Museum day camp gets musical

museumcamp062: Kern County Museum Camp
Joining in a group Calypso groove, complete with hand made maracas are ( l to r) Gabbie Landon, student assistant Cassie Horn, Hannah Walker, Olivia Fuentez and Jocelyn Zaccaria.
Day campers at the Kern County Museum went through a week of musical madness from July 17-21. It is not a permanent condition, just a temporary state of joy induced through careful planning and expert execution. Music Madness was the theme of the half day camps, at which a couple of dozen campers, ages 5-12, dealt with everything from making their own maracas to finding the whereabouts of a mythical character named "Maraca Joe."

Music Madness was the fifth of six, summer, half day camps offered by the museum. The sixth, Science Magic, takes place the week of July 31-Aug. 4 All of the camps have been sellouts. In addition, the museum and the California Living Museum (CALM) are combining forces for two weeks of full day camps on July 24-28 and Aug. 7-11. On those dates, campers will be at the museum all day, spending half the day having fun and learning with museum staff and the other half doing the same with CALM's crew.

Every Music Madness day had a different theme. Children heard music from different lands, learned about the culture of music, worked on musical craft projects and played music-based games. Monday was a Mexican Fiesta day, Tuesday -- Country and Western, Wednesday -- Broadway Show Tunes, Thursday -- Classical and Friday -- Calypso.

"Tuesday, we took the children inside the main gallery to see the Country Western Music Museum exhibit," said Jackie Brouillette, education and volunteer services manager. "We started very early because there was a lot of music to share. There were selections from Sons of the Pioneers, Gene Autrey, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and, of course, the Bakersfield Sound. I played Autrey's version of 'You Are My Sunshine,' which I thought would be too old for them to enjoy. I was about to move on, when the children stopped me. One little girl said, 'miss Jackie we want to sing that song,' So, we got all the kids in a group, put on the music and let them sing. You should have seen them, smiling, moving and all singing along, It was so precious."

One instrument they crafted was a set of maracas, choosing from a variety of materials, including items as simple as two Styrofoam cups taped together. When the music came on for group participation, the movements became more animated with the children shaking every bit as much as their hand crafted maracas.

Early in the week, the mythical character Maraca Joe was introduced into the event, when a mysterious letter appeared from him that was read to the class. He wouldn't say where he was but left clues in his written message and an enclosed picture from which the children had to solve his whereabouts. The picture had him standing in front of a very distinct-looking castle. Camper Bailey Palmer figured it out.

"As soon as I saw the picture, I knew where he was," Palmer said. "I have books at home and watch the Discovery Channel a lot. So, I knew it was Russia."

Next, it was up to the class to discover where Russia was. The class was given a globe to explore.

"I spun the globe around a couple of times, and I saw Russia come up at the top," said camper Jacob Campbell. "I stopped the globe and pointed to Russia, so everyone else could see where Maraca Joe was."

Later in the week, Maraca Joe sent letters from the Caribbean and Venice, Italy. His last stop was a no-brainer, with a picture showing him standing in front of the museum's clock tower. Each of Joe's stops provided camp teachers the opportunity to talk about the land and its music and gave students chances to learn new music and crafts. When the week was done, each child had written their own songs to share with campers in their hand made song books.


Print This Page   Email This Page