Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) continues to enrich the cultural scene in the emirate through its 2021 ‘Our Summer is Culture and Creativity’ summer camp. The fourth and final week of the camp carries a variety of programmes and activities from 22 – 28 August, completing its integrated series that began on 1 August as well as fueling the imaginations of children and adolescents and providing them with engaging adventures in the fields of arts, culture, literature and contemporary technology.

The fourth week of the camp will provide an educational experience in the fields of technology, digital game design, astronomy, puppetry, content creation and filmmaking, preparing healthy dishes, and drawing with threads, among other targeted activities. At Hatta Public Library, children aged 6 – 12 will learn about COVID-19 precautionary measures in an engaging and entertaining manner through a puppet theatre titled ‘Hand in Hand We Eliminate the Virus.’ Children will also enjoy a series of interactive workshops, including ‘My Fun Papers,’ ‘My Fun Summer,’ ‘The Little Investor,’ and ‘My Healthy Plate’ as well as interactive competitions, the importance of differentiating between needs and desires and arranging priorities, and the importance of healthy food.

This week will allow children 8 – 12 years old at the Umm Suqeim, Al Mankhool, and Al Safa libraries to participate in the ‘Mars Academy’ course that will be held in English and focus on building and strengthening children’s logical thinking skills in anticipation of the UAE’s project to explore Mars. The same libraries will also provide an introductory course in English for children aged 11 – 13 under the title ‘Python 101’ that will introduce them to professional programming, by motivating them to become creators and developers for them to have an effective contribution on the future. Another course will be given on game design for children aged 10 – 11 in English, where they will learn how to design and develop games. In the graphic design course, children will focus on the importance of images in building an identity, such as through logos, to convey their creative ideas via images and editing them.

In addition, Umm Suqeim Library has prepared a series of other activities, including the reading stories, such as The Rhinoceros, Treasures in the Garden, Cautionary Caterpillar, and Ancient Games Room, accompanied by art workshops. Meanwhile, Al Mankhool Library will be offering a course in video content production to introduce children aged 11 – 13 to the principles, techniques and best practices for creating videos; other workshops will also be given about shadow theater and recycling. Al Safa Art and Design Library will offer a variety of programmes to children aged 6 – 12, including an interactive lecture on child safety in the summer, a dinosaur workshop, a cultural information workshop, a fun virtual trip to the Emirates Steel Factory that will be followed by a session for children to share their stories of their trip, a workshop for scientific experiments, the Little Engineer, and an art workshop on the importance of drawing for children’s stories, in addition to a dialogue session for mothers, in cooperation with ‘Read N Enjoy Library’ to discuss the challenges of remote learning and the importance of balancing their professional lives while raising future generations.

At Al Twar Library, children aged 6 – 12 will learn about recycling cans into usable materials to help preserve the environment during an interactive workshop. A reading of the ‘My Cave of Treasures’ story from the series ‘My Little World’ by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, will take place, accompanied by an interactive art workshop.

Al Rashidiya Library will hold a series of various programmes, including the ‘Little Actor’ workshop, during which the story ‘The Absence of the Internet’ will be recounted, accompanied by interactive activities; the ‘Beginner Painter’ workshop to teach children some easy ways to draw using pencils and wooden colours, accompanied by a presentation and a lecture on the most famous painters in the UAE; and the ‘Statistician Omar’ programme, which aims to raise statistical awareness for future generations through the personality of the statistician Omar, educating children about the importance of statistics. Children will also enjoy the ‘Little Farmer’ workshop that will teach them how to farm using simple tools, as well as an English session

that will enable children aged three and above to improve their discipline and develop their mental arithmetic skills by using an abacus at both Al Rashidiya and Hor Al Anz libraries.

Hor Al Anz Library will also offer a series of interactive workshops for children aged 6 – 16, during which they will enjoy storytelling, free drawing, screenings of children movies, basic cooking skills, drawing with threads, making art bottles using disposable glass cans, and the open treasure workshop that will seek to motivate children to search and compete among themselves to find the lost treasure.

To register, please visit the libraries’ Instagram account @dubaipubliclibraries.