Danville 4th & 5th day report

Thursday/Friday June 12/13, 2008
Trinity, Danville Reading Camp

Whew! The past two days at Trinity's Reading Camp have been busy, busy, busy! Yesterday morning we had Keith Dunn in again for more music at breakfast, which included a new Harry Potter song! Some of the words in the songs only had the first letter, and everyone had to guess what the word was. The kids loved it.

It was all business as usual at camp yesterday morning: a reading from The World According to Humphrey, explanation from Victoria at how the day would go, and that the schedule was bumped fifteen minutes ahead for the big field trip in the afternoon. The Learning Centers were great, and everyone worked hard. In the Phonics/Decoding station with Ginny and Neil all the campers worked on vowel sounds.

After lunch and swimming, all the campers hurried back to change for the big field trip: a walk to Centre College to see Keith Dunn's Magical Chemistry Show! It was great and everyone had a lot of fun. They saw exploding balloons, a "sad" ball in comparison to a bouncing ball, a needle put through an inflated balloon and "elephant toothpaste!" I'm still not quite sure what that is, but all the campers said they wish they could use it instead of their regular toothpastes! The last thing they did was make – and eat! – their own ice cream. One of the campers says "It tasted like that Bluebell homemade ice cream."

Yesterday's ice cream was peanuts compared to what at least one kid in each group told me in the Writing station today: they were most excited to walk to later in the afternoon. As soon as one kid said it, all the other campers were eager to let me know how much they agreed!

After the Learning Centers, lunch, and swimming everyone came back to Trinity's fireside room for a slideshow of all the photographs from our visit to Mary Robin's photography studio. All the campers got to see the individual and group photographs and were very pleased!

What they didn't know was that the big event of today wouldn't be the ice cream: it would be what happened right before, the visit from the Humane Society! A very nice woman came and talked to the campers about how important it is to spay and neuter your dogs and cats, and gave tips on how to pick out what kind of pet is best for you. Then she brought in two tiny little puppies for everyone to see! Everyone got to pet them, including the adults. After she left, the wrap-up activity for Trinity Danville's Reading Camp was the last thing on the agenda: walking to Baskin-Robbins! The kids had a great time; who wouldn't at the ice-cream shop?

All the campers go home today with a bag prepared just for them. In the lime-green Reading Camp tote bags are their journals, a copy of David Anderson's Sometimes I Get So Angry, books, and the photographs they took with their own cameras.

With Trinity's blog, we wrap up with what one camper answered when I asked if he liked this year's Reading Camp or last year's better:

"I had to like this year better, it's my last year. First I got confused 'cause my mom said 'you can only go to basketball camp two years,' and I was like 'no, not that!' and she said no, I could only go two years to Reading Camp, and I was like 'no, not that either!'"

We're all sad it's the end of our week-long camp, but it's only a year 'til the next!