What Happens at Wonderstruck?

Wonderstruck Day Camp uses a unique fantasy story approach. Here’s what that looks like.

We want kids to learn the things we consider essential: math, science, spelling, essay-writing. Today, science, robotics, coding and other academic skills are celebrated in classrooms, camps and enrichment programs. But what happens to the things that don’t fit as neatly into a curriculum?

Daydreaming. Imagining. Pretend play. Getting lost in a story. Making up worlds just because you can.

Too often, these things are treated as distractions from the “real” work of learning—as though imagination is something children will grow out of, rather than something worth growing.

This was certainly true when I was in elementary school. And while so much has changed in education since then, I’m not sure we’ve changed our relationship with dreaming all that much. Dreamers can still be labelled “distracted.” A child staring out the window may be seen as missing the lesson, rather than somewhere deep inside their own imagination.

But what if that wandering mind is learning, too?

Luckily, experts have started to realize the important benefits of pretend play to improve social and problem-solving skills, and to build confidence and a sense of self in kids. Imaginative play teaches kids that they are in charge of their own lives and experiences, developing agency for life’s big challenges. At Wonderstruck, kids find themselves advancing in learning and life skills, all while having a great time. 

Wonderstruck celebrates kids’ unique capacity for imagination. We set up a world where minds are encouraged to wander into magical places, invent new possibilities, and follow their curiosity wherever it takes them.

Whereas other camps focus on sports or STEM, Wonderstruck’s day camp — coming to GTA in Fall 2026 — takes a unique story-led approach. Each activity advances the plot of a fantasy fairytale. Campers are the Magic Assistants to Professor Lorekeeper, an expert in magic. Counselors are Professor Lorekeeper’s ‘Senior Magic Apprentices.’ Wizards, fairies, elves, mermaids, and giants who shape-shift into trees interact with the campers through written or recorded messages or in-person to bring the story to life. 

Every single Wonderstruck Camp features a unique storyline, like a TV show set in the same world but without a particular order to the episodes. The same story won’t take place for the same set of campers more than once, so every experience is unique. 

As Wonderstruck’s creator, I get a lot of questions that are phrased something like: “Wow that is so unique, but what actually happens? What do you do?” To answer this (fair and reasonable) question, let me give you a step-by-step walkthrough of what we did during March Break 2024. Remember, each storyline is unique but takes place in the same basic structure in the same enchanted world. 

During March Break 2024, Wonderstruck Camp followed a ‘Visitors from the Future’ Storyline. Here’s what campers experienced:

First, Campers arrive at Professor Lorekeeper’s Magic Lab.

At the first Wonderstruck Camp, campers arrived in a room at the Lynn Valley EcoCentre in North Vancouver, BC, which my staff and I had decorated to look like a Magic Lab. No matter where camp takes place, this Lab setup is always the same. The Professor’s Lab has magical artifacts gathered from all over the woods, fairy furniture, magical books and art supplies for all campers. At the front of the Lab, there is an easel with a red mailbox for magic mail (when the white flag is up, we have mail!)

The Magic Mailbox is always in the Professor’s Lab…When the flag is up, we have mail!

One of our staff plays the role of Professor Lorekeeper, PhD. The Professor is an expert in all things magical, specializing in mythical creatures that can be found in Canadian forests and parks. Professor Lorekeeper is the author of The Wise Wizards’ Guide to Magic, co-authored with Wonder and Sage, Wizards First Class. You can buy this book on Amazon, and copies are always available for campers to use during their time as Magic Assistants in the Lab.

A Senior Magic Apprentice reads The Wise WIzard’s Book of Magic.

On the first day of each session, the Professor informs the campers that they will now be Magic Assistants who will help her study magical creatures this week. First thing’s first: they need to make wands so they can do spells as they work with the Professor. (Note: we don’t always make wands during every PD Day Camp; It depends on which Wonderstruck story we are stepping into.)

Professor Lorekeeper with a Magic Assistant as they ‘enchant’ his wand using the ‘Wand Enchantment Spell.’

Magic Assistants make their own wands as one of their first activities.

The assistants go out into the park to gather one stick each that can be used to make a wand. Each wand is unique. The rules for picking a wand stick are simple. Wand sticks must:

1. Not be too big or small (about the length of a forearm is good)

2. Be straight and strong

3. Speak to the Magic Assistant’s heart. (This criterion is key when trying to choose between two or more equally-appropriate sticks.)

Sticks in hand, campers and staff head inside to decorate their sticks with glue, feathers, beads, glitter (always biodegradable and not too fine for easy clean-up!), and paint or paint-markers. While their wands dry, Magic Assistants spend some time practicing spells from TheWise Wizard’s Guide to Magic. When the wands are ready, the Magic Assistants will use the Wand Enchantment Spell to enchant their wands. After that, they are ready to use!

After wand-making, about halfway through the first day, is when each Wonderstruck Session’s  unique storyline kicks off. During our March 2024 Camp, the ‘Visitors from the Future’ story revolved around a group of mysterious creatures whose reason for running around the forest and scaring the fairies was unclear. The Professor and Senior Magic Apprentices experience the story alongside the Magic Assistants.

Wand-making takes place during Activity Blocks #1 and #2 on the first day of a new session. Magic Assistants who bring wands from a past session are invited to do a different magical activity (though often we find they want to make more wands!)

A Magical Interruption kicks off the ‘Visitors from the Future’ storyline.

Magic Assistants were decorating wands and practicing spells with the help of Senior Magic Apprentices when, all of a sudden, there was a knock at the Lab door. Professor Lorekeeper opened the door to reveal her good friend, Wonder the Wizard.

Wonder, Wizard First Class, has spent enough time in the forest to know when something is amiss. During the ‘Visitors from the Future’ Storyline, Wonder comes to the Magic Lab to ask for the Professor’s help, which kicks off the week’s events.

Wonder explained that there was a problem. Strange creatures were running around in the forest, and they had scared away all the fairies. Wonder needed help. The Magic Assistants then headed outside to try to locate the missing fairies. They found only fairy houses and two small locked trunks. Inside, there were papers covered with pretty designs that are actually strange languages. According to The Wise Wizard’s Guide, this was Faerish, the writing of the fairies.

A Faerish writing sample from The Wise Wizards’ Guide to Magic… Sage, Wizard First Class, is the one who can interpret mythical writing like this.

Sage the Wizard, magical language expert, translates the fairies’ note.

The Magic Assistants discovered that they needed Sage, another wizard and Wonder’s friend. Sage is an interpreter of all magical languages. They performed Sage’s Summoning Spell from The Wise Wizard’s Guide to Magic. Then they went on a walk outside to find Sage. (Sage generally comes from outside after Sage’s Summoning Spell is complete.)

Often, Sage requires a tribute to interpret magical notes. This takes the form of a skit, song, or art activity. In the ‘Visitors from the Future’ Story, Sage interpreted the note, which stated that the fairies would return once the Magic Assistants planted plants to make them feel welcome. (Fairies are huge environmentalists with a great love of growing things; plants are a great way to lure them out.)

The Magic Assistants and their Senior Magical Apprentices planted pea shoots back at the Lab to welcome the fairies. The Professor helped them water the plants with a special welcoming elixir (water with food colouring). Another fairy note prompted the Magic Assistants to make sun-catchers, helping the tiny fairies called Whisperwings dance on the light.

Sage the Wizard supervises the planting of pea shoots to welcome the fairies.

WizardWood Mail Capsules are used to transport messages through the forest.

On days 2-5, campers rescued mermaids, summoned fairies and made music as a tribute for Sage the Wizard.

Over the course of the ‘Visitors from the Future’ Storyline, Magic Assistants and the Professor began to understand that the creatures wreaking havoc in the forest were centicorns (centaur-unicorn hybrids) from the future.

These centicorns had initially been created by the Professor and Wonder, Wizard First Class, in the Lab. The centicorns’ future habitat had become completely degraded because of greed and a lack of concern for the natural world. If the centicorns could retrieve the elements of our timeline (air, sound, water, earth, and light), they could magically reconstruct their world in the future. Centicorns possess a powerful magic, but the degradation of their world meant they needed our elements. That was why they were running all over the forest and scaring away the fairies. They were trying to capture air, sound, water, earth and light!

The Magic Assistants, through the course of activities that spanned all the days and ranged from outdoor walks and wide games to indoor craft activities and experiments, created and discovered items that represented each element (water, air, sound, earth and light). Once they had collected and made the air, sound, water, earth and light items, they would be able to send the centicorns back to their future timeline.

One highlight of the week was hearing fairy laughter in the bushes as campers found tiny cups, saucers, and books left behind by tiny Whisperwing fairies. (Whisperwings are very messy!) Another highlight was ‘rescuing’ mermaids from where they had become stranded in the forest by blowing bubbles on them to keep them hydrated during their trip back to Professor Lorekeeper’s Lab in a wagon (the ‘hydration wagon’).

A mermaid was transported in the hydration wagon after being rescued from where she was stranded in the woods. Magic Assistants had to blow bubbles at the mermaids to keep them hydrated.

After they received a note from giants written in the Giant Language, Magic Assistants again had to rely on Sage, who this time asked for a musical tribute in exchange for translation. Using clean recycling (in keeping with the week’s conservation focus), Magic Assistants made their own musical instruments to compose a song for Sage.

During another activity, Magic Assistants also loved doing the ‘Unhiding Spell’ on their Polaroid pictures to reveal the images and exploring the forest under the watchful eye of seasoned wizards.

Magic Assistants used their decorated wands to do a spell on Polaroid photos to reveal the pictures.

Campers sent a magical visitor back to her timeline.

After gathering all of the elements, the Magic Assistants followed a captured centicorn to the Time Travel Portal that had brought her to this timeline. 

They performed a Time Travel Spell from the Professor’s Guide to Magic to return the centicorn home with the necessary elements to reconstruct her world.

Unfortunately, the spell did not work the first time. The Magic Assistants discovered that the missing element was joy!

Magic Assistants ‘drew their joy’ by creating pictures of what had made them happy throughout the week. They then sent these pictures, the elements, and the centicorn back through the Time Travel Portal successfully before returning home to the Lab to celebrate.

Each day ends with games, free time and the discovery of more evidence of magic.

The time at the end of the day, or sometimes before lunch, is a chance for Magic Assistants to choose how they want to spend their time. In some sessions, there are multiple skits put on by groups of campers about their magical experiences. During the March 2024 ‘Visitors from the Future’ Camp, Magic Assistants spent the last segment of each day practicing their spells and playing ‘Wizard, Mermaid, Flying Fairy’ (a version of ‘rock,’ ‘paper,’ ‘scissors’ that used wands). Each day also ended with Magic Assistants ‘searching for evidence’ of mythical creatures. They found tiny cups and saucers, books, and other things that the messy Whisperwing Fairies had left behind. Magic Assistants also wrote their own spells and had them ‘approved’ by the wizards.

At Wonderstruck, campers find themselves practicing academic skills – often without even recognizing they are doing it. (What was so cool is that neither the staff nor I pushed them to get into this practice of spell-writing.) Magic Assistants also write notes to magical creatures and place them in a WizardWood Mail Capsule to leave at the base of a large tree. In Wonderstruck Lore, trees pass these capsules with other forms of mail from branch to branch through forests and parks until they reach the intended recipient creature. The responses come from the creatures the next day (or later that same day) in the Magic Mailbox in the Lab. 

Wand practice with wizards is one of the things Magic Assistants can choose do do during free time.

Throughout the day, Magic Assistants receive GlimmerGems (round gem stickers) to recognize positive attitudes, kindness, resilience, and helpful behaviour like cleaning up or finding lost items. These GlimmerGems can be traded in for prizes from Professor Lorekeeper’s Magical Trunk. Prizes range erasers and stickers to fairy potion bottles to magic pouches to 3D-printed articulated dragons. No two sessions have exactly the same prizes.

Magic Assistants get to ‘buy’ treasures from the GlimmerGem Trunk with their GlimmerGems, acquired throughout the day for helpful behaviours and attitudes.

Register today for more stories.

So that’s what happens at Wonderstruck! Every single week of Wonderstruck features a different storyline in the magical world populated by wizards, fairies, mermaids, elves and more. Our PD Day Camps are a window into this bigger experience, with a shorter story featuring  the same magical characters that wraps up within a day. Professor Lorekeeper and her Senior Magical Apprentices remain the guides campers need to navigate through the story. 

Check out the FAQs on our home page or Read Why Wonderstruck on our ‘About’ Page for more information on Wonderstruck!  Message us via the homepage or email wonder.gta@gmail.com to get in touch.