It’s that time of year... Summer is over and the kids are back at school!
Is it just us or did it completely fly by?! We’re sad to wrap things up, but reflecting back... it’s definitely one of our favourite times of the year. Every Summer we get to meet so many wonderful kids and this year was no exception. We ran three camps in our neighbourhood and even taught a coding workshop to ESL students visiting Toronto from South Korea. A lot of memories were made, so we thought we’d share our Summer highlights with you!
1. Board Games at Summer Camp
Kids spent the week designing a board game… using our robots as DICE. Yes, you heard us! We were so impressed by everyone’s creativity and the unique projects that came to life. We had a board game where players had to ‘escape from a pickle jar’ and another one where you had to ‘collect the most punch bowls at the party’.
We ran this camp a second time and one of the kids even wrote a speech for his presentation! The board game was called Empire of War and it was EPIC.
Vera presenting her amazing board with detailed art and obstacles, including an invisible vampire ( ! ), and a scary guy that was peeking through the back of the board
2. Music Week at Summer Camp
Another camp was themed around music. The kids learned how to program their robots into a music box that would play their favourite songs. At first we called it a jukebox robot, but of course none of the kids knew what this was! Doh!
Everyone programmed at least one song of their choice and mostly by ear. The songs included “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish, “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore. A few kids had trouble getting the timing right, so we ended up with very fast, but very funny remixes. We tried to adjust the notes and fix them up, but most of the kids liked their version better and kept it!
Summer campers taking a break from coding projects to do some dancing exercises!
3. Coding Workshops with New Friends!
We also collaborated with some new friends including Main Square Daycare, STEM Minds, The Wright Spot, and Sol Camp.
We met a lot of younger friends this summer! At Main Square Daycare, The Wright Spot, and STEM Minds in Aurora, we ran workshops for kids who were only 6-7 years old. It was challenging to keep their attention, but kids at this age are so creative and resilient. At the Sol Camp kids from South Korea ranged from 7 years old to a few high schoolers. The Korean kids sped through the coding activities and learned some English with us too!
A big thanks to everyone for welcoming us into your space!
4. Danny Loves Music Festival
Let’s not forget the annual Danny Loves Music Festival in our neighbourhood. If you haven’t attended before, it runs at East Lynn Park every Wednesday in the month of July. This Summer, we ran an activity table for kids to design their own robot characters and play test our new Paperbot Kits. Kids learned about simple circuits and made paper robots with LED eyes that light up.
We’re super excited for our new Paperbot Kits to be available. After several rounds of play testing and observing kids, we think it's going to be a hit! The final files have been approved and sent off to the printers, now we are just waiting for them to be made!
That’s all for our Summer highlights! High-five to our educators and volunteers for making this Summer an awesome experience for the kids.
If you’re interested in learning to code with us, Fall registration is now open!
As well, stay tuned for more details on our Open House on September 14, 2019 at 1832 Danforth Ave.
Until then keep on coding, making and inspiring!