Tree Frog Treks

We’ve been having so much fun here at Summer Camp that our blog has been sorely neglected, so here’s a quick update from the past few weeks here at Tree Frog Treks!

Week 5: Mission to Mars!

Half-Day Camp (Little Explorers & Jr. Explorers)

For Mission to Mars we made astronaut suits and took a trip to the outreaches of our universe! We climbed aboard the giant space ship (fallen tree) near the log cabin and soared into the sky looking for alien life forms – along the way we discovered some funny looking insects and even made our own alien stick bugs!. We painted constellations and the night sky, and jumped in the zero gravity space jump house and afterwards we made rocket fuel with simple “hot & cold” chemistry experiments and blasted off our own baking soda and vinegar popper rockets!

Full-Day Camp (Adventure Explorers & Wild Scientists)

Our Full-Day campers explored the outer reaches of San Francisco and Golden Gate Park, looking for creatures (bug hunts, animal time), making our own clay alien creations, and going on field trips to Stern Grove and a rocketship (the Spire) at the Presidio!  We also went through rigorous astronaut training in our Anti-Gravition trainer bouncy house!

Week 6: Road to Adventureland!

Half-Day Camp (Little Explorers & Jr. Explorers):

This week we went adventuring in the outdoors and took an expedition to the Redwood Grove, around Stow Lake & Lily Pond and learned some tools of the trade like how to use magnifying glasses and binoculars. We kept a journal all week long, documenting clues animals left behind, inventorying animals we saw in the park, and sketching the places we visited. We practiced using all of our senses on our quest, building forts and learning to climb trees along the way!

Full-Day Camp (Adventure Explorers and Wild Scientists):

Throughout the week we traveled trails and paths through Adventureland! We made our way to Frog Hall through Golden Gate Park, and found slimy and slithery friends in Glen Canyon Park and Tennessee Valley, including garter snakes and a very cool Rubber Boa!

You can find photos of camp here:

Mission to Mars!

Road to Adventureland!

Right now it’s South of the Border Week, we’ll update you in a day or two with our newest activities and adventures!

Yeeeee-haw pardners, Wild Wild West Week was more fun than a Ghost Town Hoe-Down!  Our Summer Camp posse explored the untamed wilderness of Golden Gate Park and the Outside Lands!  Our Full-Day Campers even made Stagecoach (i.e. MUNI bus) trips to the ruins of Sutro Baths and out to Mar Vista Stables in Daly City for pony and horse rides, with a hike along the coast thrown in as well!   This week was also our first with After Care for the Half-Day camp (from 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm), and it was a big help to parents who couldn’t pick-up their younguns until later!

As alwys, you can find a whole slew of photos of Week 4 here at Flickr!  And please give us a review here at Yelp, we’d love it!

There will be no camp the week of July 2nd (due to the Independence Day holiday) but we’ll be blasting off on July 9th for our Mission to Mars session!  Have a great week!

Today our Adventure Explorers and Wild Scientists continued “Under the Sea” week by journeying to Crissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge!  We checked out the new information center at the bridge (did you know there are 80,000 miles of cable in it?!?) and took a stroll over the roiling water as it entered the bay on a flood tide.  From this vantage point 200+ feet over San Francisco Bay, campers spotted swimming dolphins and diving pelicans!

At Crissy Field campers did a variety of activies such as observing a Great Blue Heron slowly stalking its prey, headed to the shoreline to catch crabs, built sandcastles and wet their feet, and visited the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association’s Visitor Center to check out shark teeth, live abalone and feel seal fur!

You can check out more pictures at our Week 3 Flickr Page and get more info about Summer Camp here!

Ancient Explorers Week (June 11th-15th) at TFT Summer Camp is history!  Here’s a look at what our campers did!

Half-Day Camp (Little Explorers & Junior Explorers)

• We practiced using tools of the trade – making our own explorer hats, binoculars, and learning to use a compass & map.
• We learned the four directions, playing a game called “Captain Says.”
• We found out how different animals walk, and we learned to identify some common animal tracks. We made clay impressions of mountain lion, fox, and bird tracks and explored the park to look for tracks in the mud.
• We also practiced making observations in the wild redwood forest, honing our skills of owl vision for looking far & wide, and fox walking to quietly get closer to animals in nature and then we took an “animal inventory” to find out just how many creatures we could find all by ourselves!
• We met Blondie the Burmese Python, Savannah the Monitor Lizard, and many more Animal Ambassadors!

Starting last summer, Tree Frog Treks’ Full-Day Summer Campers have joined forces with Gardener Andy to give back to Golden Gate Park every Friday! We’ve been helping the Redwood Grove near the Rose Garden by spreading compost and mulch around the redwoods and taking down invasive ivy from trees. We should be starting to plant redwood forest natives such as Redwood Ginger in the next few weeks. The kids love it, and so do the counselors, the gardeners and the trees! You’ll wish you could get your kids to work this hard at home!

Green hats, bug hunts, slithery snakes, pop rockets, and songs about scat can only mean one thing in Golden Gate Park: The Frog Days of Summer Are Back!  Campers at Tree Frog Treks Summer Camp shrugged off Monday’s drizzle and went right to Getting Out and Getting Dirty!  This week’s camp theme is “Up, Up and Away!” and both our Half-Day and Full-Day campers have been exploring the world of birds, hills, and mountains.  I know it’s only Friday Morning, but we’ve done so much we just had to share it with you.

Half-Day Campers (Little Explorers & Jr. Explorers)

• Learned about the Water Cycle during Monday’s rains
• Watched clouds and talked about what shapes they saw
• Looked for birds and bugs
• Made Flying Hoopsters
• Blew bubbles to make bubble prints
• Hiked to Stow Lake and the top of Strawberry Hill’s waterfall
• Met some Tree Frog Treks Animal Ambassadors

Well, Weeks 3-5 are done but there is still time to sign up for Weeks 7-9, with plenty of getting out and getting dirty to be had. The last week, which begins August 8th is almost full but there are a few spaces available. Weeks 7 and 8 have a little more room but might not last long so don’t delay.

Water Wonderland (week 3)
Water makes the world go round! Take out your dip nets & buckets, this week we took a closer look at life in ponds and marshes. We learned the water-cycle boogie and adventured through the park looking for animals that live near the water like turtles, snails, slugs, bugs, birds, and bees! We practiced using a magnifying lens, and experimented with measuring liquids using tools like beakers, flasks, and cylinders!

Destination Desert (week 4)
Have you ever been to a cactus hotel? We went out to the cactus garden this week, to see if we could catch a glimpse of animals who don’t mind a prickly perch! We learned how desert plants protect themselves, and how animals survive & thrive in this unique habitat! Got up close and personal with some scaly lizards, slithery snakes, and a tortoise too!

Out of This World (week 5)
3,2,1…blast off! Greetings earthlings! This week was an adventure through space! Say there, what is this big planet we are on? Why is Earth so special? Let’s blast off rockets, make some space slime, and learn about the sun & stars. We made our own animal constellations, and met our own animal super stars! Turned over a rock or a log, to discover strange creatures with multiple legs, antenna, and compound eyes – did they come from Earth or Mars?

Last weeks camp theme was ‘Come Fly with Me’ so there were of course tons of activities based around this. The half day campers made flying machines and the full day campers made themselves wings. We learned about clouds and how weather is made. As always we got to meet some cool Animal Ambassadors, we don’t have anything that can fly but the kids don’t seem to mind. They think all our critters are cool.

As well as flying machines the kids made balloons filled with various gases to see which ones would float away. To get the gases they did a bunch of chemical reactions and tried to figure out which gas they made and which ones were lighter than air.

The full day campers got to go to Mt Tamalpais for a hike, while the half day kids got to explore the hidden wonders of Golden Gate Park. Everyone gets to help the parks gardeners with the never ending task of weeding and clearing away unwanted invasive plant species.

We kicked off our summer this week, with the theme “Adventure Time” – the campers found out what it was like to be true adventures, trekking near and far around Golden Gate Park.
The half day campers went on many near-by adventures, using all of their senses along the way. They learned about what kinds of tools explorers use, like binoculars, made journals to document their findings, used magnifying glasses to take a closer look at things, and collected insects along the way (releasing them at the end of each day). We met our animal ambassadors, like Clark the Western Toad, Neptune the Blue Tongue Skink, and Blondie our big Burmese Python. On our hikes we found banana slugs, salamanders, and observed pocket gofers and red-tailed hawks. To finish the week the half day campers used compasses and maps, and took a quest to find a hidden treasure!

Our full day campers had many adventures near and far this week, spending time doing science experiments on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday the hit the trail at Lands End – doing a scavenger hunt along the way. They spent time collecting, charting, and classifying their findings each day. On Thursday, they took a field trip to Tennessee Valley on a Tom Sawyer Adventure! They found oodles of snakes including Terrestrial Garter Snakes, Rubber Boas, and Yellow Racers. Friday we finished off the week doing some conservation work with the gardeners in the park, ending a great week with fun games and new friendships!

Space is still available for most future weeks so sign up now for some Outdoor Adventuring!!