Summer camp at Discovery Playhouse at the Pitt Meadows Family Recreation Centre involved more than just the usual field trips and water fun - the children were able to get creative and learn about art at the finearts-focused summer program.

"We wanted a more creative outlook in the summer program," said daycare worker Danielle Elder, who has been spearheading the art-focused programming this summer.

The arts programming has been handson for the children whereby they've been challenged to think creatively and make art themselves.

One week the children wrote, directed, designed sets and costumes, and performed an original play Evil versus Good.

Another week was spent focusing on different aspects of photography, and yet another week the children designed their own sports team including logos, uniforms, and held their own tournament.

Art history, with a bit of Jackson Pollock splatter art, pop art, expressionism and other artistic directions, was explored another week. This included, at times, getting messy with paint.

Their photography week also included a lesson on the technical aspects of cameras - many of the kids didn't know what a film camera was, Elder said.

"They were like 'what is this?'" she said followed by "'why do I see no photo' 'why is there no screen?'"

Some of the older, broken digital cameras were dissected to give a sense to the kids about the inner workings of digital technology.

One photography assignment the children were given was "defining delicious" and with ice cream cones in hand, they had to take pictures of what they thought delicious looked like.

Displays of the children's creative artwork was put in the foyer of the Pitt Meadows Family Recreation Centre for everyone to see, which gave a boost to the kids' confidence, Elder said.

mrantanen@mrtimes.com