Curious Camp 2024

Mobile Campus

Author:

Christina Douramani

Short summary:

Do you want to know more about the exciting Summer Camp that took place in August in Sonnenpark (St.Pölten)? This week-long adventure was packed with outdoor activities designed to spark creativity and foster a love for nature among children. From engaging in hands-on crafts to exploring local parks, the camp offered a diverse range of experiences that kept kids active and entertained.

Hello everyone! My name is Christina, and I come from Greece. I will spend three months in St. Pölten for an Erasmus+ Internship at Green Steps. During the second week of my internship, I had the opportunity to participate in the Curious Camp, a summer camp for children aged 6-12. The camp took place in St. Pölten, with Sonnenpark as our base, and it was filled with multi-sensory activities and games designed to engage and educate the children. The camp’s primary focus was to engage the children with nature in a way that was both educational and enjoyable, allowing them to learn through direct experience and play

Each day began at around 8:30 a.m. with board games inside the climate research lab (Klimaforschungslabor). The rest of the day was spent outdoors, exploring nature and engaging in various sensory activities. We visited different places such as Kaiserwald and Ratzersdorf, where the children played on playgrounds, swam, and participated in a variety of games. These games were designed to be inclusive and focused on developing different skills.

One of the unique aspects of Curious Camp was the flexibility it offered the children. While there was a schedule of activities, the kids were never forced to participate in anything they didn’t want to. Some children chose to engage fully in all the planned activities, while others preferred to create their own games or projects. For example, on the last day of camp, the children took the initiative to put on a theatre play for us. It was a delightful performance, with leaves serving as our tickets and fruits picked from nearby trees as our snacks. The play included singing, dancing, and a great deal of laughter, with everyone joining in the applause at the end.

In my opinion, one of the most memorable activities of the camp was when the children built their own teepees in the trees. This project involved not only physical activity—searching for the perfect branches and learning to tie different knots—but also a great deal of imagination. Each child crafted their own bow and arrow, which became part of the elaborate storylines they created. They played house, imagining themselves as a royal family, complete with a loyal dog, living in their tree-based “palace.” This activity allowed the children to fully immerse themselves in their imaginative world, blending elements of nature, creativity, and teamwork.

Another favorite activity, both for me and the children, was called “salt and chalk jars.” This activity was excellent for improving fine motor skills and fostering creativity. The children would scrape chalk onto salt to create different colors, then they would lay the colored salt into jars. They loved choosing their own colors, allowing them to express their creativity. This activity not only allowed the children to experiment with colors and design but also left them with a tangible, decorative object that they could take home as a memento of their time at camp.