#minecraftcamp

[mrjasonwilmot]

Team bridge building at Minecraft Camp #MinecraftCamp #minecraft #bridges #Walls

[mrjasonwilmot]

Planing and designing for our bridge building contest at #MinecraftCamp #Minecraftedu

[mrjasonwilmot]

@Brightlightsorg Kids doing what they do best: playing & creating. #MinecraftCamp #Minecraft #Minecraftedu

[momibelle]

Parents ask: “What do we do all day at MCKids Summer camps?” Momibelle answers ...

In the morning, we teach/lecture for 30-45 minutes (news, updates, who has done what in-game, what the plan is for the day), then we take a break and go for a 15 minute walk in the community where we talk about biomes, habitat, construction projects, the community gardens, and how our environment is similar, or dissimilar to the game. Laptops do not come out until 10:45. Then we work through all of the in-game commands that children must know in order to navigate our worlds and we talk about our Code of Conduct. We have a package of 'cheat sheets' that the children get, and they have to memorize the commands and remember how to behave in the game.

We break by 12:15 to eat lunch, and then we head out to Habitat Island. This is what the kids love! We play two games, Capture the Flag, and Hide and Seek. At out camps on the North Shore, children will learn to play FloorBall. We are outside for about 90 minutes to 2 hours. Then we head back at about 2PM for another session of in-game play.

As a result, our days are quite busy together! We are on our computers for 90 minutes in the AM, and 90 minutes in the afternoon (I do not let the kids play for longer). But, we do much more than simply play the game! Each camp week (Beg/Int) we introduce several learning opportunities that the children will 'play out' within our worlds. Some of these activities relate to historic builds, some are fictional. Over Spring Break for instance, we learned about an unusual archeological find in Costa Rica: granite spheres. We built a town called Orbia and excavated spheres, mused about how these rather perfect sculptures could have been manufactured by an ancient civilization, and learned about the current state of affairs in Costa Rica. Sometimes we can even incorporate language learning. Much of what we do is driven by the children. If they are showing an interest in something, or there is an event such as an election, or a holiday, we do further learning around it by 'playing', building, exploring within the game.

Once you child has attended a camp, they then become a part of our community. They are permitted to continue playing on our servers, as long as they stick to our Code of Conduct. If a rule is broken twice, they are excused from play. Because of this, we have created a safe, fun and accountable learning and play environment for our children. We also hold MMMs (Massive Minecampkid Meet-ups) in real life so that children who have made friends in the game, can meet in REAL life.