Juniors (3rd & 4th Graders)
Mission: Create a summer experience for our families so exceptional that it creates campers for life!
Third and Fourth Grade is a great time to be in camp! Our Juniors are old enough to experience everything Pine Grove has to offer! As a Junior, our campers are introduced to Archery, Mountain Biking, Lacrosse, High Ropes, BMX, Skatepark, Camper vs. Wild (pioneering), and much more! Their schedule also contains a variety of athletic and creative activities as well as Instructional Swim and the Climbing Tower. Another privilege of being a Junior are Late Nights! For the Junior Late Night, we invite the Junior campers to stay late and have the run of the camp with a special dinner, extra swim, extra games, a special event and a twilight campfire complete with the Pine Grove S’more!
Junior Athletics
Our Juniors are able to experience a wide variety of athletic activities on our full size fields. Once a week, Junior groups have Soccer, Football, Tennis, Lacrosse, Archery, Basketball, Hockey, and more on their schedule. They also have the opportunity to try our BMX track and our Skatepark! Athletic Specialists lead the activities, spending part of the period teaching a new skill and using the remainder to play a game that emphasizes that new skill. Pine Grove counselors participate in all the activities right along with the campers, helping the specialists create and validate success opportunities for our campers.
Creative Arts
Just imagine what your child can create in our Air-Conditioned Arts Studios. Your child will be exposed to a variety of artistic activities in air-conditioned classrooms led by art teachers. Our campers attend Ceramics, Music, Cooking, Drama, Nature, Camper vs Wild, Dance, Digital Photography, Arts and Crafts, Computers and more at least once a week.
All of our Junior Girl groups perform a Dance routine in our annual Dance and Drama Production. This is no small production! It is traditionally held the 6th week of camp in the evening at the Pine Grove Theater, complete with professional sound and lighting!
Learn to Swim
At Pine Grove, our Learn to Swim Program is one of the cornerstones of the Pine Grove experience. Our state of the art aquatic facility is second to none! Our 3rd Grade Juniors swim in state of art 12,000 square foot Aquatic Complex. Our Aquatic Facilities have shallow water so we are able to start all of our swimmers in standing depth water and then move them into deeper water as their skills progress.
Every morning, our Juniors participate in a 40-minute swim lesson lead by our certified swim instructions with the assistance of the group counselors. Swim lessons are based on skill, not age, so we are able to challenge swimmers of all levels. We teach and train our own instructors every year and our swim techniques are based not only on the American Red Cross but over 25 years of practical experience in getting children to learn how to swim. Juniors return to the pools in the afternoon for free swim.
Ropes Courses
Juniors are able to experience all of the Pine Grove Ropes Courses. The Climbing Tower boasts a 40’ Climbing Tower, a 300 yard zip line, a Burma Bridge and the Giant Swing!
Our ropes courses are inspected before each season by the same company that built the courses and daily by our certified ropes instructors, who also lead the groups through all of our ropes courses.
Club (Elective)
During Club, campers are able to select an activity to participate in for the period during that week. Each week our campers can select a new Club from an ever changing list of activities. In addition to the variety of athletic and creative activities, Juniors can also choose to have a role in our annual Drama Production or participate in a special Dance routine.
Social Development
The most magical aspect of camp is that children learn to get along with other kids in a group setting, and in doing so become more confident and independent. While traveling from activity to activity, the group will also work on building friendships, working together, sharing and learning to interact in a respectful way with other campers and staff. Pine Grove offers a caring environment where children learn the emotional and social skills necessary to succeed in life.