Bristow Montessori Offers Theme Summer Camps

Each year the Bristow Montessori School on Devlin Road in Bristow offers summer sessions that are theme-focused, academic, fun and teach relevant life skills. This year, Academic Director and lead teacher Anita Ercole has designed a curriculum for four two-week summer camp sessions. These camps differ from anything the school has previously done in the summer. While, they do not follow a strict Montessori curriculum during the summer session, these camps do adhere to the spirit of Montessori education by offering sensory, hands-on experiences in which the children learn while immersed in a collaborative learning environment. “I’m really excited for what our school has to offer for summer camp,” Ercole said. “I believe it’s very unique, but really practical at the same time.” In culinary camp (July 6-17) students will be cooking, baking and preparing food while learning about nutrition, food groups and the tools of the trade, while taking advantage of the school's organic garden. Preschool age students will prepare desserts such as parfaits and smoothies. Elementary students will bake treats such as banana bread and also make more complex desserts like homemade ice-cream. Ercole said students should learn how to follow a recipe as well as how prepare the food at each step in the process. Additionally, campers will participate in a variety of fun culinary activities such as a culinary tools scavenger hunt, decorating their own chef hat and aprons and operating a lemon aid stand. The session culminates with students preparing lunch for their entire class. In the engineering session (July 20-31) campers will explore STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education by following the “Hands for Building” curriculum for pre-school aged campers and the "Engineering Is Elementary" curriculum created by the Boston Science Museum for elementary aged campers. The curriculum allows campers to experience a hands-on, collaborative, experimental civil and mechanical engineering experiences. Campers will attempt to solve daily challenges involving the creation of and testing of the soundness of a bridge they constructed - all while applying the principles of civil engineering. Bristow Montessori owner Sameer Patel expects the camp will help students understand what engineers do and provide them with of a broader understanding of technology in the true spirit of STEM education. “A lot has been made about STEM education,” Sameer said, “but, if you don’t do things well, it doesn’t amount to very much. I’m really impressed with this engineering program. It really works through the creative process and engages the students.” The curriculum is also based in a real-life, multi-cultural scenario that combines the sciences, humanities and practical problem-solving. In the next session, drama and theatre camp (August 3-14), campers will have the opportunity to produce a play with their classmates from inception to production. Campers begin with story concepts and write their own scripts.  They interact with all aspects of theatre from costumes, sets and prop design to acting and directing. Camper groups will perform their plays in front of the school in a “Theatre on the Green,” on the last day of the session. The final camp of the summer session, called “Camp Olympics”(August 17-28), is a sports themed camp that incorporates many classic PE-style sports and camp activities while also teaching students about health and wellness. Campers will be organized into British-style “houses” that will compete against each other. They will play classic sports that may be new to them such as badminton, croquet and archery. The students will also play fun field-day activities such as potato sack races, "egg and spoon", and water balloon tosses. “It’s a very unique look at sports,” said Patel. “It’s an active and fun program, it’s collaborative and most importantly, it's inclusive to students across a diverse athletic spectrum.”