Join us for a fun and engaging experience as we travel the following Spanish speaking countries to explore their culture, events and celebrations through hands-on activities:  Music, arts and crafts, science, animals, food and more. Spain and Peru (week 1), Mexico and Costa Rica (week 2), Colombia and Ecuador (week 3).

The students will start the day with an interactive, comprehensible and engaging Spanish lesson.  They will be exposed through play to vocabulary and expressions that are useful and focused on communication.

Arts and Crafts:  Each student will be given a t-shirt each week.  We will tie dye our camp t-shirts with all sorts of techniques and designs to celebrate summer. We will have an interactive art class about Picasso.  We are also going to make individual Mexican “piñatas”. Face painting will be available.

STEM activities:    Did you know that Costa Rica has 6 active and 61 dormant volcanoes?  We will learn the physical and chemical reactions of some basic ingredients to make a “volcano” erupt.

Food:  Campers will make delicious snacks typical of the countries of study.  Did you know that Peru has more than 4,000 types of potatoes? We will make a delicious Peruvian dish with them. We will also make tacos and chocolate skulls from México.

Music and Instruments:  We’ll have an interactive salsa and vallenato class with a native professional dancer from Colombia over Zoom.

All the fun happens while we are immersed in Mandarin! Our creative Chinese classes are engaging and educational lessons. We combine Chinese language learning with hands-on activities. We believe in learning language through meaningful content. Our storybooks are not only entertaining, but also serve as an excellent platform to reinforce vocabulary, sentence structure, overall comprehension, and listening skills. The students actively participate in discussions related to the story.

In the camps, we read a theme-based storybook, and do worksheets and activities based on them, like singing songs, acting, playing games, doing arts and crafts, cooking, and writing. The activities are not only incredibly fun but also allow the students to apply their language skills in a practical context.

Our students develop lifelong interests in Mandarin Chinese, and continue to show enthusiasm and dedication to learning, which is truly valuable. See April’s programs and testimonials at EnjoyChineseLA.com.

This is a wonderful opportunity for campers to develop a love for the game of golf. In this class, campers learn basic techniques of alignment, swing mechanics, golf history, forces of flight as they relate to a golf ball, stretching techniques, and more in a fun, entertaining environment. We will watch demonstrations from top teaching professionals around the world where campers will learn various practice drills. Golf etiquette and the life lessons that golf can teach are paramount in the All Square Golf Academy curriculum. Campers will be outside most of the class, and golf clubs will be provided but students can bring their own if they so choose.

Are you a Star Wars® fan, do you like LEGO® then this class is for you. Come join us for an adventure as we build all your favorite Star Wars® projects. From speeder bikes to x-wings your child will learn STEM concepts while exploring a galaxy far far away...

Young learners will explore their creativity by creating whimsical puppets that represent storybook characters and re-enacting the story with a puppet show. By making puppets and re-enacting the story, students combine multidisciplinary learning with English and Art. They’ll learn the elements of a story and boost their storytelling skills, as well as enhance their fine motor skills. On the final day of cl students showcase their talents by bringing their story to life with a puppet show using their unique, hand-crafted puppets.

Join our D&D program and embark on a thrilling adventure! Our program provides a fun and engaging way for students to develop their social, problem-solving, and teamwork skills while exploring a fantastical world filled with monsters, treasure, and challenges. Join our experienced dungeon masters for an unforgettable adventure that will leave you with memories to last a lifetime!

This post-beginner/intermediate level summer camp is for those with a solid grasp of chess fundamentals. Potential campers are expected to already know: chessboard terminology and square identification; how the various pieces move and capture, plus their relative values; pawn promotion; the crucial concepts of check, checkmate, and stalemate; the special move of castling; opening goals and principles; basic endgame checkmates using major pieces; and last, but not least, good chess etiquette. Potential campers unfamiliar with more than a couple of these essential topics would be better off enrolling in either the AEF/ACC novice/beginner level summer camp, "Chess: Learn to Play", or the AEF/ACC combination level summer camp, “Chess: Beginner & Intermediate” instead.

AEF/ACC chess camps are a mix time-wise of instruction and supervised play. Instruction at the post-beginner/intermediate level will focus on learning tactics and strategy through the explanation of games and positions from historical players and events, and/or current/recent top-level competitions. The instructor will organize and run a week-long unofficial tournament, with labeled medals as awards for all participants upon completion.

With its nearly 1,500 years of history, chess is arguably the greatest and most popular board game of all time. Numerous studies have suggested that learning and playing chess at an early age can yield various benefits regarding cognitive skills. Confidence, decision-making, and sportsmanship are other areas of potential improvement. The benefits and enjoyment of chess can last a lifetime!

It's a sequel of our all time favorite camp series Slimetopia! Your child will be creating 15 different slimes in the whole week from our internationally inspired slimes to ooey gooey most delicious-looking (not tasting) slime recipes.

This Young Rembrandts workshop is full of possibilities! Join us for five days of pastel fun as we learn about a new medium and explore art history by studying different artists and their work. Each day we will create one large drawing in pastel chalk. We will create wonderful artwork while being inspired by Edvard Munch’s The Scream, Pablo Picasso's Woman in Hat, Vincent Van Gogh’s Chair, Wassily Kandinsky’s Bavarian Market Square and Claude Monet’s Regatta at Argenteuil. The daily results will be truly frame-able! No experience necessary. Please wear an old shirt or smock to class each day.

Minecraft is a game about placing blocks to build anything you can imagine. At night monsters come out, make sure to build a shelter before that happens. Experience the joy that Minecraft LEGO Camp brings, join us as we build stationary and robotic LEGO Minecraft creations! Kids will start by crafting their shelters and some of the mobs, critters and tools using LEGO® bricks. Students will face new crafting key elements from the popular Minecraft game. Hosted by Alameda Bricks 4 Kidz

Let's practice and perform a live improv show, where creativity is unleashed and you never know what might happen next! Through improv, actors practice the skills of listening, collaboration, being positive, and expanding their imaginations. This class will focus on Short-Form Improv, like the show Who's Line is it Anyway? Students will learn a wide variety of hilarious improv games and at the end we'll perform those games in a hysterical show for family, friends, and fans.

Summer Fun Awaits! Ride the waves, zip on a water scooter and unwind in a cozy beach camper! Dive into the science of movement by exploring simple machines like gears, levers, and cranks. This hands-on, project-based STEM class blends creativity and engineering as you build with LEGO bricks and our innovative custom hub, ViNee. Get ready for sun, surf, and STEM-powered discovery!

Zentangle is a fun, relaxing, easy-to-learn method of creating beautiful images from repetitive patterns. Your child will explore a process that involves drawing simple strokes, one line at a time while building confidence, improving focus, and inspiring creativity. With the Zentangle method, anyone can draw captivating art, the Zentangle motto is: “Anything is possible, one stroke at a time.”

This novice/beginner level summer camp is for those completely new to the game of chess, and for those who may have been introduced at home or elsewhere, but don't have a solid grasp of the fundamentals yet. Topics to be covered include: chessboard terminology and square identification; how the various pieces move and capture, plus their relative values; pawn promotion; the crucial concepts of check, checkmate, and stalemate; the special move of castling; opening goals and principles; basic endgame checkmates using major pieces; and last, but not least, good chess etiquette. Potential campers that know/understand most, if not all of, the topics listed above, should enroll in the AEF/ACC post-beginner/intermediate level summer camp, "Chess: Beyond the Basics", or the AEF/ACC combination level summer camp, “Chess: Beginner & Intermediate” instead.

AEF/ACC chess camps are a mix time-wise of instruction and supervised play. The instructor will organize and run an unofficial tournament in the latter half of the week at their discretion (if enough campers have progressed sufficiently to play a full game), with labeled medals as awards for all participants upon completion.

With its nearly 1,500 years of history, chess is arguably the greatest and most popular board game of all time. Numerous studies have suggested that learning and playing chess at an early age can yield various benefits regarding cognitive skills. Confidence, decision-making, and sportsmanship are other areas of potential improvement. The benefits and enjoyment of chess can last a lifetime!

Young innovators will explore entrepreneurship by studying famous entrepreneurs and learning about essential concepts such as marketing, business planning, and finance. Through fun and engaging activities, they’ll create and sell pretend products, which sharpens their creativity and negotiation skills. Young innovators will also practice budgeting, branding, and customer interaction to develop a well-rounded business mindset. On the final day, parents/guardians are invited to celebrate their child business and ideas in a special showcase event!

Let your imagination run wild with tens of thousands of LEGO® parts! Build engineer-designed projects as you discover the world around us through our inquiry-based learning model. Projects are rotated seasonally to ensure that both new and returning students can explore the endless creative possibilities of the LEGO® building system.

STUDENTS MUST PROVIDE THEIR OWN LUNCH & DRINK

Students will have summer fun and stay “Unplugged” with Miss Frances. No electronics!!! Traditional board games, card games and jacks to name a few. And how about getting an early start on learning volleyball and track and field activities before going to middle school? This will be good old-fashioned summer fun!

Frances Johnson, is a local Alamedan. She graduated from Lincoln Middle School and Alameda High School. She has worked for Alameda Rec & Parks Dept., been a Pop Warner Cheer Coach and has coached Middle School Volleyball for over 15 years. Frances has worked for Alameda Unified School District for 19 years and is currently the Health Clerk at Encinal High School.

Please note: Parents must be on time to pick up their children, or they will be charged $1/minute late fee by AEF.