GASTONIA – The Schiele Museum in Gastonia provides fun and innovative camps for children all summer long.



The museum’s camp themes include learning about the earth’s rocks and oceans, exploration and pioneering, animals and caves. Each of the 10 weeks has a different theme.



“The great thing about our summer camps is you can actually pick and choose,” Amanda Ballard, marketing coordinator for the museum, said. “You can select one week or all. We offer it from the time school lets out until the time schools go back in. So it’s perfect for the parents who have to work through the summer and need child care.”



The museum’s cave-themed camps are tailored to all age levels.



In those camps, children will learn about spelunking, types of cave formations, and animals that could be found in caves. Campers also will explore the museum’s new caves exhibit, which opens in June.



“They’ll see the different types of stalagmites and different kinds of rocks and gems and minerals,” Ballard said.



The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade workshops will take an overnight trip to Raccoon Mountain Caverns in Chattanooga, Tenn., where they’ll spend a night inside the cave.



There are camps for rising first- and second-graders and camps for rising third-, fourth- and fifth-graders. Those camps cost $130 per week for museum members or $145 per week for non-members. All camps meet at the museum, 1500 E. Garrison Blvd.



The museum also has three workshops for rising sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. The workshops last half a day and are more instructional.



Ballard said the camps are filling quickly.



Here’s a full list of the camps at Schiele Museum:



Summer day camps for rising first- and second-graders:
• Week 1: Rocks, Minerals, Soil and Sand, June 13-17
• Week 2: Little Pioneers, June 20-24
• Week 3: Under the Sea, June 27- July 1
• Week 4: Pizza: From Farm to Fork, July 4-8
• Week 5: Treasure Hunters, July 11-15
• Week 6: Cave Explorers, July 18-22
• Week 7: Prehistoric Safari, July 25-29
• Week 8: Animal Senses, Aug.  1-5
• Week 9: Kudzu Kids, Aug.  8-12
• Week 10: Imagination Island, Aug.  15-19



Summer day camps for rising third-, fourth- and fifth-graders:
• Week 1: Woodscraft, June 13-17
• Week 2:Rock Star, June 20-24
• Week 3: Jr. Pioneers, June 27- July 1
• Week 4: Survival Kids, July 4-8
• Week 5: Space Explorers, July 11-15
• Week 6: Woodland Indians, July 18-22
• Week 7: Animal Adventure, July 25-29
• Week 8: Science Wizards, Aug.  1-5
• Week 9: Discovering Caves, Aug.  8-12
• Week 10: Camp Kudzu, Aug.  15-19



Workshops for rising sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders:
• CSI: NOT As Seen on TV, June 20-24, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Bushcraft, June 27 – July 1, 9 a.m. to noon.
• Expedition CAVE, Aug.  16-19, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.