Summer 2023 Weekly Themes
Check back in mid-February for Summer 2024 themes.

Around the World

Adventure around the world in 5 days! Join us for a week of exploration that will take campers from our backyards to the world beyond. Highlights for this week include:

• Eco Explorers – Uncover the flora and fauna on the 36 acres of Nueva's Hillsborough campus. Find out which plants are native to California, and which have traveled here from different parts of the world.
• Cultural Cooking – Put your chef's hat on and create delicious treats and snacks. Let's taste our way through different cultures!
• Math – Discover why math is a universal language through games, puzzles, and challenges.
• Sign Language – Learn a new language through an interactive class that incorporates music and movement.
• Theater – Calling all actors, directors, and future screenwriters! Over the course of the week, groups will write and perform their own plays. Where will your script take you?

Big Questions*

Who am I? How do we determine what's right vs wrong? Is everything connected? Join us for a week of answering big questions about ourselves and the world around us. Highlights for this week include:

• Philosophy – The heart of this week's programming and based in Nueva's spirit of inquiry, let's ask (and attempt to answer) big questions.
• Myth Makers – Since the dawn of age, storytellers have told creation myths and origin tales. We'll visualize the classics and coming up with our own new concepts.
• Eco Explorers – There's no better place to ponder our place in the world than the great outdoors! Let's hike amongst the trees while discovering what it means to co-exist with all living things.
• Math – Ask and answer questions about truth, patterns, infinity, the possible, and the impossible.
• Sign Language – How do you ask a question without using your voice? This interactive class incorporates music and movement to teach new ways of communication.

Folktales Reimagined

What if Rapunzel saved herself? What if the three little pigs were better builders? And how do cakes rise, if not by magic? This week we will retell stories and get to the bottom of how things really work. Highlights for this week include:

• Story Lab – From trickster tales to fairytales, we'll read classic (and not-so-classic) examples of folktales, uncovering what connects these stories and why they stand the test of time.
• Myth Makers – Out with the old and in with the new! Let's reimagine folktales and put our own spin on these classic stories. Oral and performance based storytelling encouraged!
• Art – In the spirit of Nueva's interdisciplinary approach, we'll bring our stories to life through visual representations.
• Eco Explorers – Visit Nueva's legendary forts and fairy-house as we tell stories with nature as the backdrop.
• Science of Baking – Magic or science? Experiment with the chemical reactions that go into creating yummy baked goods. You don't want to miss out on the taste tests.

Transformation

Like a seed becomes a sapling, this week is all about how things change over time and what it takes to bring ideas to life. Highlights for this week include:

• Eco Explorers – With over 36 acres to explore, Nueva's Hillsborough campus is a perfect place to discover plants at all stages of growth, find evidence of animals big and small, and to think about how we change over time.
• Story Lab – Let's explore the stories that bring inanimate objects to life like Pinnochio, golems, scarecrows, and cultural talismans. Who knows, maybe we'll bring our own physical objects to life by the end of the week!
• Theater – From brainstorm to final production, we'll work together to create a wholly original play that transforms over the course of the week.
• Color Theory – Discover how colors are both a science and an art. You'll learn how humans perceive colors and experiment with creating different palettes.
• Sign Language – Bring language to life through an interactive class that incorporates music and movement. Starting with the alphabet, we'll build our skills over the course of the week. You'll be surprised how fast you can learn another language!

Journey To The Center Of The Earth

Based on the classic sci-fi novel by Jules Verne, this week is all about the relationship between humans and Earth and how we imagine different realities. Highlights for this week include:

• Myth Makers – Dive into tales of underground and lost worlds: Hades, the caverns in Peer Gynt, Hollow Earth, Xibalba, Agartha, and Atlantis. Then we'll play with sci-fi as myth, and invent new worlds under, over, or next door to our own (as Jules Verne did).
• Art – Enter the dream world, a popular plot device in sci-fi books, and channel your inner curiosity into creative explorations.
• Eco Explorers – How many layers of earth between the surface and molten core? Answer this question and others as we take to our feet to discover our planet's physical structure.
• Group Movement – Prepare for journeys near and far by playing games and tackling challenges that foster teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills.
• Theater – Let's bring our own imagined realities to life by writing and performing in original plays.

July 15-26, 2024
Ideally, students will attend for the full two weeks. However, the course is divided into two week-long blocks (five days of instruction), and students are welcome to sign up for either or both weeks.