. Though unconventional, this summer’s virtual Kinder Camp Connect program turned out to be a huge hit among both the campers and their parents.
