This week at the Spectrum in Asheville was especially exciting because we had two separate rounds of activities for the kids to choose from, thats six in all! It was very fun to get to pick twice. In the first round the choices were Bowling, Sea Activities, and Abracadabra! In the bowling group the kids got to play fun variations on bowling with cans, one version was truth or dare, another was simon says, and the last was hangman! In the sea activity group the kids got to make their own crabs or fish, then they went outside and played a crab walk relay race, and then they played ninja crab! In abracadabra the kids learned to be master magicians! They learned some very exciting magic tricks using everyday items, it was magical!

In the second round of activities we had Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Minute to Win It! The Indiana Jones group got to go on some amazing adventures that involved mummy races, they also got to make treasure maps, and then went on a treasure hunt! The star wars group started out by coloring pictures of Angry Birds Star Wars! Then they made balloon lightsabers, and then they trained to used the force! The minute to win it activity was a mixture of small games where the kids had only a minute to complete them! 

I am so excited for this coming Tuesday, we have lots of fun activities planned!

This was a very fun week at the Spectrum in Boone! We started out with a Valentine’s celebration and made cute heart-shaped glasses. One of the interns also brought yummy candy bracelets for everyone to munch on!

Next, the kids got to choose between playing real-life iPod games or taking a trip to Hogwarts. Over at the app store, everyone got to make their own Angry Birds masks (or other masks if they wanted to). They also went out into the hall to play Temple Run, which was set up as an obstacle course with boxes. All the kids seemed to enjoy crawling under chairs and jumping over (or knocking down) the other obstacles. It was awesome!

At Hogwarts, the students were learning to make potions out of sprite and food coloring. One of the kids made a really strong potion and forced one of the interns to drink it. It must have been some sort of happiness potion, because she couldn't stop smiling after that! Next, everyone got the chance to make their very own wand out of paper and feathers before they headed outside for a quick game of Quidditch (with frisbees)! All of the kids seemed to love getting to go outside…45 degrees is warm for February!

Come back next week for more pictures and updates!

This week at the spectrum in Asheville we had a ton of stuff to do! We had three great activities! Staring with Superheroes! We had lots of masked heroes running about! first everyone had to come up with their superhero name, and then they got to decorate their own mask! Then they had practice all of their new gained superpowers around the room! The last thing they did was play superhero says! This was a super group to be in!

The Mardi Party group started out playing musical masks, where they took Mardi Gras mask and used them to play a game similar to musical chairs. Then they decorated the masks with lots of glitter! Then the whole room broke out in a super fun, and a little crazy, dance party!

The third group was Balloons! The kids got to play lots of balloon volleyball using their hands and feet and even their heads! Then they played Balloon charades where they popped a balloon containing a word they then had to act out while the others guessed. Then they played with static electricity and found out who could make the most balloons stick to their heads at once. 

This week was great at the Spectrum, I bet next week will be even better! I can't wait to see everyone there!!

It’s almost time for Mardi Gras and how better to celebrate than to decorate cupcakes with colorful sprinkles! This definitely got a bit messy, but boy were they tasty J We continued the Mardi Gras fun by playing a game where we tried to throw beaded necklaces into cups. “Tried” was the key word in that sentence, because neither the kids nor the interns found it very easy to get the necklaces to go into the cups. We all decided to just throw the beads around the cups instead and it was a lot more fun!

Next, everyone was given the choice to either take a trip to the zoo or play in the snow. After getting to know all the kids last week and hearing about all the cool animal facts they know, it was obvious that everyone would choose the zoo! We started out by making elephants out of paper plates, construction paper, and googly eyes. Even though everyone used the same materials, their elephants still looked so unique and creative! One resourceful kid even decided to use a popsicle stick to transform his artwork into an awesome mask! After everyone finished their elephants, we headed out into the hallway for a game called “barrel of monkeys”. This is a version of tag where each time a person is tagged, they must link arms with the tagger. In the end, the remaining person that has escaped the giggling chain of monkeys gets to be “it”! Next, we moved on to an elephant race! The laughter did not stop as everyone dropped to the floor and charged up and down the hallway making elephant noises. This was extremely fun, but also really tiring! We slowed down a bit and ended the afternoon with a game of “pin the tail on the zebra”.

Overall, it was a great day at the Spectrum in Boone and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for next week!

Hello Everybody! This past Tuesday was another great meeting at the Spectrum in Asheville! We had a lot of fun doing some amazing activities that our wonderful interns came up with! This week was different because we actually gave everyone a chance to do all three activities to it is especially exciting! 

The first activity we had was Angry Birds! The kids got to create their own Angry Birds giving them names and special powers! Then they went outside and played a game called can the pigs where they setup a can pyramid that represented the pigs in the game and then used their angry birds to knock them over! Next they played angry birds dodgeball which was a ton of fun!!

The second group we had was robot themed! The kids got to make robots using cups and tinfoil and got to paint their own designs on them! Next they had to gas up! To do so they took turns trying to get beans in their cups in many creative ways. Now that the robots are fueled up the kids got to race them to see who had the most beans!

The third group was science themed! The first activity was a smelling one, the kids got to smell some different liquids and had to identify what the smell was! The next was a touch activity they had to feel some different items in boxes that they couldn't see and try to figure out with they were feeling! The next activity was blowing up balloons using gases created by mixing lemon juice, baking soda, and vinegar! That was a really cool one, only to be out-shined by the last activity which was a baking soda and vinegar volcano!!!

Overall this a very fun and exciting meeting, we can't wait to see what this coming Tuesday will bring! 

Today was an excellent start to the early Spring session in Boone, NC! Everyone drew their favorite animals on balloons and shared them with the group so we could all get to know each other a little better. Then, we used the balloons for a relay race and a quick game of “Don’t let the balloon hit the floor”! The kids were then given a choice to ride with the cowboys or take a trip to Hawaii. The cowboys got to learn to make Native American headbands with paper bags and feathers. They also got to try out the shooting range and go on a wild animal scavenger hunt! The beach dwellers spent their time decorating beach buckets and making leis to wear around their necks. They also had fun playing beach volleyball (with a balloon) and showing up the interns during the Limbo! Everyone came back together at the end for a quick game of Pictionary. We couldn’t believe what talented artists we have this session! See you next week J I heard a rumor that one of the interns might be making cupcakes…

Hello everyone! 

I hope everyone is as happy as I am that the Spectrum in Asheville is back in session! Our first meeting of the early spring session was this past Tuesday January 29th! There was a lot of excitement floating in the air! Since we extended the time of the program to an hour and half we decided to spend a little time as a big group and play some icebreakers and name games! both were really fun, first we passed out strings that everyone had to wrap around their finger and as they did they had to tell us about themselves for the length of the string, there were some really fun facts shared. For our second game we put pictures of different items such as fruits or animals on our backs, we didn't know what we had, and we had to ask others questions about what it was to figure it out!

We then split up into our three groups for the day, Pokemon, Gangnam Style, and Goin' on Safari with indoor games! The Pokemon group had tons of fun coloring different characters and then playing games pretending to be whichever Pokemon they chose! They played Pokemon charades, and duck duck goose, and Pokemon adventures where they got to tell everyone about a fantastic adventure that their Pokemon had went on. The Gangnam Style group played lots of fun games like Gangnam themed freeze tag, a marshmallow toss, and had a super exciting dance party! The safari and indoor games group painted their own animals, played mother may I and cross the creek, and had a leap frog race! All of the groups had an awesome time! We can't wait to see what next week has in store!!

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is having a great winter so far! The early spring session of the Spectrum is starting soon in Asheville! The session begins on January 29th and runs through March 5th. We are also extending the time of the program! It will now be from 4:30pm to 6:00pm! Here is a link to the registration information:

http://www.ultracamp.com/info/sessionDetail.aspx?idSession=45392

I hope to see everyone at the Spectrum!

This past Tuesday was the last Spectrum for the Late Fall Session, but it was a blast! We had two really fun groups. We had bad luck pirates and winter wonderland!

The bad luck pirates group started out playing Keep the Treasure up! All of the pirates had to stand on planks and keep the balloon treasure from falling to the ground while also trying to keep it away from Blackbeard who was trying to snatch it out of the air! Next they went outside and played Treasure in the Ocean, they had to keep all of the treasure on the parachute while they made waves to bounce it all around! Next they played piratey tug-of-war!

The winter wonderland group did a lot of cool activities! First they made snowflakes out of paper plates. Next they played pin the carrot nose on the snowman. Then they had a snowball relay race! After all this excitement they played winter themed bingo, called Snowy! 

Towards the end, both of the groups joined together to play a huge game of tag! It was a great way to round out this amazing session at the Spectrum in Asheville.

I hope everyone has signed up to join us again from January 29th to March 5th for our Early Spring Session. Here is a link to the online registration:

http://www.ultracamp.com/info/sessionDetail.aspx?idSession=45392

Hope to see you then!

This past Tuesday at the Spectrum in Asheville we had three super fun groups for the kids to choose from. It was also a very exciting meeting because it was our very first ever Bring a Friend day! It was so awesome to see new faces at the Spectrum! Thank you to everyone who was able to bring along a friend to share in the fun! Our first group was full of entertaining Indoor Games! They started with playing pictionary, everyone wrote down and item on a piece of paper and then took turns drawing a random one and then drawing it on the board until someone was able to guess it. They then played a nifty game called Copy Cat, where the all sat in a circle and had one person wait outside while they choose a leader, when the person came back in every one would copy what the leader was doing until the "it" person figured out who it was! Then they played telephone which was very entertaining. This group ended with an intense game of Simon Says!!

Our second group was full of rocket ships and aliens! 3, 2, 1 Blast off started our by making super creative foil monsters! Then they played "I went to the moon and took.." where they took turns saying what they were going to take to the moon with them, in alphabetical order. They then played knock down the aliens, using a volleyball in this bowling style game the kids had to knock down the aliens that were disguised as common plastic bottles.

The last group was all about having fun with Balloons! They played a game where you had to get as many balloons on their side of the room as they could but they couldn't use their hands! Then they played balloon volleyball! Lastly they had a balloon race! The kids started out on one side of the room and across from them were deflated balloons, they had to run over and grab a balloon, inflate it, get it back to the other side and pop it!