2016 Summer Newsletter: Week 1: Spain

Wow, what a wonderful week! We all had a blast this week learning about Spain! We danced flamenco with our home made castañuelas, we talked about “la playa” the beach and made beach “pelotas” and “cangrejos” or crabs out of cups and pipe cleaners. So cute!

 Older campers also worked on water science exploring the impact of oil spills on our oceans. They investigated the challenge of removing oil from water. Ask your camper what worked best!

We introduced the Vamonos NOLA Super Hero League (courtesy of Discovery Kids) where campers talked about being Super Heroes for Peace with their Vamonos NOLA capes! They created their own “titeres” or puppets and had a puppet show using their new vocabulary!

The bouncy water slide was a huge success and we incorporated water balloons, discovery ice blocks and water science for the older kids – who, by the way, still wanted to bounce! ;-)

We also had our first ever screen time. It was for 30 minutes which afforded the teachers an invaluable opportunity to meet and plan. The kids loved seeing the playful and  fun Pocoyo in Spanish!

Several Vamonos “Soles” or Suns were awarded for campers who were modeling characteristics of a Vamonos Camper. From sharing and being a good friends to keeping our environment cleaner than we found it, these amazing kids made it hard to choose! Keep it up campers!

Perhaps some of you saw the amazing and creative animals that came home on Friday? That was part of a camper favorite “Estación de Innovación” Innovation Station!  We love seeing the kids’ creativity come to life this way! 

To help us keep our innovation station fully stocked donations of a few household items for us including:

·         -- paper towel or toilet paper rolls

·         --empty water bottles

·         --lids   ( I love the ones from the fruit/veggie pouches)

·         Also any extra plastic grocery bags are welcome for us to reuse for wet bathing suits!

Lastly I wanted to thank everyone for their patience as we ironed out a few kinks during carpool, and the exchange of clothing… That being said, I want to add one more structure and a few reminders to help us run even more smoothly next week!

·         In addition to the bucket for lunch boxes and nap mats we will have a bucket for the gallon bag of EXTRA clothes. This is not the clothes that they will change into after water play, but the optional in-case-of-emergency clothes that is packed in a labeled gallon ziplock bag. This way they don’t get confused about what to put on or go into wardrobe selection mode which will help keep the laundry load down! (a high priority in my house ;-)

·         Speaking of laundry, Vamonos NOLA T-Shirts, towels and nap mats (as needed) should come back laundered every Monday. We will send it all home with you on Friday again.

·         Lastly a word about water! It is a hot summer and hydration is KEY to having a safe and fun summer. As such, we provide a VN Cup for all campers with their name on it and have scheduled water breaks along with having water available in every area of camp. So while water bottles are optional, we are asking that if your child is a NUBE (3-4 y/o) you go ahead and send a LABELED water bottle. We noticed that more water is ending up on the floor than in thirsty bellies with our little guys, so this may just be the answer! (They will still have their cups available throughout the day as well – just one more opportunity for MORE WATER!)

Thank you so much for all of the feedback! We LOVE hearing how excited kids are to come back on day two and three, what they loved about the day and what they are coming home saying in Spanish! It makes our work that much more rewarding!

On that note, I will leave you. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and for those who we won’t see again until later in the summer – hasta pronto! We enjoyed having each and every camper for week one of what is shaping up to be a FANTASTIC summer!

Hasta Pronto,

Kyrstie y Nancy

& the Vamonos NOLA team

Who is with your kids:

Co Owners Sra. Nancy  & Sra. Kyrstie (from Argentina)

Nubes (the younger group)

Sr. Soren (From Colombia)

 Sra. Mercedes (From Dominican Republic)

Sra. Katy ( From Peru)

Srta. Riley (amazing volunteer from Lusher)

Soles ( middle group)

Sra Viviana ( From Ecuador)

 Srta Justina (studied in Chile)

Srta. Olivia ( Studied in Brazil )

Estrellas ( the older group)

Srta. Natalie (studied in Argentina)

Srta. Cata ( studied in Argentina)

Srta. Leena (from Nicaragua)

Srta. Mariam ( amazing volunteer from Newman)