The Summer Learning Field Trip group visited seven different programs provided by six organizations.

 

Boys & Girls Club of Bellevue

The Boys & Girls Club of Bellevue currently has 14 sites in Bellevue and serves all 17 elementary schools. They host Summer Programs for Preschool to 9th grade that are focused on keeping kids engaged and active throughout the summer months. These include:

  • Specialty Camps that offer kids an opportunity to dive into a particular subject for a whole week.
  • Day Camps that offer a wide variety of experiences
  • Traveling Camps where kids travel to different local attractions and parks in the Greater Puget Sound Area
  • Summer School After Program for Bellevue School District’s Summer School Program.

The Club also works in partnership with Food Lifeline to provide free meals to youth at several of their locations summer including Eastside Terrace, Hidden Village, Spiritwood Manor and The Club Teen Center.

KidsQuest Children’s Museum

KidsQuest Children’s Museum Summer Campsoffer fun and learning through science experiments, arts and crafts, collaboration and exploration! The goal is to offer a variety of different learning opportunities for all with the focus on informal learning and play. The museum has been built for all ages and abilities. It is open on Mondays during summer and also offers weekly camps for children ages 3 – 8. The camps include:

  • Explorer camps for ages: 3-5 years that focus on science, art, and nature
  • Adventure camps for kids entering 1st – 3rd grade where they build mini rides and machines with LEGOs and motors, explore stop motion animation, chemistry, as well as circuits and automata.
  • STEAM camps: exploring Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math through fun, hands-on projects, activities, and experiments!

This summer, the Museum has averaged over 400 visitors each day. They also partner with other organization and deliver over 200 programs at local libraries, Boys and Girls Clubs, and Bellevue School District’s Sizzology program.

Bellevue YMCA

The Bellevue Y offers an activity-packed summer with tons of programs to learn, play, and explore. They make sure kids stay active at summer camps, learning new skills, inventing new games, and working on projects with new-found friends, giving them the space to grow stronger and more confident in a safe, nurturing environment. The camps are held in Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland and Mercer Island.

Crossroads Community Center

The Crossroads Community Center offers more than 30 summer day camps and specialty camps that provide a wide range of activities, classes, and events for all ages. Additionally, the Bellevue Youth Theatre, which started as Crossroads Youth Theatre in 1990 and served over 1000 youth in 2016, has an 8-week day camp with weekly performances and one main star production for all ages. More than 204 kids participate in rehearsals every day.

 

Bellevue School District

Operation Exploration at Somerset Elementary School: Operation Exploration is an academic program that typically appeals to independent learners who display intense curiosity, prefer complex and abstract thinking, and like to generate creative and unique ideas and products. For more than 30 years, Operation Exploration (OE) has provided students with a summertime opportunity to expand their learning. This hands-on integrated 12-day program emphasizes accelerated academics, creativity, and higher-level thinking skills. Students will engage in many hands-on activities as they investigate life under the sea through the integration of math, science, social studies, literacy and the arts. This year the theme of summer program was ‘Under the Sea’. The program enrollment has doubled since last year.

Sizze-ology and Adventurer Training Academy at Lake Hills Elementary SchoolThe Adventure Academy is a four-week literacy camp where kids come to dive into stories, strengthen their literacy skills and, most importantly, develop a love for reading. The half-day month-long program is for students who need intensive and targeted literacy instruction. The Sizzle-ology program runs every summer from the last week of school through the third week of August. It serves students preschool through 5th grade.