Summer Camps
EMERSON WALDORF
SUMMER CAMPS 2026
June 15 - July 24
CAMP DESCRIPTIONS
Childhood Magic
Weeks One - Six
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8:30 am - 1 pm | $265
Childhood Magic Aftercare: 1 - 3 pm $110
Arts, crafts, nature walks, outdoor free play, water play, storytelling, and more led by our early childhood staff from Emerson Waldorf School. Campers will enjoy the outdoors and have fun on our awesome Kindergarten playground! We will offer campers the opportunity to splash in our wading pools every day, so please plan to send them with a bathing suit and towel. Parents can also “opt in” for the additional aftercare from 1:00-3:00, which will include a quiet rest time after we splash. We will send a complete list of suggested items for campers to bring before camp begins.
*This program is meant for ages 4 through 7, but enrolled EWS families may register potty-trained three-year-old siblings.
Week One • June 15-18
Earth: Roots, Nature, & Belonging
No Camp Friday, June 19 in observance of Juneteenth
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$315 - prorated for the short week, includes materials fee
Recycled & Earth Art
Campers use donated and found materials to create hands-on art through hand-building, weaving, stitching, and simple sewing. Projects invite children to connect creativity with care for the earth, sustainability, and a sense of place.
Woodworking
Spark your child's creativity this summer at our Woodworking Camp! Campers will learn essential woodworking skills, including measuring, sawing, sanding, and assembling, in a safe and supportive environment. Through hands-on projects, they’ll design and build unique creations, from small crafts to functional items, while exploring their imagination. By the end of camp, participants will gain confidence, new skills, and handcrafted projects they’ll be proud to show off!
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$300 - prorated for the short week, includes materials fee
Earth Stories & Belonging in Latin American Culture
Journey into Latin culture through stories, imagination, and a deep connection to the Earth. Campers will explore traditional folklore and creation stories that honor the land, plants, animals, and the people who care for them, drawing from Indigenous traditions across Latin America. Through nature-based games, earth-centered arts and crafts, and hands-on activities such as working with natural materials and planting, children will experience how culture grows from the land itself.Handwork
Campers explore traditional handwork through age-appropriate, hands-on projects that build fine motor skills, patience, and care for materials. The class emphasizes process, rhythm, and creativity, with children working steadily toward simple, finished pieces by the end of the week.
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$300 - prorated for the short week, includes materials fee
Plant-Based Crafts
Children explore how plants can be gathered, prepared, and transformed into simple handmade creations. Through bundling, working with fibers, and seed projects, campers develop care, patience, and a deeper connection to the natural world.
Nature Journaling & Hiking
Campers begin the week by making their own paper and binding a personal nature journal, then spend time on nature walks and small hikes around campus to observe plants, animals, and landscapes. Through drawing, writing, pressed flowers, poetry, and shared stories, children learn to slow down, reflect, and deepen their sense of wonder, connection, and belonging to the natural world.
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$300 - prorated for the short week, includes materials fee
Dance & Crafts with LaShawnda Holman
Dance is a wonderful way for young people to express themselves creatively. Campers will experience the joy of dance while learning choreography and exploring various styles of dance such as contemporary, lyrical, ballet, and jazz. Each day campers will also enjoy working on a craft. Campers do not need to have previous dance experience. Please come dressed comfortably for dancing and bring the following items:
Yoga mat
Water bottle
Healthy snack and lunch
Sunscreen and hat
LaShawnda Holman is a class teacher at Emerson Waldorf School. She is excited to share her love for dance and the performing arts with campers this summer!
Week Two • June 22-26
Water • Folk Tales & Forest Magic: Flow, Rhythm, & Renewal
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$375 - includes materials fee
Water Stories & Rhythms of Latin America
Campers will explore Latin culture through stories, music, and movement inspired by water and its life-giving rhythms. Folktales and legends from Latin American traditions will highlight rivers, rain, oceans, and renewal, inviting children into imaginative worlds shaped by flowing water. Through rhythmic songs, gentle movement, and hands-on art using fluid materials, campers will experience how water connects communities, nourishes the land, and brings change and growth.
Water & Wonder
Campers explore the theme of water through watercolor painting, making bee watering stations, creating and sharing kindness rocks, and preparing refreshing herbal teas. This nurturing, hands-on class blends creativity with care for the land, pollinators, and community.
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$375 - includes materials fee
Flowing Tales: Story & Illustration
Campers create original illustrated stories inspired by movement and change, learning the basic structure of storytelling and how to develop a consistent character through drawing. Over the week, each child completes a short, illustrated storybook to share with their community.
Yoga, Breathwork, Emotional Wellness
Children learn simple ways to calm their bodies and manage big feelings through yoga, breathwork, meditation, and movement games. Campers begin by releasing energy, then gently practice slowing down and finding steadiness. Through kindness, connection, and easy-to-remember “golden keys,” children build self-awareness, gratitude, and emotional balance—skills that help them feel more grounded, confident, and connected to themselves and others.
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$395 - includes materials fee
Plant-Based Crafts
Children explore how water carries color and brings about gentle transformation through the art of natural dyeing. Using plant materials, simple mordants, and water baths, campers will slowly dye wool or fabric, observing how color deepens and changes over time.
Cooperative Water Games
Children work together through gentle, water-based challenges that emphasize rhythm, balance, and teamwork. Using cups, sponges, and buckets, campers practice moving water with care, learning to listen, cooperate, and flow as a group.
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$375 - includes materials fee
Dance & Crafts with LaShawnda Holman
Dance is a wonderful way for young people to express themselves creatively. Campers will experience the joy of dance while learning choreography and exploring various styles of dance such as contemporary, lyrical, ballet, and jazz. Each day campers will also enjoy working on a craft. Campers do not need to have previous dance experience. Please come dressed comfortably for dancing and bring the following items:
Yoga mat
Water bottle
Healthy snack and lunch
Sunscreen and hat
LaShawnda Holman is a class teacher at Emerson Waldorf School. She is excited to share her love for dance and the performing arts with campers this summer!
Week Three • June 29-July 2
Wood • Seeds & Supper: Growing, Constructing, & Becoming
No Camp on Friday, July 3, in observance of the 4th of July
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$300 - prorated for the short week, includes materials fee
From Shelter to Sculpture
Campers begin by designing and building simple forts using found wood and natural materials, learning about structure, stability, and teamwork. They then shift to working with smaller wood pieces to create assemblage sculptures or symbolic forms, exploring how individual parts come together to make a meaningful whole.
Kendama
Kendama is a traditional Japanese skill toy involving catching and balancing a wooden ball on a handheld cup-and-spike tool. Campers learn basic to intermediate kendama techniques through focused practice, building coordination, patience, and precision while working toward mastering a set of completed tricks.
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$300 - prorated for the short week, includes materials fee
Making Music Together
Campers explore music through shared listening, rhythm, and hands-on instrument play, using a variety of accessible instruments. The class emphasizes cooperation, musical curiosity, and the joy of creating sound as a group.
Obstacle Course Building
Children help design and build courses using cones, planks, logs, ropes. Then run and refine them over the week.
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$315 - prorated for the short week, includes materials fee
Wood Prints & Crafts
Campers work with foraged and reclaimed wood to create hands-on projects such as DIY wall hangings, upcycled planters with plantings, wood prints, and personalized walking sticks. This camp celebrates creativity and craftsmanship while exploring the many ways wood can be transformed into functional and artistic creations.
Woodworking
Campers learn to safely use simple hand tools to carve and shape wood, working slowly and with care. Over the course of the week, each child completes a small, clearly formed wooden piece, experiencing the satisfaction of bringing a project to completion.
Spark your child's creativity this summer at our Woodworking Camp for kids ages 8-12! In this hands-on whittling class, campers will learn the basics of wood carving while creating their very own wooden masterpiece. We'll start with simple techniques and safety skills, then guide you through shaping, smoothing, and finishing your unique creation. Whether you carve a tiny animal, a cool keychain, or something completely original, you'll leave with a special handmade treasure and new skills to take home. No experience needed – just bring your creativity and we'll provide the rest!
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$210 - prorated for the short week and day, includes materials fee
Strings Camp (Ages 6–10): Discovering Strings
This introductory strings camp invites younger campers to get to know their instruments through movement, listening, and play. Using healthy posture, familiar tunes, singing, and rhythmic movement, children explore musical contrasts such as fast and slow, high and low, while feeling the steady pulse of music in their bodies. Campers learn the stories and melodies of “Hot Cross Buns,” “Scotland’s Burning,” and “Song of Peace,” practicing one piece to share with others at the end of the week. A simple craft project supports musical imagination and connection.
Week Four • July 6-10
Fire • The Weaver & The Builder: Expression, Imagination, & Play
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$395 - includes materials fee
Fire & Flour Baking Lab
Campers explore how fire and heat transform simple ingredients into something delicious while expressing their creativity through flavor, shape, and imagination.
Candle Making- Sprouts
Children work with warm beeswax to dip and shape their own candles, experiencing how heat transforms material into light. Through this calm, rhythmic process, campers practice patience, care, and creative expression while learning about fire as a source of warmth and renewal.
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$395 - includes materials fee
Clay Fun
Campers explore clay through hand-building, sculpting, and playful experimentation, shaping forms inspired by imagination and movement. The camp emphasizes creative expression and transformation, as ideas come alive through warm, tactile work with this responsive material.
Capture the Flag
Campers engage in classic capture-the-flag games that emphasize strategy, teamwork, and active movement. As the week builds, the games grow in energy and intensity, encouraging bold play, quick thinking, and the lively spirit of Fire through joyful competition and spirited teamwork.
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$395 - includes materials fee
Fine Arts Studio
Campers explore color, texture, and form through a series of simple, fire-inspired art projects, including painting, dyeing, and collage. Each session offers a complete, hands-on project, allowing children to create, finish, and proudly take home their work by the end of the week.
Making Music Together
Campers explore music through shared listening, rhythm, and hands-on instrument play, using a variety of accessible instruments. The class emphasizes cooperation, musical curiosity, and the joy of creating sound as a group.
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Strings Camp (Ages 10–14): Exploring Strings & Sound
Designed for older campers, this strings camp welcomes beginners as well as those with basic music-reading skills or experience on another instrument. Campers explore the history of bowed string instruments, sound production, and foundational playing techniques while developing ensemble awareness. Through guided practice and listening, students study accessible arrangements of Pachelbel’s Canon and the Tallis Canon, building confidence, musical understanding, and a sense of shared accomplishment.
Soccer Skills Camp: ages 6-14 (Half Day: 8:30 am to 1 pm) - $265
EWS Soccer Camp offers a fun and exciting environment for campers to discover great qualities about themselves through soccer. This camp will focus on “Ball Mastery,” as players spend time developing different skills that will help them maintain control of their bodies and the ball in game situations.
We will also be having a “classroom” portion where we connect with the campers a little differently because they do the talking and give us their feedback on how the camp has been going. We ask certain questions to let them think, analyze or talk on what we are working on.
The camp will be split into an older group (11-14) and a younger group (6-10), though players will participate in larger scrimmages and select skill drills together. Camp days will begin with stretching and warm-ups to activate our mind and body. We will then transition to ball mastery skills, with each player using his or her own ball. From here we will progress into multiplayer skill drills and combine skills into game-like situations. Each day of camp will include or end with a scrimmage, weather permitting.
Coaches Beltus Atabong & Belomy Atabong, also known as “Beck and Belo,” were born in Cameroon, West Africa, and relocated to the United States back in 2007. Soccer has been a big part of our lives since childhood, and we continued playing through college and beyond. Discovering our passion for coaching and training while playing in college inspired us to dedicate our full attention to coaching after our competitive years came to an end.
Week Five • July 13-17
Metal • Journey & Celebration: Structure, Skill, & Completion
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$395 - includes materials fee
Wireworks: Jewelry, Art & Play
Campers shape and bend wire to create simple jewelry, playful bubble wands, and small wire art pieces, learning basic techniques for working with this versatile material. The camp balances careful craftsmanship with joyful experimentation, ending with functional and creative pieces to take home.
Strategy Games
Campers engage in carefully structured movement games that emphasize planning, precision, and teamwork, building skill through repeated practice and clearly defined roles.
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$375 - includes materials fee
Chess & Strategy Games
Board games, logic games, and puzzles that develop planning and foresight.
Disc Golf
Campers learn the fundamentals of disc golf through focused practice, course navigation, and friendly challenges. The class emphasizes throwing technique, accuracy, and respectful play.
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$395 - includes materials fee
Functional Metal Crafting
Campers work with metal using careful measuring, bending, shaping, and finishing techniques to create a small, functional or wearable piece from start to completion. The class emphasizes precision, patience, and craftsmanship.
Soccer Skills Camp
EWS Soccer Camp offers a fun, supportive environment where campers build confidence and self-awareness through focused soccer play. Each day emphasizes ball mastery, warm-ups, skill drills, and game-like situations, giving players time to develop control of both their bodies and the ball. Campers also reflect together through guided conversations and end the day with scrimmages whenever possible.
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Both Specialty Camps: $395 - includes materials fee
Dungeons & Dragons: ages 10+ (rising 4th graders)
Dungeons & Dragons provides a collaborative storytelling experience that encourages creativity, problem-solving, social interaction, and a sense of community, allowing players to immerse themselves in a shared narrative while developing their characters and overcoming challenges together. Our quest will begin in the world of Kryataan, fifty years past the second great Dragon War. But, uneasy alliances and rumors of dark shadows spread from the corners of the land. Can our heroes push back the darkness and restore hope to the realm?
Each adventurer will:
craft and create their own character
choose and paint their own character figurine
create daily sketches of our adventures for a keepsake graphic novel
For our time together, students will need:
a healthy snack and lunch
a water bottle
a positive attitude
Brandon Kohn grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons and has a passion for fantasy novels and role playing. He is also a class teacher at Emerson, an experienced story teller, and an adventurer at heart. Living with his family in Mebane, he spends his free time exploring our beautiful state and searching for hidden treasures. Brandon is looking forward to bringing a new generation of wanderers and quest seekers into the realm of fantasy gaming.
Silk Painting: ages 9-15
In this fiber arts camp we will explore ancient Japanese traditions such as shibori and silk painting. Campers will learn techniques for applying resist and colors to the silk. Silk is known for its quality of taking on dye beautifully and creating vibrant colors. Campers will gain confidence and skills in natural dyeing on silk and learn how to bring their ideas to life on fabric! Campers will come away with a lovely piece of wearable art.
Week Six • July 20-24
Elements in Balance: Specialty Camps Week
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$395 - includes materials fee
Dungeons & Dragons provides a collaborative storytelling experience that encourages creativity, problem-solving, social interaction, and a sense of community, allowing players to immerse themselves in a shared narrative while developing their characters and overcoming challenges together. Our quest will begin in the world of Kryataan, fifty years past the second great Dragon War. But, uneasy alliances and rumors of dark shadows spread from the corners of the land. Can our heroes push back the darkness and restore hope to the realm?
Each adventurer will:
craft and create their own character
choose and paint their own character figurine
create daily sketches of our adventures for a keepsake graphic novel
For our time together, students will need:
a healthy snack and lunch
a water bottle
a positive attitude
Brandon Kohn grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons and has a passion for fantasy novels and role playing. He is also a class teacher at Emerson, an experienced story teller, and an adventurer at heart. Living with his family in Mebane, he spends his free time exploring our beautiful state and searching for hidden treasures. Brandon is looking forward to bringing a new generation of wanderers and quest seekers into the realm of fantasy gaming. -
$395 - includes materials fee
Are you a young skateboarder who wants more practice and a chance to improve your skills? Have you always wanted to skate but never had the chance? Spend a week learning the basics of skating and the positive aspects of skate culture. We will get warmed up and practice on campus and then venture out to explore local skateparks of the triangle (Apex, Durham, Chapel Hill). Any level of experience is welcome! All skaters need a board, helmet, and pads to ride. Let's skate!
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$395 - includes materials fee
Join Ms. Yukov in exploring the world of herbs and the ways in which they can be used! From herbal sun oils & creating herbal tea blends to salves & sachets, we will learn how to create herbal magic. In the mornings we will spend time in the garden learning about the plants known for their medicinal properties and use them in our creations. Our afternoons will be spent with our elbows in alchemy. Together we will soak up the wisdom quite literally and each day bring home a little bit of something special.
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$375 - includes materials fee
Campers develop basketball fundamentals through focused drills, cooperative play, and game-based learning that emphasizes coordination, rhythm, and teamwork. The class balances individual skill-building with group play, helping students grow in confidence while bringing movement, focus, and fun together.
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$395 - includes materials fee
A bicycle doesn’t seem like a simple machine, but with a few tricks and some common tools, you can fix and build your own! Join Elias “Mr. G” Gross for a hands-on journey through basic bicycle mechanics. Students will learn how to strip a bicycle down to its component parts and build a working bicycle from the frame up. Students will learn how to use common bicycle tools safely and will learn how to diagnose common bicycle problems. Students will work collaboratively to build bicycles during the week and will donate the final project at the end of the week. This camp will include one field trip to the Recyclery in Chapel Hill.
More information…
This year, we are excited to announce that we've restructured Emerson Waldorf Summer Camps to be a more unified and engaging camp experience for all ages!
Each week will feature a unique theme, providing a thread for individual camps to build upon. Campers (6 years and up) will have the opportunity to participate in multiple activities throughout the day, rather than being limited to a single theme camp for an entire week. In this way, the summer camp schedule will mirror the flow of a school day, providing multiple opportunities for learning and fun. Select Specialty Camps will also be offered for those who wish to focus on a singular activity.
The weeks will be themed as follows (6 years and up):
• Week One (June 15-18) • EARTH: Roots, Nature, & Belonging
• Week Two (June 22-26) • WATER: Flow, Rhythm, & Renewal
• Week Three (June 29-2) • WOOD: Growing, Constructing, & Becoming
• Week Four (July 6-10)• FIRE: Expression, Imagination, & Play
• Week Five (July 13-17) • METAL: Structure, Skill, & Completion
• Week Six (July 20-24) • ELEMENTS IN BALANCE: Specialty Camps Week
Each section will be grouped by age, with a maximum of two sections per age group:
• Childhood Magic: 4-6 years old
• Sprouts: 1st & 2nd Grade
• Saplings: 3rd to 5th Grade
• Elderwoods: 6th to 8th Grade
• 15 to 18-year-olds may apply to be a CIT
• Counselors In Training (CITs): Middle Schoolers and older are eligible
For our older, more experienced campers, we offer the opportunity to help out as Counselors-in-Training (CITs). Each CIT will be assigned to one or more theme camps and will assist the lead counselor with activity set-up, supervision, and generally making sure campers stay safe and happy. This is a great opportunity for young adults to develop leadership skills and experience. Applicants with some child care or babysitting experience are preferred. Interested students or parents can contact Nikki Fryer at summercamps@emersonwaldorf.org.
At check-out, you may either pay in full or submit half the total amount as a deposit, paying the second installment by May 1, 2026.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions: summercamps@emersonwaldorf.org
For more information…
Please feel free to consult the Summer Camp Handbook if you have questions. If your particular question isn’t covered there, feel free to get in touch, and we’ll be happy to provide an answer.
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For specific questions about Summer Camps, please contact our Camp Manager at summercamps@emersonwaldorf.org
For general inquiries, call 919-967-1858.