Summer Garden Camp

SGN's Summer Garden Camp is open to children 7-17 years old.

Our priority is to provide a safe and inclusive space for children to be outdoors and immersed in the delights of a school garden.

Each week offers different themes and is full of creative, hands-on activities that will nurture a life-long appreciation of nature, build healthy habits, and create lasting friendships!

Leadership and service learning opportunities are also available for teens 12-17 years old. See Junior Educator information below.

Questions? Please contact Camp Manager Annika Lawson at summercamp@schoolgardens.org.

Fees (per week)

Early Registration: $350 (thru April 30)
Open Registration (begins May 1):

Regular rate: $400
Sibling rate (per child): $350
Multiple week rate (per week): $350
Salmon Creek or Lucas Valley student rate: $350

*Only one discount can be applied
Junior Educator (12-17 y/o) rate: $275

Locations

Salmon Creek School
1935 Bohemian Highway
Occidental, CA 95465

Lucas Valley Elementary
1175 Idylberry Road
San Rafael, CA 94903

Scholarships Available!

Apply for a Scholarship

Each week is Monday through Friday, 9am to 3pm

Week 1 - July 7-11: Imaginative Explorers @ Salmon Creek School
Week 2 - July 14-18: Buzzing Botanizers @ Salmon Creek School
Week 3 - July 21-25: Thinkers and Tinkerers @ Salmon Creek School
Week 4 - July 28-Aug 1: Critters and Crawlers @ Salmon Creek School
Week 5 - Aug 4-8: Fun in the Sun @ Lucas Valley Elementary
Week 6 - Aug 11-15: Rooted Hearts @ Lucas Valley Elementary

~Detailed theme descriptions below~

Dates & Weekly Themes

Weekly Themes

Week 1: Imaginative Explorers

Unplug, imagine, and explore!

Join us for a fun-filled week of recreation in the great outdoors! This week is perfect for the high energy, adventure seekers. We will focus on fun ways to keep our earth and our bodies healthy, with an emphasis on exploration, play, and gardening activities. This camp session will incorporate a live-action role-play approach to garden education, where campers will develop an imagined character, storytelling, and problem-solving skills. While keeping in line with the core curriculum, this week will focus on kinetic activities that connect us to the themes we see in nature and embolden our imaginations. We will also be cooking everyday with food from the garden. Participants should be ready to spend the entire time outdoors. Let’s get moving!

Week 2: Buzzing Botanizers

What's the buzz about botany?

Join us for a plant-astic week of nature exploration in Salmon Creek and the redwood forest! This week is perfect for kiddos who love to explore plants, pollinators, and all that they offer us. We will focus on fun ways to learn about the power of plants, with an emphasis on identification, historic and cultural uses, natural dying, and much more! This camp session will also feature gardening as an everyday activity. While keeping in line with the core curriculum, this week will focus on creative activities that connect us to the ways we use the plants in our local environment. We will also be cooking everyday with food from the garden. Participants should be ready to spend the entire time outdoors. Plant-power activate!

Week 3: Thinkers and Tinkerers

What can we build together?

Join us for a wonderful week of STEM exploration in the vast school garden of Salmon Creek Middle School! This week is perfect for kiddos who love to build, tinker, and wonder. We will focus on building our skills in engineering, understanding environmental structures and gardening activities. While keeping in line with the core curriculum, this week will focus on activities that focus around Science, Engineering and learning fun skills like woodworking and utilizing solar energy. This camp session is perfect for kids who want to develop their inner engineer. We will also be cooking everyday with food from the garden. Participants should be ready to spend the entire time outdoors. Time to build some memories!

Week 4: Critters and Crawlers

What's flying up above? What's crawling down below?

Join us for an exciting week of learning about Sonoma County’s coolest insects and animals. We will embark on journeys through the redwood forest, observing what lives where and connecting with our animal neighbors. This week will be focused on exploring the animal kingdom. What’s swimming in the creek? What’s flying up above? This camp session will feature compost exploration, cooking from the garden, and activities that center us on our interactions with other life. We will be gardening and spending the whole day outside! We will also feature fun arts and crafts, nature exploration, and games. (We will be reliant on the wild birds, insects, and animals we encounter, and will not feature any animals brought in by wildlife handlers.)

Week 5: Fun in the Sun

Jin us for a sun-filled week full of joy and play. We'll be spending time in the garden, cooking, crafting, playing games, and enjoying the care-free days of Summer with new friends.

Week 6: Rooted Hearts

Join us for a week of growing our roots. We'll soak up the beauty of the garden, play games, and do land, craft, and art-based activities to build our connection and belonging to place.

Junior Educators

We welcome 12-17 year olds to participate as Junior Educators. Junior Educators will join a camp group, assist camp staff, and engage with younger campers in a fun and productive way. This program provides youth with the skills and experience needed to be leaders and outdoor educators. There is a certificate upon completion, and high school teens also earn 30 service learning hours per week of participation. Teens will need to fill out the short questionnaire found below. Space is limited to only 4-6 Junior Educators's per week.

Junior Educator Questionnaire

Camp Staff

Annika Lawson, Summer Camp Manager

Having spent numerous Summers attending and working at Summer camps all around Northern California, Annika found a love for outdoor education and recreation that blossomed into a lifelong passion for environmental justice. She believes that educating the younger generation on the importance of knowing your farmer, how food is grown, and cultivating a connection to nature is instrumental in both combating climate change and planting the seed for a brighter future. She has a Bachelors from Sonoma State University in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Environmental Studies.

Contact: summercamp@schoolgardens.org

Leah Mathews, Camp Lead Educator

Leah is an active parent volunteer at Lucas Valley Elementary in San Rafael. She began as School Garden Coordinator in 2022 where she created curriculum and activities each week for their garden club - a garden education program for 1st-5th graders. She is currently the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Director—leading the Student Ally Leadership Team and is a board member of the Home and School Association. Last year she helped form the school’s first Student Anti-bias Team and continues to lead the group this year, performing school-wide assemblies on diversity and allyship, environmental justice, and neurodiversity awareness.

Leah’s passion lies in combining her current roles and skillset—garden education, DEI work, and art. Her goal as Camp Lead Educator is to foster each camper’s personal growth as a budding gardener—helping them learn to grow their own food, care for the planet, and be an impactful member of their community.

She earned a degree in Studio Art with an emphasis in Painting at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. When not in the garden or managing her kids’ activities, her ideal day involves hiking along the northern California coast, and painting en plein air.