Oasis Early Start (Prekindergarten)
The camp day is designed to meet the social, emotional, and physical needs of our Junior Campers. While Junior campers follow a separate schedule and are grouped accordingly, they have opportunities to participate in the larger camp community.
- Our sports program addresses physical coordination, basic skill development and teamwork through a variety of traditional team sports and exciting camp games.
- Our detailed schedule provides opportunities for campers to participate in a wide variety of appropriate activities.
- Our swim program focuses on developing our camper’s confidence in the water, water safety and basic aquatic skills. We base our instruction on the assessment of each camper’s individual skills. Campers are supervised by our American Red Cross trained lifeguard and swim instruction staff.
Model Schedule
| Arrival | 8:30-9:00am (before care available 8am-8:30am) |
| Morning Rally | 9:00-9:20am |
| Swim
 | 9:40-10:40am |
| Snack | 10:40-11:00am |
| Music | 11:20am –12:00pm |
| Lunch/Free Play | 12:00-1:00pm |
| Sport | 
1:00–1:40pm |
| Art | 2:00-2:40pm |
| Snack | 2:40-3:00pm (Mini Day Campers Leave) |
| Games Playground | 3:20-4:15pm |
| Dismiss/Buses | 4:30-5:30pm (aftercare 5:30-6:00pm) |
Examples of Individual Weeks Themes
| Week 1 | Independence Celebration |
| Week 2 | Subway Series Week |
| Week 3 | Pajama Week |
| Week 4 | Wacky Week |
| Week 5 | Birthday Week |
| Week 6 | Tye Dye Week |
| Week 7 | Superhero Week |
| Week 8 | Spirit Week |
| Week 9 | Olympics Week |
No off camp trips-All special events on camp (Pee Wee Pros, Magic Shows, and more)
Sample Activities
- T-Ball
- Mini-Gymnastics
- Swim
- Arts and Crafts
- Dance
- Music
- Theatre
- Story time
- Playground
- Fine Arts
- Carnival
- Birthday Bash
- Mini-Olympics
Staffing
One staff member for every four campers--including a Lead Counselor in each group A Division Leader/Head Counselor, activities led by Activity Specialists.
Purpose of Outdoor Play
There are two fundamental reasons why outdoor play is critical for young children in our early childhood programs and schools. First, many of the developmental tasks that children must achieve—exploring, risk-taking, motor development and basic knowledge—can be most effectively learned through outdoor play. Second, our culture is taking outdoor play away from young children through excessive TV and computer use, unsafe neighborhoods,elimination of school recess, The following sections (based on Wardle, 1996-2003) describe the main reasons why outdoor play is critical for the healthy development of young children.
Physical Exercise
Our unique program encourages development of large and small skills in growing children. Studies have shown that motor development and movement skill acquisition of young children should be encouraged in outdoor playgrounds. Extensive physical activity is also needed to address a growing problem of obesity in American children. (Gallahue 1993).
Enjoyment of the Outdoors
Outdoor play is one of the things that characterize childhood. Children need opportunities to explore, grow, discover, yell, sing, and create! Some of our favorite childhood memories are outdoor activities.
Learning about the World
Outdoor play enables young inquistive minds to learn and explore their environment. Much of what a child learns outside can be learned in a variety of other ways, but learning it outside is particularly effective—and certainly more fun! In the outside playground children can learn math, science, ecology, gardening, construction, farming, vocabulary, the seasons, and weather. Not only do children learn basic and fundamental information about how the world works in a very effective manner, they are more likely to remember what they learned because it was concrete and personally meaningful (Ormrod, 1997).
Learning about Self and the Environment
To learn about their own physical and emotional capabilities, children must push their limits. How high can I swing? Do I dare go down the slide? How high can I climb? Can I go down the slide headfirst? To learn about the physical world, the child must experiment with the physical world. Can I slide on the sand? Can I roll on grass? What happens when I throw a piece of wood into the pond? Is cement hard or soft to fall on? An essential task of development is appreciating how we fit into the natural order of things—animals, plants, the weather, and so on. To what extent does nature care for us by providing water, shade, soft surfaces, and sweet-smelling flowers? And to what extent does it present problems, such as hard surfaces, the hot sun, and thorns on bushes? We can discover this relationship with the natural world only by experiencing it as we grow up, develop, and interact with the natural environment.
Social Play
Children need opportunities outside to develop basic social skills and social competencies: i.e. pushing each other on the swing, pulling a wagon carrying another child, playing together in the sand.
Summary
Providing for the outdoor play needs of young children is a complex and challenging task. A variety of factors must be considered such as supervision, safety, and ADA access. However, because our children experience fewer opportunities to explore nature, run, roll, climb, and swing and because outdoor play is part of being a child, we must find a variety of ways to provide quality outdoor play experiences for children, infants through age eight years. This task is made even more important as our early childhood programs focus more and more on teaching basic skills and early academics.