Acera Vacation Camp will run February 15 to 18, 2021
Full details coming soon!
Learn how to draw and explore in Virtual Reality, solve a challenge in Puzzle Pals or Math Club, create your own Digital Vacation, Video Game, or Film, and more!
You can browse last year’s 2020 offerings via the tabs below. Questions? Contact us at office@aceraschool.org
Timing:
AM session: 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (one break for snack)
PM session: 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. (one break for snack)
Full day: 8:30 a.m to 4:30 p.m. (breaks for snacks and lunch)
Pricing:
Half Day: $75
Full Day: $140
Weather cancellation policy:
During February break, if there is a prohibitive amount of snow expected, we will let families know by 6:30am if classes will be cancelled for the day. If classes are cancelled, families will receive a full refund for that day. When classes are held, refunds will not be given for classes not attended.
FINANCIAL AID:
Limited financial aid through Acera’s Reed Hollett Scholarship Fund is available and awarded based on demonstrated need. Please email us at enrichment@aceraschool.org to request a Scholarship Application.
Our Approach
At Acera, we believe that deep exploration of STEAM subjects should begin early. Our hands-on learning environment allows elementary and middle school children to nurture their natural desire to inquire, create, and innovate; and experiment with content and concepts usually reserved for older students–or not introduced during K-12 school years at all.
With emphases on critical thought, creative problem solving, and integration of content areas, our programs inspire all types of learners and thinkers. Students discover engineering, biotechnology, math, arts, theater, design, electronics, music, chemistry, physics, teamwork, friendships — and who they are: as individuals, learners, and collaborators.
What to Expect
Our STEAM Learning Lab is designed to challenge students of all ages and learning styles. Participants should expect to tackle difficult, enticing problems, individually and in groups. They should anticipate taking the time to incorporate new techniques as they create unique works of art or design experimental protocols or novel engineering solutions.
TUESDAY, Feb. 18 Block Building Masters Digital Vacation: Photoshop Yourself Around the World Games and Probability Do you love board games like Settlers of Catan? Do you want to increase your likelihood of winning AND have more fun while playing? Level up your game play by applying concepts of game theory and strategy. We’ll have lots of games to choose from, plus you can bring your favorites from home and unlock new exciting ways to play! Video Editing Workshop Drawing in Virtual Reality WEDNESDAY, Feb. 19 Classroom Ninjas Digital Game Design Chess Camp Communicating with Confidence Film Club THURSDAY, Feb. 20 Songwriting Studio Digital Game Design Playscapes Collage and Craft Party Games and Probability FRIDAY, Feb. 21 Forts, Fantasy, and Friends Games and Probability Vlogging Introduction to Coding with Scratch Digital Vacation: Photoshop Yourself Around the World
Ages 4-7
Young students take on building challenges while learning about math, geometry, architectural design, and more. Patience, perseverance, and teamwork are tested here to make an exquisite, life-sized elaborate structure! Instructor: Dylan Foley, Acera songwriting teacher, instrument maker, and tinkerer
Ages 7-10
Imagine yourself in a far off land… Then, through the digital “magic” of Photoshop, you can look at the pictures of yourself visiting! We’ll learn to use green screen technology and photoshop to create extraordinary images of ourselves doing impossible things, visiting places we could never go, or maybe just lounging on the best beach ever. It’s up to you!
Ages 7-10
Ages 7-10
Do you want to learn how to shoot, edit and produce your own short video? Do you have story ideas for films you would like to make? In this camp, students learn and apply some of the basics of filmmaking, from storyboarding to script writing to filming and editing. At the end of the camp, students will have their very own film to share with friends and family! Participants must have a Mac computer (a limited number of Macbooks are available to rent for the half-day, please check in with us via enrichment@aceraschool.org.
10-14
Imagine you can draw not just on the piece of paper in front of you, but all around you. You can paint a house, and then make it bigger and walk inside to draw a living room, a kitchen, the family dog. It’s called 3D drawing, and made possible by VR technology. Join us during vacation week to try it out: Learn about how Virtual Reality works, and how you can use it to draw and create art in entirely new ways. No prior experience required. Instructor: Kara Williams, Acera school counselor
Ages 4-7
Sometimes, students have the best ideas: “What if we combine escape-room type challenges, team building and American Ninja Warrior in one?” they asked. Can we do that? Yes we can! Join us for fun challenges that will allow you to move, problem solve and make friends, and build both your mental and physical strengths! Dylan Foley, Acera songwriting teacher, instrument maker, and tinkerer
Ages 7-10
Have you ever found yourself thinking, “This video game would be so much better if…”? Unlock your creative computer skills in the exciting world of digital game design. Learn the basics of game animation by designing your own game characters. Choose from 5 different basic game types to customize with your own style, and create your own game in less than 3 hours!
Ages 7-10
This is a fun camp for emerging and intermediate chess players. Learn strategies and habits of mind that apply to chess and beyond. Work with teams to solve chess puzzles. Participate in a low pressure class tournament, all designed to stoke a love for the game.
For girls ages 7-10
Be Brave, Not Perfect is a new book by Founder and CEO of national non-profit Girls Who Code and New York Times bestselling author Reshma Saujani. In that spirit, we invite girls to find their own unique voice in a fun and supportive atmosphere. Through structured games and activities, girls discover that they have something to say – and the confidence to say it!
Ages 10-14
Theater, movie making and other forms of storytelling are great ways to get creative and make new friends! Put on a scene, film and cut a video clip, or bring your own ideas and make your story come to life. Build confidence in how to enter a group, work with others and have fun as part of a team.
Ages 4-7
Do you like to sing, hum, or write funny rhymes? Or to mix the tune from a classic song, and rewrite the lyrics? In this class, you’ll learn how to craft a song, record and edit it in Garageband, and create original music! If you play guitar, violin, ukulele, or another instrument bring it along! Instructor: Dylan Foley, a musician, instrument maker, and tinkerer with a degree in Music Production and Engineering from Berklee College of Music
Ages 7-10Have you ever found yourself thinking, “This video game would be so much better if…”? Unlock your creative computer skills in the exciting world of digital game design. Learn the basics of game animation by designing your own game characters. Choose from 5 different basic game types to customize with your own style, and create your own game in less than 3 hours!
Ages 7-10
Playing boosts your creativity, improves the way your brain functions, improves your relationships with your friends as you work with others, negotiate, and compromise. In this class, you’ll think about new spaces, installations, and forms of play, as you creatively devise some community-building fun!
Ages 7-10
Is there a space in your room that you’d love to fill with colorful art? Do you have a dream, and want to create something that will help you visualize achieving it? Do you love finding eye-catching photos and graphics in magazines and putting your own unique stamp on them? Join our Collage and Craft Party and spend the morning creating vision boards, cool collages, and art with your friends. Is there a craft you’re already working on at home? Bring it in and be inspired to finish it at Acera!
Ages 10-14Do you love board games like Settlers of Catan? Do you want to increase your likelihood of winning AND have more fun while playing? Level up your game play by applying concepts of game theory and strategy. We’ll have lots of games to choose from, plus you can bring your favorites from home and unlock new exciting ways to play!
Ages 4-7
There are magical creatures out there, from fairies to brownies to trolls to narcoblixes… We better be equipped and well-trained when we meet them! This program is for everyone ready to jump times zones, step through portals into the otherworld, enter preserves of magical creatures, and all around leave realism behind. We’ll build a clever fort in our nature playground (it will have all the right protections so invisible invaders can’t enter), make costumes and other props we need, design our own characters, and spend our time in a world only we can imagine together.
Ages 7-10
Do you love board games like Settlers of Catan? Do you want to increase your likelihood of winning AND have more fun while playing? Level up your game play by applying concepts of game theory and strategy. We’ll have lots of games to choose from, plus you can bring your favorites from home and unlock new exciting ways to play!
Ages 7-10
Eager to become YouTube famous, or have an important story to tell? Practice the ins-and-outs of visual blogging (i.e. “vlogging”) – including storytelling, content creation, video production, editing, and adding music or sound effects. From instructive how-tos to parodies, explore your ideas and find a voice as a vlogger! Participants must bring a Mac computer (a limited number of Macbooks are available to rent for the week, please check in with us via enrichment@aceraschool.org)
Ages 9+
Does the idea of making your own digital “Choose Your Own Adventure” story sound exciting? You can build it in Scratch! In this class, we will learn the basics of block-based coding with Scratch – a free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations – and will work individually and in small groups to code a “choose your own adventure”/interactive story.
Ages 10-14
Imagine yourself in a far off land… Then, through the digital “magic” of Photoshop, you can look at the pictures of yourself visiting! We’ll learn to use green screen technology and photoshop to create extraordinary images of ourselves doing impossible things, visiting places we could never go, or maybe just lounging on the best beach ever. It’s up to you!
TUESDAY, Feb 18 Songwriting Studio Vlogging Digital Game Design Chess Camp Video Editing Workshop WEDNESDAY, Feb 19 Our youngest builders are challenged to fabricate towering cathedrals, elaborate animal homes, porous hives, and more! Using math, geometry, and teamwork, students will build with a wide array of blocks, characters, and craft materials to make imagined structures a reality. Digital Vacation: Photoshop Yourself Around the World Drawing in Virtual Reality Do you love logic games, puzzles, and figuring things out? Spend the afternoon in Math Club! All levels are welcome in this friendly and supportive atmosphere. Kids will tackle fun and fascinating challenges as individuals and in group challenges; you’ve never had so much fun playing with numbers! How to Write a Movie or TV Show THURSDAY, Feb. 20 Puzzle Pals Minecraft Workshop Collage and Craft Party Chess Camp Vlogging FRIDAY, Feb. 21 Classroom Ninjas Theater, movie making and other forms of storytelling are great ways to get creative and make new friends! Put on a scene, film and cut a video clip, or bring your own ideas and make your story come to life. Build confidence in how to enter a group, work with others and have fun as part of a team. Going Further with Scratch Chess Camp Digital Game Design
Ages 4-7Do you like to sing, hum, or write funny rhymes? Or to mix the tune from a classic song, and rewrite the lyrics? In this class, you’ll learn how to craft a song, record and edit it in Garageband, and create original music! If you play guitar, violin, ukulele, or another instrument bring it along! Instructor: Dylan Foley, a musician, instrument maker, and tinkerer with a degree in Music Production and Engineering from Berklee College of Music
Ages 7-10Eager to become YouTube famous, or have an important story to tell? Practice the ins-and-outs of visual blogging (i.e. “vlogging”) – including storytelling, content creation, video production, editing, and adding music or sound effects. From instructive how-tos to parodies, explore your ideas and find a voice as a vlogger! Participants must bring a Mac computer (a limited number of Macbooks are available to rent for the week, please check in with us via enrichment@aceraschool.org)
Ages 7-10Have you ever found yourself thinking, “This video game would be so much better if…”? Unlock your creative computer skills in the exciting world of digital game design. Learn the basics of game animation by designing your own game characters. Choose from 5 different basic game types to customize with your own style, and create your own game in less than 3 hours!
Ages 7-10This is a fun camp for emerging and intermediate chess players. Learn strategies and habits of mind that apply to chess and beyond. Work with teams to solve chess puzzles. Participate in a low pressure class tournament, all designed to stoke a love for the game.
Ages 10-14Do you want to learn how to shoot, edit and produce your own short video? Do you have story ideas for films you would like to make? In this camp, students learn and apply some of the basics of filmmaking, from storyboarding to script writing to filming and editing. At the end of the camp, students will have their very own film to share with friends and family! Participants must have a Mac computer (a limited number of Macbooks are available to rent for the half-day, please check in with us via enrichment@aceraschool.org.
Architectural Designers
Ages 4-7
Ages 7-10Imagine yourself in a far off land… Then, through the digital “magic” of Photoshop, you can look at the pictures of yourself visiting! We’ll learn to use green screen technology and photoshop to create extraordinary images of ourselves doing impossible things, visiting places we could never go, or maybe just lounging on the best beach ever. It’s up to you!
Ages 7-10
Imagine you can draw not just on the piece of paper in front of you, but all around you. You can paint a house, and then make it bigger and walk inside to draw a living room, a kitchen, the family dog. It’s called 3D drawing, and made possible by VR technology. Join us during vacation week to try it out: Learn about how Virtual Reality works, and how you can use it to draw and create art in entirely new ways. No prior experience required. Instructor: Kara Williams, Acera school counselor
Math Club
Ages 7-10
Ages 10-14
Most of us have a favorite movie or TV show that we never get tired of watching. Why is it a favorite? Is it the dialogue? The plot? The fast pace? In this fun and engaging session, kids will learn how to turn a cool idea into a compelling story with a real script, from formatting and dialogue to knowing when and how to break up the action into multiple scenes.
Ages 4-7
It’s so satisfying to solve a puzzle! In this camp, you’ll find head-scratching, mind-bending games and challenges that stretch the way you think. Make friends as you put your heads together to tackle puzzles and riddles, and work as a team to create one giant puzzle together!
Ages 7+
Whether you’re a seasoned software designer or just love to get lost playing in a virtual world, this Minecraft Workshop is the perfect place to level up your skills. Our Minecraft campers will build extravagant block-worlds, develop new coding skills, and befriend other crafty adventurers.
Ages 7-10Is there a space in your room that you’d love to fill with colorful art? Do you have a dream, and want to create something that will help you visualize achieving it? Do you love finding eye-catching photos and graphics in magazines and putting your own unique stamp on them? Join our Collage and Craft Party and spend the morning creating vision boards, cool collages, and art with your friends. Is there a craft you’re already working on at home? Bring it in and be inspired to finish it at Acera!
Ages 7-10
This is a fun camp for emerging and intermediate chess players. Learn strategies and habits of mind that apply to chess and beyond. Work with teams to solve chess puzzles. Participate in a low pressure class tournament, all designed to stoke a love for the game.
Ages 10-14
Eager to become YouTube famous, or have an important story to tell? Practice the ins-and-outs of visual blogging (i.e. “vlogging”) – including storytelling, content creation, video production, editing, and adding music or sound effects. From instructive how-tos to parodies, explore your ideas and find a voice as a vlogger! Participants must bring a Mac computer (a limited number of Macbooks are available to rent for the week, please check in with us via enrichment@aceraschool.org)
Ages 4-7Sometimes, students have the best ideas: “What if we combine escape-room type challenges, team building and American Ninja Warrior in one?” they asked. Can we do that? Yes we can! Join us for fun challenges that will allow you to move, problem solve and make friends, and build both your mental and physical strengths! Dylan Foley, Acera songwriting teacher, instrument maker, and tinkerer Film Club
Ages 7-10
Ages 9+In this class, we will cover intermediate coding skills in Scratch, including functions and will work to code simulations of games, including chess, baseball, pinball, yahtzee, and tic tac toe. This “going further” class is great for students who have used Scratch before, including attending Acera’s “Introduction to Coding with Scratch” camp.
Ages 7-10This is a fun camp for emerging and intermediate chess players. Learn strategies and habits of mind that apply to chess and beyond. Work with teams to solve chess puzzles. Participate in a low pressure class tournament, all designed to stoke a love for the game.
Ages 10-14
Have you ever found yourself thinking, “This video game would be so much better if…”? Unlock your creative computer skills in the exciting world of digital game design. Learn the basics of game animation by designing your own game characters. Choose from 5 different basic game types to customize with your own style, and create your own game in less than 3 hours!
At Acera, we believe a school’s success can be measured far beyond its standardized test scores. How happy are its students? Do they feel a sense of purpose at school? Are they developing a capacity for perspective taking and problem solving? Are teachers using evidence-based approaches to pedagogy? Acera’s Education Innovation team is working to change how we measure education to include students’ core capacities, faculty’s use of evidence-based practices, a positive school culture, and standards and achievement.
Tech Hub enables students to emerge as community-minded technologists able to solve problems to benefit the whole school. More a philosophy than a place, Tech Hub can start as simply a cart in a cafeteria with one student fired up to be a knowledgable, technically skillful community member. Concurrently developing emotional intelligence skills and a wide array of technological abilities, Tech Hub members model and spread an attitude of fearlessness at using STEM tools to solve real problems.
Small children can understand big ideas, and computer science is no exception. Acera’s hands-on “Computers and Me” curriculum introduces early elementary students to computer science concepts, and is one example of many creative ways computational thinking and technical fluency can be developed throughout K-12 education, starting at age 5. Pilot-tested and ready to translate for adoption by public schools, these computer science learning approaches help students become facile and fearless.
What if math classes are organized based on what each student is ready to learn, rather than by age? This f
How can educators unleash the initiative and creativity inherent in all children? 