Do you want your child to have the ‘thinking tools’ to solve problems? To make good decisions? To be open to exploring different ideas, and transform imagination into innovation? Then the Thinking Playground is just what you have been looking for!
Centre for Philosophy for Children
Thinking Playground camps
Thinking is learning to:
- listen to each other
- ask interesting questions
- make connections between ideas
- to build on each other’s ideas
- see what counts as a reason
- express your reasons
- think before you act
Thinking is essential:
- constructive communication
- for healthy mental and emotional development
- for dealing with the pressures of life
- for good judgment
- for self-growth
2025 Summer camps
Camp 1: July 7-11 | Thought bots (age 6-9)
Bleep bleep, BOINK, CLANK, CLUNK: its a robot rumpus! From tiny robots to raucous
humanoids the Thought Bots are thinking out of their heads! Do you want to live for a week with robots, getting to know them and maybe even try to become one? Can you design a best friend robot, a dream robot or a play robot. Do you want to have a fun-tastic adventure exploring questions like why we need robots or if we can be friends with robots. Or maybe if robots have feelings? Do you think they can understand what you think and feel? Then come on and join us as a Thought Bot for fantastic metallic scavenger hunts, Silly Bot sketches, exciting robot games, machinic painting, the Fun O’ Bottic Thinking Playground and more!
Camp 1: July 7-11 | Animal whisperers (age 10-13)
It is almost blowing a gale! Rubbing wings with swarms of bees and stretching paws with packs of wolves, the Animal Whisperers fly through faraway forests and jolly jungles. Discovering talking trees and sneaky plants, as an Animal Whisperer you will spread your wings and participate in bug hunts, rock art, animal jumble, monkey tag, and finding the reptile person. Together we will navigate through questions like Why do we keep pets? Can you be friends with an animal? What kind of animals are humans? What is the strength of a predator? What about the prey? Can you sniff out a predator in your life? And much more with all the indoor and outdoor activities like dragons & flies, the furious funny farm, ghoulish games, and handicraft projects!
Camp 2: July 14-18 | Curious critters (age 6-9)
Run rabbit run and don’t forget to tag the monkey! Join us upside down and sideways if you are you ready to swing into our world of Curious Critters. Watch dragonflies pass by, butterflies and talking trees while flocks of starlings dance in the sky. A predator hides in the shadow while a prey eats grass in the meadow. As Curious Critters we share our world with animals, flowers, trees, oceans and clouds, but are we really sharing? Are you the boss of your pet? Should we even have pets? What if we could communicate with animals? What would you want to say and what do you think they would tell you to do different? Let’s do the barnyard search, a chicken dance competition, monkey tag and much more! Let’s explore our inner critter!
Camp 2: July 14-18 | Android agents (age 10-13)
Welcome, aspiring members of the National Robot Corporation! Whether it’s artificial
intelligence or artificial friends, we are here to help! Have you ever thought about what it would be like to have a robot friend? If your robot is called Jamie, what would you do with him? What if you program Jamie? Could Jamie do your homework and talk to your parents? Jamie could do ALL your thinking and feeling for you! How far would you push Jamie? You could even develop your own Central Processing Unit to upgrade your thinking. To investigate these questions, you have to join us as an Android Agent to explore the robotic rough-lands of designing friendship, truth and your hardwired avatar through scavenger hunts, cyborg sketches, artificial intelligence painting, intergalactic thought bots and more.
Camp Fees
| Registration type | Fee |
|---|---|
| Domestic registration | $350.00 one week/$600.00 both weeks |
| International registration | $400.00 one week/$720.00 both weeks |
Camp registration opens March 31, 2025
You may drop your campers off between 8:30-9:00 am and pick them up between 4:00-4:30 pm. Pick-up and drop-off location TBD.
University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford campus, Bldg E - Gym
Please pack a nutritious, nut-free lunch for your camper and 2 snacks — one for the morning and one for the afternoon. Please also include a bottle of water with the camper’s name on it.
All refund requests are subject to a $15 administration fee. Written notice received prior to 21 days of start date (or more) will be eligible for a refund, minus the administration fee. If the refund request is due to a medical reason a doctor’s note may be required for a refund request made with less than 21 days before the first day of camp.
If the refund is being requested 20 days or less before the first day of camp and no medical note is provided, no refund will be issued. Once camp has started no refunds will be given. Requests for refunds can be sent to p4c@ufv.ca. If it is necessary for UFV to cancel a camp, a full refund will be issued with no administration charge.
“This camp was the funnest one yet. This camp made me really really super duper happy.“
- – Camper
- Age 9
There are so many good things to say about camp this week. My children have never, I mean never, had this much fun. It is not a stretch to say that my husband and I think that they enjoyed the camp more than Disneyland!
- – Mom of Jasaiah and Olivia
- (2020 campers)