Crafts and songs, stories and themed days, summer day camp means fun and learning. If your child is missing that experience this summer, Rhode Island PBS is working with public television stations across the country to create Camp TV, a unique one-hour series that brings the summer day camp experience to your child, weekdays at 10 a.m., now extended through Friday, September 4.
Providing ideas for fun, accessible at-home activities for children who cannot go to camp this summer, Camp TV is hosted by head counselor Zach (played by Broadway performer Zachary Noah Piser), who guides campers as they learn through play.
Show creators hope to bring home some of the magic, learning, and fun of summer camp through Camp TV. Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Camp TV brings the camp experience to children sheltering at home, while also helping to prevent a ‘summer slide’ in student learning.
In each episode, head counselor Zach welcomes campers with a song and announces the day’s theme: Silly Hat Day, Camping Day, Rhyme Day, Silly Sock Day, Backwards Day, and more. Zach then guides campers through a variety of activities — exploring nature, math, science, the arts, movement, storytelling, and writing.
Children meet all kinds of animals, too, from a playful bearcat to chickens who like classical music, and including an up-close visit with newborn baby sloth Beany and mom Fiona in a segment Rhode Island PBS produced with Roger Williams Park Zoo. Later that same week, in two visits filmed at Save the Bay’s lab in Newport, children discover Narragansett Bay’s “Food Web” ecosystem, and about ocean acidification. Every episode of Camp TV also includes a storytelling segment that features a different book of the day.
Segments, stories, and activities in national segments of Camp TV will include Bedtime Math, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn Public Library, Chamber Music Society, Children’s Museum of the Arts, Franklin Institute, Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum, Let’s Learn NYC!, Liberty Science Center, Lincoln Center, Macmillan, Memphis Zoo, National Dance Institute, New Victory Theater, New York Botanical Garden, New York Public Library, New York Road Runners, Playworks, ReadWorks, Story Pirates, and Wildlife Conservation Society.
WSBE Rhode Island PBS broadcasts over the air on digital 36.1, Cox 08/1008HD | Verizon FiOS 08/508HD | Full Channel 08 | Comcast 819HD | Verizon FiOS 18/518HD in MA | DirecTV 36 | Dish Network 36. The series also streams online weekdays at 10 a.m. on ripbs.org/stream.
For a list of supplies for activities and crafts on Camp TV, be sure to visit ripbs.org/camp-tv.
WEEK #1 July 13-17
Episode 1: Crazy Hat Day
Welcome to CAMP TV – a 1-hour, day camp experience in your living room! An enthusiastic head counselor, played by Zachary Noah Piser, guides “campers” as they learn through play.
Episode 2: Song Day
Make scary sounds and an oboe from a straw, sing, see leaf cutter ants in action.
Episode 3: Camping Day
Meet a bearcat, partner juggle, make guacamole, explore stars and flowers.
Episode 4: Rhyme Day
Learn about pollinators and play writing, try tap dancing and body percussion, meet Nigerian goats.
Episode 5: Silly Sock Day
Meet snake Julius Squeezer, regrow a pineapple, make a book, read a book – Fox in Socks.
WEEK #2 July 20-24
Mon Episode 6: Backward Day
Meet a tarantula, go gaga over graphs, make parachute cups, learn about palindromes.
Tue Episode 7: Heroes Day
Make a hovercraft and a friendship bracelet, meet a scorpion, play Rock 'n' Roll Bingo.
Wed Episode 8: Beach Day
Make boats that float, be a clown, dance like river creatures, go on a treasure hunt.
Thu Episode 9: Cooking Day
Make a frozen banana penguin, meet a skink, empty a ketchup bottle with centripetal force.
Fri Episode 10: Space Day
Make a catapult, a space station, and shadow puppets; watch hippos race in the Zoolympics, and play body percussion.
WEEK #3 July 27-31 (descriptions to come and titles subject to change)
Mon Episode 11: My Future Self Day
Make maracas and ice cream, meet sea lions and Frida Kahlo
Tue Episode 12: Pets Day
Make a glovaphone and a flower crown, meet Monty the ball python, learn African dance.
Wed Episode 13: Pajama Day
Play "Four Corners," make a dream-catcher, listen to a glass harmonica, avoid poison ivy.
Thu Episode 14: Not Really My Birthday Day
Make water bend, a paper bag puppet, a birthday crown, and cookies; write a song.
Fri Episode 15: Dance Party Day
Visit distant planets, do an opposite dance, make a relief sculpture with clay, watch ducklings leap from a treetop nest.
WEEK #4 August 3-7
Mon Episode 16: Musical Instrument Day
This episode features a visit to Roger Williams Park Zoo to meet newborn sloth, Beany. Also, make an airplane, a tambourine, and plastic string; play a magic carpet game.
Tue Episode 17: Disguise Day
Dress up in disguise, write a message with invisible ink, watch bush babies and jellyfish, add ornaments to your singing.
Wed Episode 18: My Favorite Character Day
Meet a porcupine, learn summer words in sign language and why Pluto isn't a planet.
Thu Episode 19: My Favorite Color Day
Meet an opossum, speak-sing, blend colors, learn about dinosaurs and robots; visit Save The Bay to learn about ocean acidification; paint with mud.
Fri Episode 20: My Favorite Season Day
Learn about animal adaptations, rockets, and discover food webs in a visit to Save The Bay; go night bugging.
Camp TV is a production of THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC for WNET. The program is distributed nationally by The WNET Group. Sandra Sheppard is executive producer. Melinda Toporoff is series producer and writer. Kevin Di Salvo is coordinating producer. Maria Stoian is producer.
Major funding for Camp TV is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding is provided by Joan Ganz Cooney.