Sand cakes, anyone? The children of Hazel Drive (and their teachers, too!) had a wonderful season of fun, friends and laughter at our Hazel Drive Camp! It was a summer filled with the simple pleasures of childhood!
Weekly themes created a framework for our fun and learning!
Our campers created dimensional crabs with sand paint, fish with colorful, glittery scales and beautiful sand castle art to go with our beach theme.
We celebrated our nation's birthday with songs and projects: "Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue!"
Dragonflies and ladybugs adorned our walls and many refrigerators during Bug Week. Of course, real dragonflies and ladybugs are frequent visitors to the playground and our pool towels!
Picnic Week inspired fun art projects like watermelons (with the seeds, thank you!) and yummy-looking hot dogs. But wait!....Do I see some uninvited guests on my plate? The children had a lot of fun making ants with their fingertips and some black paint! We were also inspired to have our morning snacks picnic style out on our plush green lawn!
Camping Week was so much fun! A tent was created by suspending sheets from the ceiling. With the help of Miss Gloria's electric pretend campfire, we toasted delicious pretend marshmallows on pretend sticks and told funny, spooky stories around the "fire." We sang camp songs like "Hello, My Name is Flo" and "The Frog Song..." We all know frogs go "(clap!) La-dee-dah-dee-dah!" And weren't those camo-painted tents just adorable with their little faces peeking out the doors?
Yo, ho, ho! Ahoy, Mateys! The children enjoyed making sailing ships, pirate flags and paper plate pirate faces. The theme culminated in a treasure hunt that led us all around the Hazel Drive campus!
Our end-of-summer Carnival generated a lot of excitement as the children played games like "Pin the Patch on the Pirate," "Goin' Fishin'," "Rubber Duck Match," and many more! They collected their tickets for playing the games, and were very pleased with their pinwheel prizes!
We enjoyed a generous harvest of tomatoes this year! We'd watched as the plants grew throughout the spring and early summer, seeing the flowers bloom and the tiny green fruits take their places! When the tomatoes finally ripened to an appealing red, we marched out to the garden to enjoy nature's bounty. The teachers cut the tomatoes in half for safety, and the children ate them enthusiastically and asked for more! As Hazel says, "Eat your veggies," and nothing inspires this more than growing and picking your own!
We had many opprtunites for music, art and outdoor fun, both wet and dry! The children played a lot of games that evolved throughout the summer weeks. They lined up for their daily "Car Wash" and were delighted when Miss Gloria declared them "THE WINNER!!!" for being wet from head to toe! They enjoyed doing splashy "cannonballs" in the pools, pretending to be mermaids and mermen, and making "water angels" in the pools - think snow angel in a bathing suit! Each day after swim time, the boys and girls eagerly anticipated the ringing of the bell that announced the arrival of the ice pops! Made from orange or grape juice, this wholesome treat cooled us off on the inside after our outsides were cooled by the water play! Wonderful! 
Well, all things must come to a close, and the Summer of 2013 is no exception. But is was a summer that will truly live on in our memories! We look back with gladness, and look ahead with the happy anticipation that always accompanies the words "Back to School." Enjoy the last, lingering days of August, and we'll see you soon!
Love,
Miss Laura and Miss Gloria
