Crow Camp

Ages 9-11

The home for Crow Camp is in the woods by our uppermost field. This is Highland featuring a pine forest of some older and younger trees, a forest ground of pine needles, a gulch, tree stumps and roots, dappled sunlight, and two small streams that run during wet weather. Each year in this wild and adventurous Crow Land campers create a village with evolving edges and activities.

Sometimes the adventure is building a store with new friends, or creating a play with a tree stump stage, sometimes it’s attending a morning session with the Falmouth Land Trust educator, sewing leather pouches, or holding a lot of water with a dam. While each week of Crow Camp focuses on investigating one or more wilderness awareness and community living skills such as wilderness first aid, birds and bird songs, identifying edible and poisonous plants, knot tying, and reading weather signs, camper interests help guide the plan for each day. 

Crow Camp days are balanced with structured time and unstructured time – responsibilities and freedom – and generally follow this routine:

Morning circle 

Whole group games

Small group activities

Lunch and book of the week read aloud 

Choice time or village work

Closing circle

Counselors work throughout the day to build a caring community in which individuals, the group, and the land are tended to and held as important parts of camp. Crow Camp also travels in our school bus one day each week to a nearby nature preserve, such as Broad Cove Reserve, for a day of exploration and fun. Please note that this is a tech-free camp and that campers are outside all day.

Crow Camp Adventure Week, July 22-26

The Crow Camp Adventure is the final week of Crow Camp each year. It features two days of regular day camp on Monday and Tuesday (8:30-3:30 pm) followed by a 3 day/2 night Camping Adventure (8:30 am Wednesday - 3:00 pm Friday), at a wilderness campground in Maine. This adventure gives campers a chance to practice skills they have learned, make a campfire, share camp food, sleep in tents, and celebrate friendship and adventure!

To register for this week of camp, we ask that campers participate in one of the regular weeks of Crow Camp and that they have experienced spending a night or two away from parents/guardians.

Do you have a question about summer camp?

Please email Laura Glendening, Director of FSP’s Summer Programs at laura@friendsschoolportland.org.