Odd Squad Camp

All news and updates regarding Odd Squad Camp June 13-17 will be posted here. 

DAY ONE: 

Dear Parents:

Welcome to The Building Block School for the Arts Odd Squad Camp! Today, your child became an Odd Squad Agent, ready to use STEM skills to solve all sorts of odd problems and strange cases. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)

At camp today, the theme was The Shape of Things – a day all about shapes and related concepts. Agents worked together to solve The Case of Common Chris and learned that two or more shapes can be put together to make another shape. For example, two triangles can make a square or a rectangle. Later in the day they learned about symmetry. An object is symmetrical if one side of an object is exactly the same as the other side. Asymmetrical objects are not the same on both sides. With these skills, they saved objects in their room from Symmetric Al, who was on his way to steal everything that was symmetrical: the same on both sides.

You and your child can continue having fun with Odd Squad at home, using the same ideas they learned about shapes today. Tonight, go to pbskids.org/learn/oddsquad/at-home/ and look for Shape Quest. Together, you and your child can solve a series of five different cases that will help to build knowledge of shapes.

Some related books to look out for at the library include:
● The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns
● Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert and Robert Andrew Parker ● Shapes, Shapes, Shapes by T ana Hoben
● Seeing Symmetry by Loreen Leedy
● Let’s Fly a Kite by Stuart J. Murphy

DAY TWO

Dear Parents:
Your child had a great day at “Odd Squad” camp today.

Our theme was It All Makes Sense – it was a “Thinking Day.”

Today, Agents worked together to crack The Case of the Doobles, Snoobles, and Oobles – three types of strange creatures that had invaded our room at camp. They learned to group together the creatures that had the same features, like the number of eyes, legs, or antennae. They then worked to identify which creature was which, based on these similarities. This process is called sorting and classifying. Later, Agents solved Ms. O’s Coldest Cases. They carefully read the case file and decided which information was important and which information was not, using their deductive reasoning skills to finally crack a series of old cases from the Odd Squad Cold Case Vault.

You and your child can continue having fun with Odd Squad at home, using the thinking and reasoning skills they practiced today. We also made a Blob. Together, we divided it, then hid it and found the various parts. In the process of thinking about and figuring out what’s missing, your child also learned about measurement and basic fractions.

Some related books to look out for at the library include:
● Sort It Out by Barbara Mariconda
● Sorting by Henry Arthur Pluckrose
● Magic School Bus: Liz Sorts it Out by Tracey West
● Why Am I a Mammal? (Classifying Animals) by Greg Pyers
● Math For All Seasons: Mind Stretching Math Riddles by Greg Tang

DAY 3

Dear Parents:
It was another fun day at The Building Block School for the Arts Odd Squad Camp! Today’s theme was

What’s Your Number? – a day all about numbers and operations.

At camp today, Agents worked together to solve a challenging problem using addition. In The Tidal Waves of Tens activity, they had to figure out the different ways they could add numbers together to equal 10. This helped them understand that there are many different number combinations that, when added together, equal the same number. Later, Agents solved The Case of the Trophy Room Bandit by using subtraction skills and a number line to figure out “whodunit” when objects were stolen from the Odd Squad’s Trophy Room.

You and your child can continue having fun with Odd Squad at home, and practice the same skills they learned today. Tonight, go to pbskids.org/learn/oddsquad/at-home/ and look for the Odd Squad Ten activity. Together, you and your child can solve a series of four different cases that will help to build their addition skills.

Some related books to look out for at the library include: ● Ten Black Dots - by Donald Crews
● If You Were A Plus Sign by Trisha Speed Shaska ● Ten For Me by Barbara Mariconda

● Elevator Magic by Stuart J. Murphy
● The Action of Subtraction by Brian Cleary

DAY 4

Today, your camper had some STEM fun at Odd Squad camp. Agents worked together to catch the Centigurps That Keep Escaping, collecting 100 sneaky critters that had escaped from Odd Squad Headquarters. They learned that rather than counting by ones, they can count to high numbers much faster if they count by fives or tens. For example, they counted the first 80 Centigurps by 10s: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80. Counting like this is called skip counting.

Later in the day Agents solved The Case of Places Trading. They learned about place value. Specifically, they learned that the first digit in a two-digit number represents the ten’s place and the second digit represents the one’s place. For example, the number 52 has 5 “tens” and 2 “ones”.

You and your child can continue having fun with Odd Squad at home, using the skip counting skills they practiced today. Tonight, go to pbskids.org/learn/oddsquad/at-home/and look for the Odd Squad Number Line activity. Together, you and your child can construct a number line and continue to build counting skills.

Some related books to look out for at the library include: ● Leaping Lizards by Stuart J Murphy
● 100th Day Worries by Margery Cuyler
● One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J Pinczes

DAY 5

Today, Odd Squad camp came to an end, and your child earned their official Odd Squad Agent certificate. In our first activity, Our agents were able to join in for our final activity: Who’s the Patternista? – a special training exercise! Working in teams of two, Agents learned to recognize patterns by creating some patterns themselves. They learned that a pattern can be a group of numbers, colors, sounds, or even shapes that repeat over and over again.

Some related books to look out for at the library include:
● A-B-A-B-A A Book of Pattern Play by Brian P. Cleary
● Beep Beep, Vroom Vroom! by Stuart J. Murphy
● National Geographic Little Kids Look and Learn: Patterns! (Look & Learn) by National Geographic Kids
● Mighty Maddie by Stuart J. Murphy
● Weight (Math Counts) by Henry Pluckrose

Tomorrow we gather for our production of “Odd Squad Play”.  This play is always hilarious and every day it has been a little different.  Please bring your child about 10 minutes before show time so that we can get them ready and in place.  Please do not feed your child a large meal before the show.  I would suggest eating a snack around 5pm, show is at 6pm, and dinner after the show, by 6:45. The show is not more than 30 minutes.  (depending on how their lines get delivered  )

Bring the whole family and your friends, we will be on our outdoor stage with space for all.  We do have some chairs available, but feel free to bring your own if you prefer or a blanket to sit on. 

Our show is free, but we always accept donations.  Coming back after a year of being at less than half capacity has been quite the challenge.  We are grateful for all the donations and support from our community and we hope you can help as well.  Thank you for sharing your child/agent with us! We hope your afternoon was filled with conversations and imagination as they reviewed and processed all they learned.  Learning is fun and creative and thrive in creativity. 

It has been our great joy to bring the arts to the Middle Tennessee region over the past 5 years.  Thank you for your support.

Sherry Johnson

Executive Director