Camper Age Groups
We named our age groups after the life cycle of a star because campers who “grow up Galileo” truly advance their innovation skills as they rise through each age group: delving deeper into science and art concepts, using more advanced materials, working on more complex team-building challenges and becoming young innovators.
Our team-oriented summer camps also provide an amazing opportunity for campers to make new friends. Your camper will experience each week at summer camp with the same team of 15 other similarly-aged campers, who will spend their time engaging in group projects and activities together.
Nebulas (Pre-Kindergarten, or turning 5 by December 1)
At this age, the camper-staff ratio is just 6:1, providing our youngest learners with the personal attention they need. Nebulas explore a wide breadth of activities and projects each week, building a variety of foundational skills for kindergarten. Fun new materials and team projects encourage their creative expression, introduce collaboration and give every camper a chance to see their ideas shine. A part-day option is available for this age group.
Stars (Rising 1st—2nd Graders)
At this age, campers begin to grow more independent and shift to a camper:staff ratio of 8:1. Stars stay with projects for longer periods of time—sometimes developing one idea over several days. Stars are encouraged to take greater risks and develop a more advanced understanding of concepts as they design, test and redesign their work. Stars often approach familiar tools in new and inventive ways, and collaborate more fluidly to solve team challenges.
Supernovas (Rising 3rd—5th Graders)
The leaders of our summer camp community, Supernovas engage in complex multi-day projects that stretch their creativity and deductive reasoning. They can use sophisticated tools with increasing independence, but also know how to come together to solve common challenges. The smaller number of projects they work on allows them time to really embrace every step of the innovator’s process. Rising 5th graders are called Red Supergiants and have the opportunity to develop their leadership skills by mentoring younger campers. Red Supergiants can also tackle “Step It Up” challenges in art and science.
More Options for Rising 3rd, 4th and 5th Graders
Rising 3rd - 5th graders have a choice of summer camp experiences: if they enjoy the daily mix of art, science and outdoor activities at Camp Galileo, they’ll continue to grow and have a blast.
If they’re aspiring scientists, engineers or space explorers, your 3rd-5th graders may want to check out Chabot Space & Science Camp in Oakland. If they want to focus primarily on science or technology, 4th and 5th graders might want to spend part of their summer at The Tech Summer Camps in San Jose. If your 5th grader is more interested in delving deeply into a single topic, Galileo Summer Quest has tons of choices for week after week of intensive fun!
