Summer Camp
Summer Camp at Thaden School offers opportunities for children entering Grades 5 and 6 to experience our distinctive educational programs and learn from master teachers. We will host three fun-filled weeks of camp with offerings in the performing arts, cycling, culinary arts, and tinkering. Camps will be small with no more than 15 students in each program. The counselor to camper ratio is 1:7.
- The camp day will run from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm
- Tuition is $300 per week
- Daily transportation is available for an additional $50 per week
- Post-camp care from 3:00 to 5:00 pm is available for an additional $50 per week
- Campers will bring their own lunches and drinks from home (water and snacks are available on campus)
- Weekly tuition includes a camp t-shirt
Click here to register. You must complete a separate registration form and payment for each camper.
Week 1 (June 7-11): Performing Arts
Theatre Camp
In this fun and discovery-oriented camp, campers will focus on constructive make-believe, including upbeat exercises and acting games. They will also work on pantomimes, bring characters to life, and create short plays. Our young performers will learn foundational acting techniques and skills that translate well from stage to classroom, including confidence, eye-contact, control over body, use of space, collaboration, and creative thinking. Campers need only bring their imaginations and sense of play!
Musical Camp
It’s time to warm-up your vocal cords and tune your ukuleles! Campers will immerse themselves in vocal and instrumental studies to develop confidence in musical performance. Music will be taken right from the theatrical spaces of Broadway to teach healthy vocal practices, performance communication, and the value of ensemble. All experiences and backgrounds are welcome! Find your voice and share it with pride!
Week 2 (June 14-18): Signature Programs
Food and Farm
During this action-packed week, participants will explore connections with the food system and the natural world through hands-on cooking, gardening, and science activities. Campers can look forward to getting to know Thaden School’s flock of hens, learning to cook in the teaching kitchen, exploring all that is growing in the Thaden School greenhouse and garden, eating delicious food, taking a farm field trip to pick blueberries and more! On the last day of camp, participants will take part in a culinary competition as they use the skills they have learned all week to try to create the most delicious pizza!
Stop-Motion Storytelling
In this week-long camp, participants explore the history and theory behind stop-motion storytelling. Viewings of historic and contemporary stop-motion works will allow campers to identify and examine the underlying principles that make stories effective. Campers will also write their own short stories, design relevant sets, and bring their ideas to life with a unique brand of video production and Dragonframe software and hardware, just like Hollywood features. The camp will culminate with campers presenting their short stories to their friends and family on the big screen here at Thaden.
Be a Wheelie
Nothing says “summer” like riding bikes with your buddies, so gather your best ones together and sign up to be a “Wheelie” at Thaden School’s week-long, bike-centric summer camp. Wheelies will learn basic maintenance skills (like how to fix a flat and adjust a derailleur) in our on-campus bike lab, bike to attractions throughout Bentonville (including Crystal Bridges, the Amazeum, and swimming holes along Little Sugar and McKisic Creeks), tackle beginner mountain biking trails on campus and at Slaughter Pen and Coler Mountain Bike Preserve, and practice their pump track skills. Wheelies will also saddle up to compete in slow races, navigate obstacle courses, and play fun and accessible bike-based games. Lastly, Wheelies will explore the bicycle’s creative possibilities by creating artworks and original musical numbers using bike parts and composing original poems with the metaphorically rich language of the bicycle.
Week 3 (June 21-25): Tinker and Create
Explorations in Music Making
Have you ever…
Played a banana piano?
Created a bongo drum out of bicycle parts?
Experienced a music garden?
Composed original music to aid in storytelling?
This one-week camp will allow students to use their imaginations to explore musical intersections of technology, found objects, and nature. From assisting chickens in making music to learning how to use GarageBand to compose your very own soundtrack to observing a piano at the Scott Family Amazeum that interacts with fire, this camp will be sure to ignite curiosity and wonder.