HNS Summer Day Camp 2025
This summer we will be available at TWO locations, choose between North or South for an amazing time with Human Nature School. Our North Day Camp is at our traditional summer camp location at the Historic Barns Park in the TC Commons. Our South location is where our winter session meets at The Optimist Land near Chums Corner. Both locations are beautiful and enable children to have a fun, safe, and inspiring time in nature.
Two beautiful locations in Grand Traverse County!
Camps at both locations will meet Monday through Friday from 9am – 3pm. Our camps are for ages 6-12, with some exceptions for younger and older. If you have a 5 year old who is entering 1st grade, they are welcome to join us. If you have a 13 year old who wants to help with the group, reach out! For older teens, we have volunteer positions to gain experience with outdoor education and working with children.
The Flow of the Day
Camp starts with the option of playing games with the group or having quiet time with art or the nature museum. Once everyone has arrived, the group comes together to have morning circle. Days are spent hiking, exploring, and enjoying the wild and natural environment around us! Camps will divide into older and younger groups part of each day for age-appropriate activities or challenges, and spend part of each day all together for big group games, art, and free play. Coyotes are 9-12 years old and Foxes are 6-8 years old.
9:00 am – 9:30 am: Games, Art, Nature Museum
9:30 am -10:00 am: Morning Circle, Story, Snack
10:00 am-2:00 pm: Theme based Adventure of the day with your group! (Lunch in the forest)
2:00pm-3:00pm: Hike back, Games, Closing Circle
Human Nature School Summer Camp 2025
Camp Session Descriptions
Session 1: Team Green!
June 23 – June 27
Calling all aspiring botanists! Deepen your connection to the giants of the forest and the green friends all around. This week will focus on All Things Plant! Botanists/campers will come away with a firm grasp on plant friends, foes, and symbionts. We’ll explore everything from wild edibles and hazardous, poisonous plants to plant families, food webs, and photosynthesis. While we *may* not master the art of generating our own food from sunlight, we WILL use lots of games, hikes, and activities to deepen our awareness and wonder at the energy flowing through the ecosystem all around us! We’ll make plant presses to dry and preserve some of our collections, use field guides to identify them, and present our “findings” at the end of the week.
Session 2: Shelters and Survival
(Day Camp only @ South)
June 30 – July 3 (No Camp on Friday)
Could you survive a week in a northern hardwood forest with only your wits and a water bottle? Delve into the foundations of shelter building, fire starting/fire safety, and useful plants. Debris shelters, bow drills, and flint & steel are just some of the tools and skills you’ll learn. Trackers and survivalists as well as wilderness newbies will come away with more confidence and competence. Test your shelter masterpiece with the “water bucket test” at the end!
Session 3: Creek Explorers
July 7 – July 11
Dive in (ok, actually we’ll just wade in) to local wetland ecosystems and get to know the neighbors—plants, fish, amphibians, and invertebrates who make water their home. Campers will dip for samples, examine living and nonliving things with hand lenses and microscopes, use field guides, art supplies, and nature journals to help identify, draw, and record our findings. In addition, we’ll explore and hike the surrounding forests and fields, because it’s all connected!
Session 4: Animals of the Sky: Birds, Bugs, and Butterflies
July 14 – July 18
Who wouldn’t want WINGS?! Nature’s superheroes of the skies- the birds, butterflies and bugs- are all around us! Hunt for heroes in the forest and sky. Buzz off on a pollinator hunt in the gardens! Learn about bird language and habits, and how to move through the forest so birds hardly know you’re there. Campers will design and build their own flying heroes with art supplies and imagination.
Session 5: Where the Wild Things Are
July 21 – July 25
How wild are you? Stalk, track, and learn about the northern Great Lakes wildlife whose region we share. Take a walk on the wild side using “mind’s eye” imagining, walking like a forest ninja, predator-prey games, field guides, journaling, drawing, and making plaster casts of tracks.
Session 6: Adventures in Mapping
July 28 – August 1
Have you ever wanted to go get lost (or tell someone else to?!)? How do you find your way back? Orient yourself within some of our beautiful Northern Great Lakes ecosystems and gain confidence in your ability to safely navigate them! Campers will use scavenger hunts, treasure maps, song lines, map reading (and making!) and basic orienteering skills to deepen their relationship to the land and each other.
Session 7: Art in Nature
August 4-August 8
Calling all creators! Want to get colorful? Nature offers the opportunity for campers to be inspired as they draw, design, paint, and create their way toward beautiful works of art. Every day we’ll explore different media we find in nature and create works inspired by the northern hardwood forest, streams, dunes, and old fields around us. Campers may create clay sculptures, make natural plant dyes, leave “installation art” for others to discover, weave plant mats and wreaths, or even use themselves as a canvas! This camp will end in an art show on the final day. (Additional Fee of $20 for Materials)
Session 8: Destination Imagination
August 11 – August 15
Through pretend and play, children will explore the forest, field, and stream with their fellow campers. We will travel through time and into other animal worlds to create a village in the forest. We’ll explore animal forms and calls, in our real ecosystems and in our imaginations. We’ll use natural materials to transform ourselves into new characters. We will use art and journaling to record our favorites!
Session 9: Nature Reporter
August 18 – August 22
Produce your own photo portfolio or use video recording to capture footage of Great Lakes ecosystem scenes and species! This camp will span the worlds of nature immersion and technology. We’ll practice observing while unobserved. We’ll take a wonder walk – moving through the landscape with heightened awareness, then using tech to zoom in and capture micro details and zooming wide for a macro view. Using photography, video, journaling, and scientific sketching, campers will share what inspires them from nature. Campers need access to a small camera or old phone. (Yes, we are requesting technology!)
Session 10: Animal Talents and Our Own August 25- August 29
Northern Great Lakes animals have some amazing talents and adaptations for survival! Stalk the woods around us for signs of wildlife—homes, tracks, scat, and beds. Learn some real-life survival techniques like camouflage, “deer ears,” fox walking, and finding/making shelters. Imagine what it takes to survive in different ecosystems, and share your own talents with the group by creating and performing a survival talent show with other campers!