Camp 2024: Week Three

Kalimah’s 2024 STEAM Arabic Immersion Summer Camp came to a strong end in the third week. The week started with a dabke workshop led by Zain Abuhatab. After learnng about the history and types of dabke, campers counted in Arabic as they practiced the steps to a basic dabke move that is common in Arab celebrations such as weddings, graduation parties, and casual friend gatherings. Community-building among campers soared to a new level with the dabke dance as well as traditional Arab children’s games such as fattahi ya wardah, taaq taaq taaqeyyeh, and more at our morning circle time and free play times.

Campers continued investigations in Nutrition, STEM, and Souq (Market) stations while preparing for the final show on Friday with repeated rehearsals on songs, dances, and skit performances. They learned about and experimented with spices and herbs used in the Palestinian cuisine and packed sampler gift packs of summac, cumin, chamomile, thyme, zaatar, sage, and more. The aroma of the cumin they got to grind before packing filled up the whole floor—a multi-sensory experience like no other. They made and drank mint tea with manaqeesh zaatar and made enough hummus to pack and sell on Friday. The spice and herbs sampler gift packs were labeled and decorated with Palestinian flags as campers practiced reading and writing, colors and shapes, and more of Kalimah’s integrated, project-based language learning methodology.

Some campers learned sewing with guest speaker Maricelle, who helped them upcycle old shirts into hair scrunchies. Most of the scrunchies were sold at the Souq simulation on Friday among many other creations and inventions they made throughout the three weeks. Sewing was an empowering experience for older campers who wanted to do a lot of things with old fabric, plastic, cardboard, metal, and glass upcycling materials they collected. Reusable shopping bags were made and decorated with Arabic geometric patterns for Souq customers; another STEAM project that integrated multiple stations.

On Friday, energy was high in anticipation for a great showcase, in which campers delivered! Before recieving their graduation certificates and awards, dressed in traditional Arab outfits from multiple countries, campers sang and danced to many camp songs and performed three skits: one about Souq Az-Zawiyah in Gaza, one about Al-Hasan Ibn Al-Haytham (Camera inventor), and one about Maryam Al-Esterlabi (Astrolabe inventor). The sales of the Souq simulation were all donated to a charity that campers picked as part of their community service project for this year.
Recipe Book

Thank you to everyone who helped make this summer camp a success: parents, campers, staff, and volunteers! We look forward to an even better camp in Summer 2025!