Super Structures (5-6)

Do you like to build things? Are you an aspiring engineer? Then this hands-on exploration course is for you!

During this course, you will learn basic building principles and apply your knowledge by taking part in daily structure challenges!

You will learn how to apply critical thinking skills, how to be a creative designer and problem-solver, and apply math, science and design concepts using a variety of building materials, including straws, paper, clay, blocks, K’Nex, Lego and even eggs!

Junior Scientists (7-9)

Get your lab coats and beakers ready!

Science is always fun when you’re doing the experiments! In this exciting, hands-on course, we’ll be conducting a variety of experiments, learning about the scientific method, carrying out observations and recording data in our science journals, just like real scientists.

Among our activities will be ‘Flubber’ making, dissections, and even kitchen science, where we get to eat our experiments!

TV Reporters (10-14)

Do you like being in front of the camera? Whether you’re interested in Talk Shows, weather reports, movie reviews, or on-location News Reports, Pear Tree’s TV reporter has something for you.

Over the week, you’ll prepare and create a series of different TV productions using digital technology, and edit them using sophisticated video editing software you’ll even use Green Screen effects!

During the course, you will go on a field trip to the CTV newsroom.

This is an amazing course for developing Public Speaking skills!

Go Green Eco Team (5-6)

Want to learn about how you can “go green”?

At Pear Tree, you’ll learn how to be better citizens, both locally and globally, through fun and practical ways. We’ll plant terrariums, create our own worm farm, and even make our own eco-friendly soap!

Some great outdoor activities we’ll be doing include participating in recycling relays, as well as storm drain marking to increase awareness about protecting our local salmon streams!

Animation Film Studios (7-9)

Calling all future movie directors! Using computers, digital cameras and interactive Smartboards, your team will create and direct several of your own animations and short films.

You’ll make storyboards and scenery, and will create your own short animation and film. You’ll learn how to add voice overs, words, music and sound effects. Each day, we will learn a different drama technique, and we’ll even do some of our own acting to film!

PLEASE NOTE: It is recommended that students bring their own digital camera or iPad.

Sports Science (10-14)

Science separates sports amateurs from the professionals.

At Pear Tree, in addition to playing different sports, students will study and implement sports health and food nutrition, make their own smoothies and health snacks, learn about kinetics, practice special exercising methods, use technology & apps, and develop their own digital training regime.

PLEASE NOTE: Pear Tree’s healthy Hot Lunch Program is mandatory for this course, as food is provided throughout the week. Therefore, an additional $67 must be added to the camp price.

West Coast Creatures (5-6)

British Columbia is the home to many interesting animals. In this course, we will explore these creatures through science experiments, art activities, drama, songs and children’s literature.

Some of the creatures we will explore include local brown bats, grizzly bears, humming birds, orca whales, and owls.

Students are sure to leave this course excited about our local wildlife!

Adventurous Athletes (7-9)

Whether you’re already sporty or an aspiring athlete, this week is a great way to get outside with new friends and get moving!

Each day, there will be skill-based activities related to specific sports, and many opportunities for collaborating with peers. We’ll be playing games like Capture the Flag and California Kick Ball, as well as more traditional sports like tennis and soccer. Not only that, but we will be doing different fitness-based activities to improve our strength and stamina! Each day, different students will have opportunities to model and explain these activities, which help public speaking and leadership skills.

This week will be held outdoors, rain or shine!

Canada: Then (10-14)

Canada: Then brings to life Canada as it was when early settlers transitioned from their countries to the frontier. This course explores the challenges different groups would have faced.

To help our students imagine this, we convert fictional diaries into the most amazing graphic novels! These take the perspectives of various ethnic groups, and involve reading diaries and researching clothing for the times.

We apply our numeracy skills in context to think about real-life transportation challenges for people travelling on wagons across Canada.

We even cook some traditional pioneer food!

This course includes a full-day field trip to Burnaby Village Museum.

Wetland Wonders (5-6)

Ponds and wetlands are an important part of Vancouver’s ecosystem, and as young biologists, we’ll study some of wetlands features up close.

We will learn about the life cycle of a frog, study water plants, observe local birds, and do pond dipping! Each day will have a different focus and we will explore through art, drama, literature and experiments.

This course includes a field trip to a local pond, where we can observe a wetland habitat’s features.

Marine Biology (7-9)

With so many interesting sea creatures and aquatic plants, who doesn’t love exploring beaches?

With beaches so close to Pear Tree, we’ll have lots of opportunities to explore local marine life.

As a young biologist, you’ll develop important skills such as observing, documenting and comparing.

We will also learn about other marine life in other parts of the world, including sharks, coral reefs and jellyfish!

Film Noir (10-14)

Pear Tree is bringing the old with this homage to Film Noir cinema. We have one week to create, film, and edit a Neo Noir movie, and we need your help!

With movies requiring a massive team, there is guaranteed to be a role for you: live acting, voice overs, directing, filming, editing, music, or writing.

Come and find out if you can make it in the movie industry.

Under the Sea (5-6)

Pear Tree Education is lucky to be located close to some of the most perfect beaches for beach combing and exploration!

During the Under the Sea course, we will explore both local and exotic marine life.

Each day will include experiments, art, stories, water sensory activities and even drama related to the ocean.

Connect to Nature (7-9)

We are so lucky to live as close as we do to forests and beaches! Connect to Nature is a great course for students who love to spend time outdoors.

During the course, we will do many Waldorf-inspired nature crafts, play nature games outside, and get some time both in the forest and at the beach.

Some activities include wood burning crafts, nature mobiles, exploring music and nature, and building mini gnome houses.

Kids Can Cook! (10-14)

Do you want to learn how to make healthy and delicious snacks and meals? Join us in another week of more cooking and baking! In this hands-on course, you’ll learn how to read recipes and measure ingredients, learn about nutrition and healthy living, as well as the importance of kitchen safety. You’ll go on a field trip, too!

Each day you’ll cook two dishes, and will take home your own recipe book at the end of the course.

PLEASE NOTE: Pear Tree’s Hot Lunch Program is mandatory for this course, as food is provided throughout the week. Therefore, an additional $67 must be added to the camp price.

Drama 101 (Ages 5-6)

Let your imaginations run wild in this class!

Dramatic play is not only fun and engaging for young children, but it’s an important way for them to explore and make sense of the adult world.

Our drama specialist will engage students in a variety of drama-based games, and provide a safe environment for children to try out different roles.

Students will also have lots of opportunities for play-based learning in our dramatic play centers.

O Canada (7-9)

Let’s celebrate the amazing country we live in!

We’ll read different stories about Canada and Canadians, make some Canadian food, create some epic pictures and paintings in the style of Emily Carr, learn about some great Canadian inventors and inventions, be inspired by Canadian athletes, and look at Canadian wildlife and nature.

Phew! So much in 4 days!

Energy (10-14)

Human civilisation depends on energy. Our need to find a solution for seemingly unlimited, renewable energy makes it a fascinating topic for exploration.

Students in our 4-day Energy course will explore different forms of energy and develop an understanding for what electricity is and how we are able to use it to get things done.

We’ll conduct a number of energy-related experiments and will ask deep-thinking questions.

Soft-circuits using copper tape and LED lights will enable our students to establish an understanding of simple circuits, before we more on to more complex breadboards and Arduinos.

By examining chapters from the novel The City of Ember, we’ll explore what life would be like if we had a limited amount of electricity.

Story World (5-6)

In Pear Tree’s Story World camp, we’ll explore graphic novels, picture books and short stories as a way to develop our literacy skills!

Some of the important literacy skills we will practice daily include making inferences, asking questions, and connecting to characters’ feelings in
books.

Each class, we will explore different authors and genres. These books will inspire art, drama and other activities. We will even make our own short picture book!

Reptiles (7-9)

Turtles, snakes, lizards , crocodiles and alligators are all interesting reptiles. At Pear Tree, students will feel like real biologists as they take part in hands-on activities, research, experiments, and art projects related to reptiles.

Additionally, Pear Tree is the home to a corn snake! Don’t worry, she is completely harmless to humans, and is extremely sweet! Students will have opportunities to care for and handle her daily.

Pearformers (10-14)

Dance, theatre, and musical theatre, Pear Tree’s Pearformers course has a little bit of everything of the performing arts! We’re bringing Broadway to West Broadway.

Whether or not your child already does acting, dancing, or singing, in Pearformers we’ll start from the basics and will work upwards to create small group performances. If you’re confident enough to do a solo performance, there’s room for that, too!

Come and discover your inner talents!

It’s A Small World (5-6)

We will travel the world in 5 days! Each day, students will focus on a different region of the world.

Our class will study songs, art, stories, dances and traditions from various countries. We’ll even make and try some food from other countries!

Some of the places we’ll study include Kenya, India, China, France and Mexico!

Amazing Artists (7-9)

Mixed media is the best of all art forms, because it blends a variety of them to make masterpieces!

Rather than focusing on one form of media such as a piece of art that only works with paint, these pieces will include a variety of media.

Some of our art pieces will include painting, papier mache, fabric, wood, and pastels. We will also incorporate photography, magazine ads and different fonts.

Amazing Artists is a wonderful course to exhibit creativity while still learning about different art techniques.

Flight (10-14)

Human beings have always been fascinated by flight, ever since the first humans saw living creatures flying around them. For millenia, we wondered how they fly, which led to the development of planes, helicopters and drones.

Our Flight course explores both the animal kingdom and human inventions. We’ll explore how flight works, both the science and the math; we’ll look at how the physical characteristics of different birds affects their flight abilities; and we’ll look at human solutions for flight. Also, we will create an infographic to show how the size and shape of birds and planes affects their flight altitude.

This is a hands-on course, so we’ll not only be testing 3 different types of paper airplanes to see how the design and style impact the performance of the plane, we’ll also make wing prototypes to see which wing creates the strongest feeling of lift, force and gravity; and then using this knowledge to create a glider out of balsa wood.

Painters Pallet (5-6)

As painters, we will have lots of time to try different paints and painting techniques! We’ll work with water colour, acrylic and tempera paints.

Our paintings will be inspired by nature, animals, literature, our friends and family, and even the summer weather!

The young artists of this course will have a small portfolio of art pieces to share with you at the end of this week.

Space (7-9)

Do you know what it takes to fly to Mars and to live there? Take a trip into space with Pear Tree’s out-of-this-world Space camp!

Conduct experiments related to space flight, planets and the Moon. Re-create our solar system.Learn about the possibility of living on other planets, such as Mars. And, research about different planets and discover how math helps us compare these planets.

As the final project, create an epic Mars colony that factors in real-life human survival needs!

This course includes a field trip to H. R. MacMillan Space Centre.

Our Living Oceans (10-14)

Attention future marine biologists, wildlife lovers, and avid beachcombers! Are you fascinated with the ocean and the life within it? Are you worried about the impact of human activities on our ocean sustainability?

Despite the fact that the ocean is right at our doorstep, there is still so much to explore and discover within it. Would you be surprised to learn that the oceans house the world’s largest invertebrate (the Colossal squid, topping out at a whopping 14 meters), and yet we know almost nothing about them?

But the oceans are so much more than a source of facts and oddities. Oceans are fascinating, complex, and incredible ecosystems, vital to the health of our planet, our economy, and our culture.

Learn about ecosystems here on the coast, see live animals at the Aquarium, research and present about human impact on the oceans, and even sea kayak at Jericho Beach!

As this course includes a field trip to Vancouver Aquarium and a sea kayaking lesson at Jericho beach, there is an additional fee of $50.