Week 1
Week 1
Overview
05/01/2020 UPDATE:
Summer at Sem has made the decision to move all programming online for the 2020 season. View our Online Summer Explorations Workshops here!
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Summer Explorations is designed to engage our campers in learning and exploring through summer camp workshops that emphasize hands-on experiences and lots of fun!
Experienced teachers, administrators, and teaching interns provide classroom instruction and supervised activities. The program is held on the beautiful Lower School campus in Forty Fort, Pennsylvania.
Enrolled campers may attend a morning session, an afternoon session, or both. Campers can enroll for one, two, or all three weeks. Summer Explorations is designed to be as flexible as you need for all your summer plans.
Workshop sessions are broken up by age group so campers have the best educational and social experience possible.
2020 Workshops
Pre-S & Pre-K
Arts and Crafts with Margaret McCann | (AM)
In this camp, students will draw, paint, color, cut, and glue to our hearts content creating individual masterpieces each day!
Kindergarten-Grade 1
Let Me Read You What I Wrote with Lois Feibus | (AM)
Calling all amazing illustrators and authors to explore age-appropriate and ability-appropriate games and activities in Emergent Writing and Reading with Mrs. Feibus. Discover just how much fun writing and reading can be as you use your skills and learn new ones to help you write and illustrate your own original books about all kinds of things! Write books, create beautiful illustrations, be a guest reader, share what you write, and play literacy games with your friends!
Maker Mania with Meredith Shafer | (AM)
Students in this class will put their hands and brains to use in a variety of ways! Crafting, building, and baking are just the beginning as we spend the week learning and creating together!
Once Upon a Time with Sue Barnes | (AM)
Come experience the magic of fairy tales! Enjoy a wide range of activities in the world of princesses, knights, ogres, and dragons. We will build and create, retell and enjoy classic and global fairy tales. An enchanting time will be had by all!
Picture Book Party with Kayanne Barilla | (PM)
Join some of your favorite picture book friends for a different party every day! Celebrate with Piggie and Elephant, Brown Bear, Mr. Pockles, and more silly friends. Explore a picture book each day, play games, and do crafts with some of our favorite friends…and even some new ones!
Soccer Shots with Jim Darling | (PM)
Get ready to “Celebrate the Cup — France Fever.” Soccer Shots is an engaging children’s soccer program with a focus on character development. Our caring team positively impacts children’s lives on and off the field through best in class coaching, curriculum, and communication. This camp offers soccer skills training, fun games that reinforce newly acquired skills, imaginative play, themed crafts, scrimmages, and stories. Each participant will receive a water bottle and T-shirt that reinforces the camp theme.
Grades 2-4
Lego Stop Motion Movies with Jason Sherry | (AM)
Create the characters, props, and script before shooting your film. Use stop-motion animation and iMovie to create movie magic!
Gardening Science with Barbara Rogers | (AM)
Find out how plants turn the sun’s energy into fuel for our bodies! We’ll explore how we eat plant parts every day, design and plant a garden in the outdoor classroom, make our own tasty snacks, and plant a vegetable garden to take home.
Happily Ever After with Kris McCarthy | (AM)
Magic is happening through favorite fairy tales this week at camp. Each day, we will focus on a different story and create, act out, and enjoy the fantastic stories that we all know and love. come and enjoy a week of fairy tale arts and crafts and more!
Maker Challenge with Harry Shafer | (PM)
This workshop in paper crafting explores the many ways that students can make and create using simple materials. Activities in origami, paper airplanes, fans, and kites are just some of the things that we will design.
Soccer Shots with Jim Darling | (PM)
Get ready to “Celebrate the Cup — France Fever.” Soccer Shots is an engaging children’s soccer program with a focus on character development. Our caring team positively impacts children’s lives on and off the field through best in class coaching, curriculum, and communication. This camp offers soccer skills training, fun games that reinforce newly acquired skills, imaginative play, themed crafts, scrimmages, and stories. Each participant will receive a water bottle and T-shirt that reinforces the camp theme.
Grades 5-8
C.S.I. at Sem with Lisa Iskra | (AM)
Students in this camp will explore crime scene investigation techniques while solving a mystery.
Leaves, Larks, and Language with Iris Oullete | (AM)
Using the environment for inspiration, “Leaves, Larks, and Language: Adventure and Nature Writing for Middle Schoolers” will take the workshop outdoors. Daily activities will include a brief overview on writing fiction and poetry while previewing some examples of nature literature to spark discussion and ideas.
Lego Stop Motion Movies with Jason Sherry | (PM)
Create the characters, props, and script before shooting your film. Use stop-motion animation and iMovie to create movie magic!
Director of Summer Explorations
Meet the Director
John Eidam
John R. Eidam, Jr. is a 1990 graduate of Wyoming Seminary. A member of the full-year faculty since 2010, John currently serves as Director of the Louis Maslow STEM School and teaches fifth-grade science. Also, as part of the Summer at Sem programs, John serves as program director for Summer Explorations on the Lower School campus and coordinates the English Language Institute Summer STEM program.
As STEM director, John strives to inspire STEM thinking, creativity, and innovation through dynamic learning experiences. Dedicated to integrating STEM into the arts and humanities, he is an advocate for helping students develop the right skills to become critical thinkers and problem solvers through interdisciplinary opportunities. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with family, carpentry, and serving the community as a volunteer firefighter.