2024 Summer Opportunities!

• The 2024 Summer Experience is FREE to all Pre-K through 12 Columbus City Schools students! Summer Experience for Pre-K through 8 students kicks off June 17. We're excited to provide CCS students and families with a summer of exciting school and community-based learning experiences.

  This year’s Pre-K through 8, Summer Experience includes similar project-based learning students and families have been able to enjoy through our Pathway Express focuses, including Pathways such as Health and Fitness, Visual Arts, Urban Agriculture, World Languages and Cultures, and MORE!

  Questions? Contact the Office of Extended Learning: 614-365-5010 or ExtendedLearning@columbus.k12.oh.us.

  
  

  Click here for a Parent Portal registration walkthrough.

  
  

  Learn more by clicking the link below.

  
  

We connect the people of our community through the power of nature, wellness, and creativity. Columbus Recreation and Parks provides summer opportunities including camps, fitness, pools, spray grounds, sports leagues and creative arts.

https://www.columbus.gov/recreationandparks/

Flag Football Registration began on Feb. 1

https://columbusrecparks.com/wellness/athletics/flag-football/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium provides learning opportunities for people of all ages!

Your child will participate in a variety of fun and engaging experiences designed to promote awareness of our environment. Activities include arts & crafts, songs, games, hands-on animal experiences and group play.

Visit our website, www.columbuszoo.org for program information and scholarship opportunities.

Cultured Kids Club is a foreign language learning center just for kids!! This summer we will be offering Spanish Camp, French Camp and Chinese Camp to children in grades K-6. These camps are a great way to start learning our preferred foreign language!

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve taken language classes with us before, Cultured Kids Club’s mission is to get you talking! With our interactive and progressing curriculum, small class sizes and our excellent team of native-speaking teachers, your child will be on the fast track to learning Spanish or French naturally in a fun, engaging and classmate interactive environment

Grab your imagination and pencil and join us for Thurber Summer Writing Camp! This summer, we have online or in-person half-day camps jam packed with writing adventures, fun teachers, and lots of creativity. There is something for every young writer at our camp!

We are offering half-day online summer camp in the morning as well as half-day in-person camp in the afternoon for Covid reasons. Our camps are one-week long and we offer camp for rising 2/3 grade, 4-6 grade, 7-9 grade. Students register for one week of camp. Financial scholarships are available through a lottery system.

The mission of Recreation Unlimited is to provide year-round programs in sports, recreation and education for individuals with disabilities and health concerns.

http://www.recreationunlimited.org/

YMCA also offers summer day camps at multiple locations. The camps are on the more expensive side, but they also offer financial assistance. On the website they don't specify how much the assistance will cover, they just say it will reduce membership or program fees.

https://ymcacolumbus.org/camp/daycamp/rates-dates-themes

We offer Day Camp and Resident (over night) Camp opportunities for girls K-12 grades.

GAME-U is an after school program designed by Game Industry Professionals which teaches kids how to design and build their own video games and robots. We cover all aspects of development including Level Design, Animation, Coding, 3D Printing, Robotics and more! https://www.game-u.com/

Jazz Arts Group is the oldest non-profit dedicated to jazz performance and education in America. This summer, Jazz Arts Group is offering four separate day-camp opportunities for students from age 7-18. In addition, we have several other opportunities to enjoy jazz music this summer including free family concerts, community jam sessions, and more! https://www.jazzartsgroup.org/

All classes, camps, and intensives offer in-studio and online options. Financial Aid, family discounts, and discounts for teachers and first responders available. On the High Street bus line. https://www.mucaiacademy.org/

At Relate & Grow we focus on helping children, with and without special needs, reach their potential through a respectful, developmental, relationship-based approach. Our services and goals are individualized to each child’s unique strengths and challenges.

Our summer services for children and families include: DIR Floortime and the PLAY Project, which are intensive interventions that enrich development and target social communication, social interaction and repetitive and restricted interests; academic support and remediation services for children who are ready for academics and need help catching up; instructional assistants, aides and PLAY Tutors to help provide intensive intervention, provide practice with academic and daily living skills or to support and/or work one-on-one with the child at their summer camp, daycare or other community location; intensive PLAY Project or DIR Floortime consultation at home or in the child’s summer placement; speech therapy, occupational therapy; supported outings and experiences; summer camps; summer playgroups and DIR and PLAY Project boot camps for parents and caregivers. Our services are available to ALL children whether they need extra support or just want to participate in play groups and camps that are inclusive of kids with varying abilities. Contact us for more information!

Below are some tips, tools and strategies that will help educators and parents to support kids’ Reading and Writing.

Awesome Tools that you must check:

1. Children’s Storybooks

Many wonderful free illustrated children’s books are available to read at Children's Storybooks Online. Stories span age ranges from preschool, young children, teens, through young adults.

2. Talk to Me

Talk to Me is another text to speech application. It can be used to read words out loud as they are typed, which can help students to better correlate the letters and words with how they’re pronounced. Compatible with iPad.

3. Read & Write

Students can practice reading and writing letters using this application. Users can trace letters, learn letter sounds, and get illustrations to go along with each part of the alphabet.

4. The Writing Machine

By correlating pictures and words, reading text, sounding out letters, this tool helps students develop early literacy abilities with greater ease.

5. iStoryTime

There are numerous titles to choose from in the iStoryTime series, all of which allow kids to have the book read to them or to get help reading it themselves.

6. Stories2Learn

Why use existing stories to help troubled readers when you can build your own? This application lets you develop your own text and audio stories, including messages, topics, and other things that can help keep kids interested.

7. AlphaWriter

Using Montessori-based learning methods, this application helps kids to learn how to read, write, and spell phonetically. It also teaches lessons on consonants and vowels, letter sounds, writing stories, and much more.

8. Reading Trainer

While this app is designed to help average readers boost their reading speed and ability, it can be useful to those who struggle as well, as many of the skills taught can help just about anyone become a more confident reader.

9. Bob’s Books

Bob’s Books uses phonics-based interactive games to help kids learn how to read. Activities will help young learners to sound out words, spell, and make connections between letters and sounds.

10. MeeGenius! Kids’ Books

MeeGenius is another series that’s perfect for practicing reading skills. Those with trouble reading can use illustrations and helpful word highlighting to get help, or just have the book read to them until they’re confident enough to do it on their own.