Imagination Station Camps

About Our Camps

With a unique and enriching environment of the Children’s Museum as a backdrop, our trained and experienced staff provide a blend of educational and interactive play with no field trip necessary! Imagination Station campers learn and grow through play in a fun and safe environment. Through our wide range of themes and activities, as well as our hands-on exhibits, we hope to foster campers’ imaginations and passion for lifelong learning. Each camp is specifically created with age-appropriate activities that are aligned with your child’s developmental stage.

Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge
Imagination Station Summer Camps 2019

Our 45th Year of Excellence in Summer Programming

Prices:
Single Camps: Members: $115, Non-Members: $135
Combo Camps: Members: $190, Non-Members: $220

Full day campers must bring lunch.
Gym activities between camps

Pre-School (Ages 3 & 4)

Must be potty trained, mornings only

Giggle Science
June 10-14, 9 am-noon

Fizz, bubble, goo, and glow! Explore magnetic force with ice magnets, create shaving cream rain clouds and art, grow a sprout house, create fizzing colors, and try to sink plastic egg submarines. Join us for a week of STEAM-filled fun!

Who wants to be a Superhero?
June 17-21, 9 am-noon

Does your little one have a lot of energy and imagination? Then this camp is for them! Practice superhero skills like jumping, aiming, and balancing through games and fun activities that keep them moving and laughing. Learn how superheroes and their friends stay healthy, happy, and alert.

Out of this World
June 24-28, 9 am-noon

Are you ready for an adventure? Blast off to fun in this camp as we make alien play dough, paint planet art, create constellation viewers, design name rockets, and sort stars. 3, 2, 1…

Traveling the Tracks
July 8-12, 9 am-noon

Work on fine motor and engineering skills as you travel the tracks. In this fast-paced camp we will paint with trains, go through tunnels, eat train-themed snacks, create a locomotive from found objects, and more!

Dinosaur Dig
July 15-19, 9 am-noon

Put on a hard hat and grab a shovel-we’re going on a dinosaur hunt! Learn about dinosaurs and fossils through stories, puppets, art, and science.

Storybook Chef
July 22-26, 9 am-noon

Dive into the books of beloved author Laura Numeroff. On Monday start with “If You Give a Cat a Cupcake,” and on Friday end with “If You Give a Pig a Party.” Explore a new book each day through crafts, games, gardening, and, of course, cooking!

Rising into Grades K-2

Mud Pies
June 10-14, 9 am-noon

This camp will introduce children to the wonderful world of ceramics! Campers will learn basic hand building techniques as they make animal pinch pots, slab letter holders, puzzle-top boxes, a bird bath, and more. If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at clay, this is the camp for you!

Fairy Tale STEAM
June 10-14, 1-4 pm

Join us for another exciting adventure through the world of Fairy Tales. Campers will build a bed for Goldilocks, so she can finally get some rest, turn the ugly duckling into a beautiful swan, help Little Red Riding Hood escape the Big Bad Wolf, prove to Henny Penny the sky is not falling, and bake up their own Gingerbread Man.

Save the world, stand for truth and justice, and fight crime. Campers will design their own super-logos, masks, and more to create the perfect superhero secret identity. Explore super powers through fun science experiments, skill building obstacle courses, and art projects.

Campers will enjoy the Museum’s Rainforest Exhibit while they learn about the plants, animals, and people of the rainforest. We will go on an animal trek, create rainforest-inspired art, examine artifacts from the rainforest, and listen to stories under our giant Kapok tree.
The Force
June 24-28, 9 am-noon

Do you feel the pull of the Force? Join us as we train with lightsabers, blast Storm Troopers, construct an X-wing fighter and helmet, create Death Star art, defeat the Dark Side, and more.
To this camp, invited you are.

Anything Can Be
June 24-28, 1-4 pm

During this camp we will explore the art and poetry of Shel Silverstein’s books “The Giving Tree” and “Where the Sidewalk Ends” while creating art and exploring different museum exhibits. Campers will create art, do fun science experiments, cook, and explore the Museum in this poetic adventure.

Musical Clay
July 8-12, 9 am-noon

In this camp, we will have fun making ceramic creations that make music! Campers will create whistles that go toot, toot, make a textured washboard from clay to scratch out old-timey music after visiting the Appalachian exhibit, use the garden for inspiration as they make windchime charms, and more.

All Aboard
July 8-12, 1-4 pm

Train travel comes to life as you become a conductor or a train engineer. Construct a train track, build your own train from found objects, paint with trains, and more. All aboard!

Clay Bling
July 15-19, 9 am-noon

Clay has been used for centuries to decorate homes and people. In this camp, we will create unique beads, pendants, and ornaments that can be used to make jewelry, and decorations for the inside and outside of your home.

Swamp Stomping Good Time
July 15-19, 1-4 pm

Explore the mysterious world of the dinosaurs by creating replica fossils, examining what makes a dinosaur a dinosaur, and discovering dino traits still here today. Join us for a colossal journey into the world of dinosaurs.

World of Sweets
July 22-26, 9 am-noon

Tempt your sweet tooth with cookies, donuts, cupcakes, pies, and sweets from around the world. We will make snickerdoodles, Boston cream cupcakes, old fashioned buttermilk donuts, mini apple pies, Belgian waffles, and crème brûlée. Yum!

Scientific Studio
July 22-26, 1-4 pm

Spend the week creating art using science! We will create refraction drawings, explore gravity while doing a paint pour, make art with our fingerprints, discover tessellations, use the power of the sun to make evaporation art, create art using electricity and magnetism, and more as we explore the science behind art.

Rising into Grades 3-5

Kids in Action Garden Club
June 10-14, 9 am-noon

Get your hands dirty! Prepare and plant a garden bed while learning about the wonders of nature in gardening. This camp will be full of exploratory ecological nature activities and gardening experiences.

CSI Bodies: The Living World
June 10-14, 1-4 pm

Investigate the forensic side of the human body. Extract DNA and create an edible DNA strand, dissect a pig heart and inflate the lungs, cast footprints, and study fingerprinting and hair analysis. On Friday, with hands-on investigative work, solve the Great CMOR Mystery.

Ready, Set, Throw!
June 17-21, 9 am-noon

Learn the basics of the potter’s wheel as you make fun, functional pieces. Campers will create bowls, cups, and vases, and explore different decoration techniques as they add their own personalized style to their works.

Choose Your Side
June 17-21, 1-4 pm

If you’ve ever woken up in the morning and thought about spending your day fighting villains and saving the world from dastardly events, then we have an adventure for you! Construct your own replica Mjölnir, design a shield like Captain America’s, save Tony and help him make a new Arc Reactor, practice with Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth, run as fast as Flash, and leap over buildings in a single bound.

All Fired Up
June 24-28, 9 am-noon

Campers will learn primitive clay collection techniques as they dig clay behind the museum, sift it, clean it, and turn it into hand-built pieces inspired by primitive art. On Friday, campers will pit-fire their pieces in the garden (weather permitting).

Jedi Training
June 24-28, 1-4 pm

Become a Jedi Knight and hone your light saber skills while mastering the training course. During this fun-filled week you will follow the clues to destroy the Death Star, blast Stormtroopers, rescue Han, use the Force, and more.

Riding the Rails
July 8-12, 9 am-noon

In this STEAM camp, get hands-on experience setting up model train layouts.
Engineer buildings, lay t-track, and create a natural setting for the layout. Learn train sizes, types, and how they work, while exploring the history that led up to today’s trains. Escape a breakout room, bake and decorate a mini train cake, and more.

Blast Off
July 8-12, 1-4 pm

Design, build, and fly your own model rocket in this introduction to the exciting world of rocketry. Learn about the mathematics and physics of flight as we create paper airplanes, stomp rockets, marshmallow shooters, and other flying objects. On Friday, we will launch our model rockets.

Tour of Italy
July 15-19, 9 am-noon

There is so much food to explore all over Italy. We will make homemade ravioli, pizza, chicken Parmesan, meatballs, gelato, Italian creme cake, and cannoli. Mangia!

Dinosaur Discovery
July 15-19, 1-4 pm

Jump into the footprints of the dinosaurs and experience life from their perspective. Explore fossils, create your own volcano, and solve prehistoric mysteries as you take on the role of a paleontologist.

Fantasy Clay
July 22-26, 9 am-noon

Campers will learn sculpture-making skills to create wizards, dragons, goblins, and other fantasy creatures in this wildly fun camp. Let your imagination take you away!

Diners & Drive-Ins
July 22-26, 1-4 pm

Food doesn’t have to be fancy to taste good! Campers will cook chicken and dumplings, biscuits and country sausage gravy, meatloaf with mashed potatoes, cheese burgers and onion rings, pinto beans and corn bread, fish and chips, southern fried chicken, strawberry shortcake, and banana pudding.

A limited number of scholarships for camp are available. Applications must be submitted by May 31, 2019.  Download the scholarship applications.

Our policy for class/camp registrations:
Payment in full is required to register your child for a class/camp/workshop. Class/camp/workshop fees are fully refundable up until fourteen days before the start date. Refunds will not be given for absences or “no-shows.

All-day camps have a 30-minute lunch break and gym activity from Noon-1:00 pm. Please send a lunch with your child each day to camp. Snack and drinks will be provided.

Our policy for class/camp registrations:
Payment in full is required to register your child for a class/camp/workshop. Class/camp/workshop fees are fully refundable up until fourteen days before the start date. Refunds will not be given for absences or “no-shows.