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Welcome to our 10th year of summer camp at Sienna Ranch! Each year we feel honored and grateful to be serving our wonderful community from all over the San Francisco Bay Area.
If this is your first year, we welcome you, and if you are returning we welcome you back. This year promises to be another exciting summer at the Ranch, filled with all your favorite animals, all the secret magical places like the Tree Fort, Tire Tunnel, and the Buckeye tree, and of course our fabulous, passionate and dedicated staff.
2019 Summer Camp Themes (Morning Camps):
Farm Hands – Farm Life, Animal Care, and Old Fashioned Arts and Crafts. Spend a week with the residents of Sienna Ranch: the chickens, sheep, goats and bunnies. Campers will experience close interaction as they learn about and care for our farm animals. Old fashioned crafts and games will enhance the camp experience. Farm Hands campers will enjoy unique activities including milking our goats, making goat milk treats such as smoothies or cheese, harvesting from our garden, and crafting with wool from our sheep. Our staff bring a passion for youth and animals together in this fantastic program where children will not only build relationships and learn respect for the living creatures at Sienna Ranch, but will also delight in some of the simple pleasures which used to entertain children in times past.
Makers by Nature – Creative Experiences Outdoors. This week is all about discovering clever things to make and do in nature. We will craft our own medicines out of native plants, practice our fire making skills, and explore the hills of Briones for tracks and clues from the wild animals that live there. Among our many projects, campers can look forward to practicing their aim with homemade bird bows, and making leather pouches. All ages will enjoy the fun games and epic landscape that Sienna Ranch has to offer.
Natural Adventures – Roughing it in Nature. Campers will spend this week challenged and inspired by the great outdoors. This camp nurtures confidence and trust in campers’ abilities and builds teamwork with fellow campers. Campers enjoy destination hikes in Briones, building forts, learning how to make a one match fire, designing and running obstacle courses, sledding down the grass covered hills, team building challenges, and learning to shoot a bow and arrow.
Survival in the Wild – A Wilderness Skills Adventure. Surviving in the wild is no easy task. This camp introduces the fundamentals of staying alive: fire, shelter, food, and water. Campers will learn a series of basic wilderness skills including fire making, shelter building, food preparation, and water purification. Campers will practice lost-proofing techniques with staff along with activities to sharpen awareness of our surroundings. As a culmination of the camp activities, campers will assemble a basic survival kit that they can continue to build on at home.
Ranch Equestrian Camp – Riding & Groundwork. Riding, horse-themed games, and horsemanship skills are the main activities in this camp. Campers will enjoy daily mounted and dismounted lessons in riding and horsemanship and other fun and educational horsey activities. Each day campers work on new skills appropriate to their level during their mounted lesson. Groundwork games, activities, and crafts will include instruction in horse communication, grooming, tacking, leading & tying, and how we care for horses to keep them healthy and happy. When they are not working directly with the horses, campers will spend time practicing skills on the ground via various games and exercises that help develop their ability in the saddle. Our Equestrian campers love getting to know our many pony and horses! We have two new horses that we are excited to introduce you all to!
2019 Summer Camp Themes (Afternoon Camps):
Archery – Real Bows and Arrows: Campers will enjoy learning or improving their archery skills with an opportunity to shoot for at least an hour and a half each day on Sienna Ranch’s designated archery range, with distances ranging from 10 to 25 yards. Instructors model and encourage proper shooting form and techniques and help campers to reach their potential. Over the course of the week, campers will be given the opportunity to work on several archery related crafts, such as leather arm guards and homemade wooden arrows. Beginners are always welcome!
Art and Animals – Art with Natural Materials: Two favorite hobbies- one fantastic camp! Each day, campers will enjoy interacting with the Sienna Ranch animals- activities such as collecting eggs, caring for the goats, feeding the bunnies, and grooming the pony. After spending time with their farm friends, they will settle in for a unique nature-based art or craft project. Instructors model and encourage the use of natural and recycled materials, some found on the ranch!
Destination Discovery – Your Passport to Adventure: Come see all of the destinations Sienna Ranch has to offer and complete your Adventure Passport by solving clues that lead to hidden stamps throughout the property. Each day will have a new mystery to solve, a new survival skill to learn, and a new spot to explore at the ranch. Campers will have fun using their problem solving skills, learning about maps and compasses, and completing physical challenges.
Fun with Horses – Just Horsing Around: Fun With Horses campers do exactly that, spend a week having fun with horses! Children in this special interest camp will have the opportunity to learn to “speak horse”, as they are introduced to the various ways horses communicate with each other and with us. Using fun games and activities, campers learn about colors and breeds of horses, parts of a pony, and gaits. They will participate in the various ways we care for horses to keep them healthy and happy, such as grooming, stall care, and feeding. Highlights of this week for many of our campers are the times spent with pony rides, vaulting, leading, and grazing, and creating chalk or painted murals right on a horse!
Pottery: Campers will be delighted by making useful and beautiful clay projects in Sienna Ranch’s engaging pottery camp. This hands-on exploration into pottery has a unique Ranch twist as campers learn to put their imagination into their creations. We will explore new hand building techniques each day and complete take-home projects which encourage investigation into size, shape and form. At this time we do not have wheels for throwing pottery, but there is so much to do just with your hands!
Potions and Pies – Harvesting the Ranch’s Bounty: Potions are real. Pies are delicious! Join us at Sienna Ranch as we learn how to make treats from trees and medicine from plants growing here at the ranch. Summer is the best time to create scrumptious pies from Sienna Ranch’s homegrown abundance. Campers will love making potions with mysterious powers, like healing salves and sprays to defend against bug attacks. In our free time we will enjoy hanging out under shady trees, visiting animals, exploring and playing games.
Ranch Hands: Join Sienna Ranch’s Animal Care Staff as stewards of our beloved animal friends. We will learn about the care, behavior, and maintenance of each animal. Highlights include taking the goats for a walk, feeding the animals, learning how to maintain our animal pens and grooming, all the while learning about our animals, how to care and connect with them. Weather dependent, students will have the opportunity for short mounted horseback riding lessons as part of this camp.
Wonderful Wool!- Animal Care and Fiber Crafts: In this fabulous craft camp all of our materials come from right here at Sienna Ranch! Campers will love our snuggly angora rabbit, social goats and hungry sheep. We will learn how to care for the animals that make our wool and how to tend and harvest from our garden of natural dye plants. Campers can get creative as they dye, felt, and spin their own take-home projects out of wool.
Woodshop & Natural Building – Carpentry & Woodworking: In this camp we will be building toys, games, and basic structures out of wood and other natural materials. Each day will begin in the Sienna Ranch Woodshop where students will learn to safely use hammers, saws, and drills to create kid-approved projects. Once confidence and skills are gained in the woodshop, students will use their hands and an array of natural materials such as branches and logs, rope and rocks, to build huts and survival shelters. This portion of the class will focus on basic structural design and building techniques that could come in handy in the backyard, during a camping trip, or even in a survival situation. Students can expect to take home at least 2 small projects.
