Teamwork Makes the Dream Work!

Here at Chatham our classes have been particularly great at working as teams in classes and at break time.

Learning to work as a team strengthens not only the lessons being learned in class but friendships as well.  Yesterday we played a new game, "5-4-3-2-1" in which students are asked to spontaneously group themselves in a specific number in order to not get eliminated.  There were groups of all ages working together to problem solve and work to make sure as many children as possible could get into groups.  Here are some pictures!

Check out our flickr page here to see more pictures from the week and to see all the great things the children are working on.  

Positivity at Chatham

This summer's mantra at International Ivy is Educate, Encourage, Empower.  This week at camp we have seen campers, teachers and counselors working together to help each other grow.  The focus has definitely been on the students and helping them to produce their best work.

Educate

In our sewing class our teacher is educating the class with new techniques with patterns and different materials.

Encourage

Our campers have been encouraging each other during break times with creative ideas and good sportsmanship.

Empower

Our students feel confident in the new skills that they learn in class to complete individual challenges. 

Later on in the week the students will get a chance to visit each others' classes for our sharing showcase.  Stay tuned for pictures and videos!

Week One at Chatham

Greetings from Chatham!

This week has flown by!  It has been great to see both returning and brand new campers have such an amazing week.  

Today we had some exciting break times.  This morning we played a kickball tournament for ivy points and to continue working on team building skills.  

During the afternoon break time we were able to enjoy the gorgeous weather to buy lemonade from out Lemonade Stand class.  All of the students were able to discuss the future businesses that they want to start and how this class has helped them.  

In order to see some more pictures of all the great things our campers have done this week, please visit our flickr account here.  Happy camping!

Chatham - End of the Week Wrap-Up

This week at Chatham we had our largest group of campers, but we had so much fun and got so many things done.  One of the best parts of the week was our Friday Lemonade Stand from our Entrepreneurship class.  All of our campers participated in the buying of lemonade, which gave the class a lot of profit and proved helpful for learning how the marketing of a product leads to higher sales.  Please click here to see an animoto slide show of all of the pictures from their sale!

We really emphasized the different parts of STEAM this week - Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.  From computer programming to Singapore math and cake design we saw many of our campers enjoy interests that they are not usually able to focus on outside of camp. Here is a link to our flickr album for week 5 which showcases snapshots from all of our classes and break time activities.  Stay tuned for week 6 posts starting Monday!

Chatham - Week 5 Highlights

What a beautiful week we're having! We have our biggest group of campers in the morning this week with 62 children and we're having an amazing time. 

Our International Ivy Flickr is loaded with amazing pictures from every location.  This is the link to see all the fun that not only the Chatham campers are having but the campers at other locations as well.  

Today we had Wet Day, which kicks off the week's themed days.  With such hot weather it was the perfect outdoor activity.  Thursday is Wacky Hair Day and Friday we are having both Connect Four and Kickball Tournaments.  Stay tuned for pictures! 

Also, check out our first Animoto for the week.  

Happy Halloween from Chatham!

This week at  Chatham is flying by!  This week we have an excellent group of fun-loving campers!  Wednesday was our second Wet Day of the summer and Counselor Krystel and Counselor Dave really made it a lot of fun for the kids.

We also have some campers that are seriously dedicated to Halloween!  Chatham has never had so many kids come in costumes as we did this week.  We have everything from a cactus to a few beautiful mermaids, not to mention a "Thing" or two (or three or four!).  We kept our costumes clean and in good shape because of our rainy day activity.  This week we quizzed the Ivy kids about some camp trivia.   Here are the rest of the pictures from Chatham's second week this summer. 

Halloween in July at Chatham

Chatham got into the spirit of Theme Thursday by wearing their Halloween costumes to camp today! Campers came dressed as sports players, a cowgirl, a zombie cheerleader, and many more. Our Minecraft teacher Dan came dressed as a Minecraft man, and some students even got to try on his costume. Also some of the female staff dressed up as Miss America contestants each representing a different state. All in all the campers looked BOO-tiful in their costumes!

Having a Great Monday at Chatham!

Week 2 is off to a great start at Chatham! We have some new campers as well as some familiar faces from last week! During morning break, we played name games and each camper got to share interesting facts about themselves!

We are looking forward to having a great second week! Students will take part in classes such as Shark Tank, Minecraft, Robotics, Machinework, Chess, as well as many more exciting classes! Stay tuned for more blog posts and pictures from all of us over in Chatham!

Runway Modeling and Fashion Cosmetics - Chatham

I think this class is super fun.  I learned a lot about make up and modeling.  I hope I get to do this class again.   - E. W. 

If you really like designing and modeling this is a really fun class for you!  Not only do we model but in this class we do lots of makeup and designing.  Not only do you do so many activities in this class but you lean a lot along the way.  I recommend this to everyone and I hope to do this again!  - A.C.

Short Hills Week 3: Brain Training

CLICK HERE for a video of a quick synopsis of what Brain Training is and how to play the Brain Card Game.

Short Hills: End of Week 3 Student Blogs

"This camp is so fun! I take Robotics and Minecraft. The teachers are so nice here! This camp is the best place ever." -J.P.

"I really enjoy this camp because of several things. The teachers are really nice, during breaks and activities we do a lot of active things. There's also a day to get wet, it's called Wet Day! If you like legos, then you should really checkout the Robotics class. Also, you can meet a lot of new friends here!" -S.B. 

"This camp is really fun. We get to build cool stuff. In the morning I'm in Robotics class and in the afternoon, I'm in Minecraft. My most favorite creation that I built in Robotics class was the Explorer robot. In Minecraft, my favorite part was building and creating my house. So far, I've had a good time at camp!" -R.A.

"In Video Game Creation class, you create your own video games using special commands to program the objects to do things. But before you can create the objects for the game, you first need to create spirits. Otherwise, your objects won't have any faces. You can customize and upload pictures for the spirits. Currently, this is my favorite class!" -A.B.

"This week has been amazing so far! I am taking Video Game Creation and Brain Training at International Ivy. The camp is really great! The counselors are so kind and generous. I hope we can come here for another week. International Ivy ROCKS!" -S.N.

"I am doing an incredible and fun video game in my Video Game Creation class. You get to make your own video games and play them. The Video Game Creation class teaches you how to make your own game. I took Video Game Creation 1, and I'm currently taking Video Game Creation 2. Video Game Creation 2 is much harder than 1, but 2 is more fun than 1. This video game class is awesome ! I recommend this class for people who want to have fun and like being creative." -E.H.

"Future Engineers and Inventors is an awesome class. Yesterday we made these really cool bouncy balls. We had to wait for the bouncy balls to dry but at home I got to bounce it all I wanted to. One time we made catapults! We had a competition to see who could launch Sour Patch Kids in a bucket and I won! I love this class and its my favorite!" -N.P.

"Video Game Creation 2 was fun. I liked how I was able to learn to make games that I play at home sometimes. Although my class was class, I felt like I got more individual attention. Overall, I had a good experience and I would recommend this class to others." -N.W.

"Future Engineers and Inventors was my favorite class. On the first day of my class the teacher talked about so many people who invented stuff." - N.R.

"International Ivy is a great place to be. I'm learning so much from my teacher Nicole. With the help of the Future Engineers and Inventors class I can become an inventor when I grow up. I like this class and I love International Ivy summer camp. - E.P.

"In Minecraft you can build, hunt, fly, and blow things up. My favorite part is building. Once, I blew up part of a TNT wall and I replaced it with iron ore, gold ore, coal ore, and solid gold. - B.C.

"I did the Video Game Creation class. On the first day we made a game called Catch the Clown. On day two we made Evil Clutches. On day three we made Galactic Mail. On days four and five we got to make out own games! I really enjoyed this class!! - M.S.

Writing

This week we are taking a creative writing class in the morning.  In this class we wrote about a special moment that we had in our life.  Then we focused on dialogue to make a skit.  I think this class is very helpful for our classes next year.

**W.G. + A.B.**

Creative Writing Class

Right now, I am in Creative Writing.   Today was pretty fun.  We made skits and wrote about our own moments. 


~M.L.

I love singing camp because you get to do a lot of cool things like getting to record your own personal song that you write.  Another thing I like about singing camp is you get ivy points and when you get a prize for 50 ivy points.  Another thing I like are the counselors are very nice too and they are funny.  The only counselor I know is Jaimee because she writes the ivy points for my class and she stays in our room a lot.  I want to come to this camp again because it is super super fun.  
**F.F.** 

A Post From our International Student

One of our international students in the singing class wrote a post.  We are going to miss her terribly!

These days I took two lessons of singing class.  We learned a lot.  And I learned a lot of kinds of music.  Then we should write songs and we are going to sing it.  It's hard for me.  I can't even write a song.  Maybe it's different in the class than from what I imagine.  But it's ok.  I think when I come back to China I will tell m friends about this singing class.  It's so cool!  And I will go back to China on Friday.  And I must be very sad and I will miss here a lot and miss the summer camp a lot. 


**F.C.

I am in singing sensation.  We are having a show.  We are also recording.  I love this class.  We learned about different types of music, and we got to dance with our friends.  

-A.L.

The things we did in singing were great.  WE got to learn more things about singing.  We get to record a song.  We can do it with someone or just do it ourselves.  Then we can perform it in front of our parents.  But we have to record our songs and then we're going to do a group song.  

~C.T.

I take singing lessons at this camp.  Out teacher is Tania.  I love working with her.  We are recording ourselves and making a CD.  We are also having a concert for our parents.  We also wrote our own song!  It has been great over the days at International Ivy camp.  If you love to sing, take the singing class!  I assure you that you're going to love it!


By,
A.F.

Counselor Post #11

Week 5 got off to a great start yesterday! I was able to help out in our Advanced Video Game Design class and the kids have started designing really great fantasy games. It was fun to see them all design their characters and the "rooms" in which the game will take place. Although everyone's first room shared the same theme, wilderness, they were all different because each kid added his or her own personal touches. I can't wait to see what they come up with today!

- Rebecca

Today in my opinion was the 2nd best day of Weird & Amazing science camp because we played dodgeball and I was the last one standing in my team.    I dodged all the balls the other team threw, then I threw a ball at the other team.  But someone caught it.  After that we played again and had water.  One of the leaders poured water all over me, then we hunted for our circles.  After that we did a few more things.  Then we made flip books.  Weird & Amazing Science was a great, fun, amazing camp.  But was made it super good was I made nice new friends, like E.B., A.L., my teacher Amanda and my counselor Stephanie.  I had so much fun. 

By: M.W.