Camp Sobaco, Week 9: Superhero Science-Last week of Camp!

This week we dug deep to learn about some of the superpowers that animals and insects such as wasps, giraffes, and dogs have!

Our campers were so SUPER excited about Superhero Science! We had a wonderful trip to the Long Island Game Farm. We learned giraffes are the tallest animal in the world, and sleep only 2 hours. We also learned that Howler Monkeys are the loudest of all monkeys, and they use their howl to alert other monkeys to danger. Campers then gathered at the main stage to watch a dog show. As cute as the dogs were, campers were impressed with their tricks and ability to listen and take commands from the trainer. One big surprise was to see a horse drawn carriage that was not actually drawn by horse. It was, in fact, drawn by a dog. And the conductor? A chimpanzee of course!

Back in our wonderful science center, the campers created their own superhero persona by choosing a superpower and sketching their own costume ideas. All of the campers then used their powers in our super obstacle course. Campers also learned that they could be their own superhero even without the superpowers that they read about in comics and see in movies by doing something as simple as recycling. They learned how to take used paper and recycle it to make a brand new sheet!

All of the campers are super in their own ways, and we’ve had a blast this week remembering some of our favorite moments of the summer.

We were so happy to hear our campers tell us they can’t wait to come back next year!

Check out Week 9 photos on our Summer Camp Facebook

Camp Edey, Week 9: Robots, Aliens, and Pirates – Oh My!

The final week at Camp Edey is here! Our campers ended the season with a BLAST this week with special guests and spirit days galore! For four days straight we showed our Camp Edey Spirit by dressing up a different way each day. On Tuesday, camp was invaded by Aliens and Robots; Wednesday we were visited by rogue pirates;Thursday we rocked out in our favorite neon colors; and then on Friday we had the end of summer All Camp Luau Dance – leis and pineapples included!

We also had some very special visitors this week. On Tuesday, PSEG visited to teach us all about conductivity and electrical safety. They even brought a small model town to show off some really cool electricity demonstrations. Throughout the week we were also visited by one of our rockin’ robotics teams…the Radical Robots. Campers constructed items out of Legos, participated in a blindfolded obstacle course to learn how to maneuver a specific path, and even learned how to program the team’s robots!

Throughout the week, we also got crafty and built our own robots, rocket ships and even did spin art!

Once again, our Purple Group (Girls entering grades 7 through 9), were offered an optional special event. This week it was a campout! Throughout the week, girls were given outdoor survival skill lessons involving fire building and fire safety, knot tying, kaper charts and compass skills to prepare for their overnight campout.

The night of the campout girls had an archery lesson, canoed at sunset and played GaGa Ball after dark. Utilizing their camp chef skills learned last week, the girls cooked campfire tacos and campfire cones over an open fire before singing campfire songs. They even had a special opportunity to learn how to retire an American flag. What a memorable way to end the camp season!

The countdown begins...only 300 or so more days until next summer’s camp adventure!

Check out Week 9 photos on our Summer Camp Facebook

Camp Edey, Week 8: S’mores Galore!

From s’mores to campfire cones and even edible campfires we learned it all! This week at Camp Edey started off nice and messy with s’mores and ended with an All Camp cookout over an open fire. We even built our own edible fires for snack one day! We also made crafts that would be a big help for a camping trip such as bandanas, binoculars and water bottle carriers.

Like every week here at Camp Edey, Wacky Wednesday was a big hit for both campers and staff alike. This week’s theme was Disney, and each participant dressed as her favorite character. Camp was filled with princesses, pirates, cowboys and other classic Disney favorites.

This week, I spent a lot of time with our oldest group on camp, the Purple Group. The girls were given the opportunity to go canoeing on Tuesday, and received a lesson on basic knot tying to expand their outdoor survival skill set.

In addition, some of the older girls chose to go on the optional trip to the Long Island Aquarium & Exhibition Center. During the trip, the girls split into teams and raced the clock to complete an educational scavenger hunt throughout the many exhibits of the aquarium. The trip also included a sea lion show!

It was also time for our annual event…the Goofy Camp Staff Award Ceremony! Campers cheered on their favorite staff members as they were awarded silly titles for their jobs well done throughout the last eight weeks. From “Tony the Tiger” to “Mad Hatter” and even “Camp Comic” all of the campers giggled as each staff member was awarded a title that represented their personalities. A great time was had by all as we hiked, cooked and crafted this week at Camp Edey.


We’re looking forward to Rockin’ Robots next week!

Camp Sobaco, Week 8: Grossology & Maritime Explorium!

This week our field trip was to the Maritime Explorium-The Maritime Children’s Museum. It was the perfect day for our trip as the weather was absolutely perfect for our venture!

Campers started their excursion with a dig! They went on a professionally led dig, where they had to dig down in the dirt, and use a brush to remove sand from items that they found. They then had to try and identify these items. Campers were then taken down by the beach to do a sea life scavenger hunt where they found things from seashells, to algae and other living organisms. Some of it was so slimy, and every time a camper picked something up, he or she would shout “Grossology!”

The last stop was to learn about some other sea life creatures such as lobsters. Campers learned lobsters looked like both live and when they were cooked, and how they age.

Other gross and awesome activities that took place at camp this week included learning about the way our bodies function when we have a cold, and when we get stomachaches. Campers also enjoyed mock ear wax, which consisted of mini marshmallows dipped in caramel!

The end of our week brought us to our guest, the Mad Scientist!  Campers were excited to see and participate in all of the wonderful experiments-- from ooey gooey slime, to colorful volcanoes! The campers’ favorite part of it all was the ‘Ka-Boom!’ sound that came from the combustion experiment!

We can’t believe how fast the summer has gone by--only one more week to go!

Camp Sobaco, Week 7: A Bug's Life!

 This week at Camp Sobaco was all about bugs! We learned about different types of insects, where they are on the food chain, their life cycles, and even how they can help people.
Monday kicked off with a visit from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). They talked about the defense methods of animals and insects and why they may have evolved to have certain traits. For example, bugs are really small so many of them developed wings to help them avoid being caught by predators.

On Tuesday, all of the campers were able to meet a local beekeeper who taught them about honey bees and shared her experiences as a beekeeper. She even had a miniature handmade beehive (without the bees) to show them. The children enjoyed her stories and learned many things from her including the differences between bees and yellow jackets and why honey bees are so important to our environment.

Due to the weather, Wednesday started out rough, but once we all got to camp it was a breeze! The kids used their brainstorming powers to come up with cool facts about bugs to share with the group and then used magazine images to highlight a bug’s function in everyday products.

During our discussions on Thursday many of us learned about the lifecycle of a bug, more specifically, a butterfly. We learned about the four stages and what happens to a butterfly in each one that gives us the result of the beautiful insect we all love to see.

Our trip to the Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium on Friday was out of this world! Seeing the constellations and learning about the planets is always enjoyable. Everyone had a great time learning new things and exploring the museum with their friends.

Camp Edey, Week 7: Girls Love Green!

This week at Camp Edey we learned all about BEING GREEN! We discussed ways to reduce, reuse and recycle and used these lessons to care for our amazing camp. Campers made their own customized reusable travel cups and canvas tote bags and each unit picked a special location on camp to plant a community garden.

Our oldest group even volunteered to have a “Camp Edey Clean Up” to beautify camp! It was heartwarming to see all of the girls taking the opportunity to take care of the beautiful camp grounds they’ve been utilizing all summer. From the youngest campers to the oldest, everyone seemed to really enjoy planting flowers and tending to them throughout the week.

On Wednesday campers showed off their Camp Edey spirit by dressing from head-to-toe in green because it was Green Girls Day. It was a sea of green everywhere you went. I also witnessed a very special moment for one of our campers that day. It was her birthday and it seemed like every individual made the effort to personally wish her a happy birthday when she arrived. It’s amazing that even in a camp with over 100 campers, we’re still a very close and caring community. Camp friends truly are the best friends!


Not only did we end the week with a Water Olympics event to keep cool, we also gave campers the opportunity to PIE their favorite staff members! It was definitely one of the highlights of the week – even for the staff! Some of our favorites volunteered to get pied without goggles or ponchos! Despite some unfortunate weather, this week was a blast and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for next week when we get to discover our inner Camp Chef!

Camp Sobaco, Week 6: Junior Detectives!

When it comes to uncovering the leaf eating insect, we have a camp full of sleuths to uncover the mystery!

This week, campers got the chance to unlock their inner detective! It started with learning about fingerprinting and how different our prints are from others. It even got a little bit delicious when our campers fingerprinted using chocolate powder.

Next, our campers took a look at some clues under the microscope and discovered different prints that bugs leave behind.

Our trip this week led us to the Quogue Wildlife refuge, where we had a great scavenger hunt to find all sorts of animals including owls, and an old fox named Mulder. We then followed the different trails and came upon some slithering critters like snakes, and even found some frogs!

At the week’s end, we put our ultimate detective skills to the test. All campers, and staff joined in on the biggest mystery yet--to find our who ate our sherbert! We followed the trail of sherbert all through camp, with the campers dusting for fingerprints at every clue.

The campers finally caught the sticky culprit red handed! Turns out the culprit was none other than our friendly nurse, Alison!

Camp Edey, Week 6: Learning How to Be “Ms.Independent”

At Girl Scouts our mission is to build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place. This week at camp we took steps towards trying to create such girls with our Ms. Independent week.

This week we looked into what kind of healthy habits would create the responsible and resourceful girls every girl should strive to be. This week, I was back in the Green Group and they were a blast as always. For our badge work portion of the day, we explored the healthy steps that make up a productive morning, such as setting an alarm, laying out your clothes the night before, and making your bed in the morning. I was surprised to see that more than a handful of girls were already doing those things (with the exception of Mom making the bed in the morning for most!) Starting girls off young with those healthy habits can only help in making them become productive adults.

Along with talking about having a productive morning, we also had the girls make their own calendars to help keep themselves organized. They enjoyed writing down their favorite things to do such as sports games, play dates with friends, movie night with Mom and Dad, etc. The girls also got to make their very own coin bank at our MaeK activity with CoCo. With all this crafting and preparing, the girls have all the tools to help them to be as productive as possible and develop good habits to carry with them into adulthood!

Our dress up day was just as fun as ever, especially with some of our counselors dressing up as each other, which the girls really got a kick out of! All jokes aside though, we had a pretty good showing of future careers, with a good amount of police women, teachers and of course some pretty princesses. Camp Edey girls are sure to grow up to be successful women and rule the world!

Camp Sobaco, Week 5: Solar Power & the Holtsville Ecology Center

This week was all about solar power and full of adventures and experiments in the Discovery World Science Center. On Monday we began with our visitor Tod from the DEC showing us different types of reptiles and how the sun can affect them every day. Later, we had a brainstorming session involving what we already knew about the sun and what we would like to learn about it in the future. After presenting our brainstorming information, we created our very own thermometers which demonstrated how heat caused the liquid inside to expand.

Tuesday involved launching our very own solar powered UFO balloon! We learned that the heat from the sun’s rays causes the air molecules inside the balloon to move and expand when they are heated. The balloon started to lift right off the ground after just a couple of minutes in the sun

One of the greatest days this week was Wednesday, our trip to the Holtsville Ecology Center. We were able to see all sorts of nimals like goats, alpacas, owls, eagles, fox, and even a bear! We learned many things about them and the different habitats they lived in. That afternoon, we discussed how the sun plays a critical role in each animal’s development and habitat.

Thursday brought us a very cool experiment of making our own solar ovens. Each group was able to design their own oven and make s’mores to test it out in the sun. At the end of the day, we all enjoyed our tasty snacks and saw the benefits and power of using the sun to help us cook food.

Friday we were able to experiment with solar paint which was really amazing. Similar to the solar beads we used earlier on friday, the paint glows bright colors in the sun and fades when in the shade or inside. We learned that the chemicals in the paint and on the beads reacts to UV rays from the sun and changes colors when it is exposed to that type of light.

Overall, everyone had a great time at camp this week. Can’t wait to see what next week has in store for all of us!

Camp Edey, Week 5: Whodunit? Not me!

This week, the girls had to put on their thinking caps to try and figure out who stole the Gaga ball. Thank goodness it wasn’t me because those girls REALLY love Gaga! We will use all of our skills we learned this week, such as fingerprinting, morse code and making casts of tracks we made on the ground to help us unlock the mystery. At the end of the week, we will find out who actually stole the ball. (I’m sure the girls won’t be too happy with whomever did it!)

In addition to the wacky antics of our Gaga ball hunt, the girls really enjoyed fishing. The I FISH NY company comes in and teaches the girls about the fish in our lake, how to cast, and the rules of the catch and release lake we have here at Camp Edey. The girls were so interested and really listened carefully, wanting to soak up every word they were saying. The only thing the girls don’t really like is baiting the hook with live worms! Ewww! Other than that, the girls enjoyed catching the fish. You could see their faces light up when they successfully used the new information and techniques that they learned and said, “I think I caught a bass! Is it big enough?” That was a good moment at camp because you could tell how much they actually listened and how much they wanted to get everything right.

I switched around groups this week, going from Green to Orange to Red to Purple, and I have to say it was one of my favorite weeks. I got to see the differences in the age groups and how each group has its own dynamics to get through the day. One of the sweeter moments at camp took place while I was with the Red Group on Wednesday. One girl hit her hand on the floor during a game of Gaga and we took her to the nurse. What I really thought was interesting was the fact that the game almost stopped dead--and if you know these girls and Gaga, that usually never happens! They all wanted to see if their friend was going to be all right. All in all, the girl was fine, but it was just a very sweet moment to see how much these girls cared about each other after only spending a few days together.

Our dress up day this week was Superhero & Villain Day. All the girls looked awesome and some wore a cape and everything! I don’t know if I can really pick a favorite costume because all these girls are superheros in their own way as they come to camp each day with their great attitudes and personalities!