It’s been a busy week for the Souris Valley Museum as they were running not one, but two winter camps during the winter school break. Two four-day camps were totally different, yet they both were centred around learning history and science through interaction, art and games.
The first camp, Winter Wonderland, ran mornings, while the other one, Rock'n'Roll Camp, took up afternoons.
“For the Rock’n’Roll Camp for the week we have 14 children ages six-10, who are here to learn about music from different decades. This morning we had 13 kids for our Winter Wonderland camp. They were learning all about snow today,” said the Souris Valley Museum curator-director Mark Veneziano on Tuesday.
While travelling through decades and exploring the major musical themes and tendencies Veneziano had just one person, Arwen Koops, helping him to involve children into the musical journey through time.
They started from the 1940s, learning about swing and rock’n’roll. They progressed following the path of rock’n’roll development, going through its peak in the 60s-70s and then coming to its merger with pop music. They ended the trip in 2000s, talking more about pop music.
“Most of the camp is centred around rock’n’roll,” said Veneziano. “On top of learning about music we will learn about that decade as well.”
So along with musical history, kids got to learn about Pet Rocks, some popular 90s games like Jenga, and Estevan’s development through the decades. They also had a chance to practise most of the things they heard of during this week.
“We are doing an air band competition,” said Veneziano. “We split them (kids) into smaller groups and they have a performance. (That way) they are learning about what musical instruments were popular during that time period, like electric guitar, electric bass, drums.”
Since the Souris Valley Museum doesn’t have these instruments, children had to use their imagination. Besides, at some point of history air bands were a big thing too.
Everything kids learned during this week they mainly learned through experience.
“We do have a history component, where we do talk to the kids about history, but after we learn about that little piece of history we do an activity to support that idea that we were discussing,” Veneziano said.
Kids had an opportunity to make their own bands and to create their logo. They also had dance parties at the end of each day, learning different moves and steps from each era.
Looking forward, the museum is getting ready for their spring school break camps. The registration is already open. Once again they will run two half-day camps, with the morning one for kids aged three to five to explore Spring in Bloom, and the afternoon one for six-10-year-olds to get to know All about Bugs. To register people can stop by the museum during weekdays, or call their office at 306-634-5543.
