Kids Camp - A Kids Corporation Education and Healthcare Program for Newark Kids

KIDS CORPORATION II

Kids Summer Camp

As an incentive to stay in summer school and as an educational field trip, the students attending our 2 Model Kids Schools and 35 Partner Programs throughout Newark get to make weekly day trips to Kids Summer Camp, where they investigate nature, swim in the pool, create art, learn teamwork skills, and get health exams. An average of 200 different children visit each day, and the activities and curriculum change each week, so that every visit to Kids Camp is a new and engaging exploration. Each week's theme is tailored to work in tandem with the in-school curriculum, for an inter-disciplinary approach that maximizes our ability to engage and teach in-depth concepts.

Kids Camp provides children with positive experiences: to experience the beauty of unspoiled nature, to face and overcome challenges, to develop leadership qualities and to feel the joy of discovery. Most of all, Kids Camp surrounds students with opportunities to expand their minds and extend themselves. It's a daylong adventure in learning. Throughout the day, the staff seizes upon every opportunity to capitalize on teachable moments: making connections to classroom instruction, stimulating the children's senses and imagination, and surrounding the children with opportunities to explore new worlds. For over thirty years, this important program that benefits 2,000 children city-wide has been supported by the imaginative minds at The Prudential Foundation.

Science and Nature Exploration Every visit to Kids Camp includes hands-on natural science instruction which corresponds to the in-school curriculum. We strive to jumpstart each student's interest in the sciences and engage them with a fascination for the wonders of nature. The children study biodiversity, ecology, the food chain, pollution and conservation, and weather cycles in tangible experiments and on-site laboratories. They also learn about the variety of animals, insects and plant life that live in the area, and develop an appreciation and respect for all living things. We emphasize the interdependence of all of nature's elements, and compare that to the relationships of our own families, schools and communities.
	Team Building and Leadership Development A variety of team building and challenge course events are scheduled throughout the day. Children learn the value of working together, develop respect for one another and explore issues related to individual responsibility. Instructors help students recognize their own strengths and the contributions they can make to a collaborative effort. The program is designed so that each child will have a "success experience" during the day, when they are the one to lead the team or solve the problem. A class's dynamic can change radically when the "shy kid" gets a chance to lead or the "class clown" becomes part of a team effort.
Health and Wellness Our full time Pediatric Nurse provides health screenings for all 2nd and 3rd graders (with parental permission) in the Healthcare Foundation of NJ Health Clinic. We are looking for conditions that are prevalent among Newark children and which inhibit learning, such as significant tooth decay and poor eyesight. Typically, 20% of the students need eyeglasses, 10% have urgent dental needs, and 25% lack health insurance. Our Healthcare Coordinator arranges free follow-up treatment for every child. The health program is supported by the generosity of NJ's Jewish community. Students also participate in educational workshops related to healthy behavior: nutrition, proper hygiene, physical fitness, and avoiding drug, alcohol and tobacco use.
	Pool Time For many of our 2,000 students, the thrill of spending time each week splishing and splashing through our pool is all the reward they need for their hard work in the classroom all week long. It is amazing to see our kids, mature beyond their years, let down their guards and become children again as they play, dunk, and sing Ring Around the Rosie. In the very near future, we will be constructing a new pool for the children to replace our small, very old current pool. The new one will be only 12" deep, to accommodate our little ones, and will have various elements like umbrellas and flowers that rain down water.
Art Studies Students learn about a different art form every time they visit us, and the topics of expression are interwoven with our weekly nature curriculum for maximum learning potential. Exposure to new techniques stimulates creativity and generates intellectual growth. In conjunction with the other field trips we offer to our Partner Programs, a child may learn about and create an Impressionist painting at Kids Camp, then see a Van Gogh at the Newark Museum the following week. Our goal is to broaden the students' horizons and allow them to discover new talents.
	Staff Kids Corporation actively recruits college students to serve as teacher assistants and camp counselors in our summer programs; in fact, a love of children and a year of college are our only fixed requirements for hiring! We hire college students of every background and major, so that a child who loves math is bound to encounter an engineer-to-be, and a child engaged by the arts can be taught by a theatre major. We encourage the children to write letters to their favorite counselor, and many of those pen-pal relationships blossom into mentoring. Our staff understands that they serve as real-life, attainable role models for every Kids Corp kid. Our goals are simple: providing for the experience of a lifetime, living in community with individuals of other backgrounds, and changing the lives of children.