Danville First Day Report

Monday, June 9, 2008 - including a visit by author Eleanor Lambert Wilson (pictured at right)
Danville Trinity Reading Camp

Bright and early today commenced the Trinity Danville's campus for Reading Camp 2008. Reading Camp is a week-long day camp for third- and fourth-grade kids who are reluctant readers in school with six different camps in Central and Eastern Kentucky. The parish hall, fireside room, nursery, and other rooms throughout the building have been turned into Reading Camp stations for the duration of the week. Kids are grouped into threes and fours, each group has a color name, and they rotate from station to station every thirty minutes, so every half-hour there's heavy traffic!

We'll start at the most important part of the day – breakfast. Officially Reading Camp doesn't begin until 8:00 a.m., but there were several bleary-eyed early arrivals quickly followed by the rest of the kids, when breakfast began with Keith Dunn tuning up his acoustic guitar to accompany the crunching of Frosted Flakes and Cheerios with lively music to wake everyone up. Amid confused and later figured-out lyrics to "She'll Be Comin' 'round the Mountain," "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea," and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" everyone did wake up, some of the teachers came in from last-minute training, groups were re-arranged as needed, and we were ready to start the day. Victoria Slocum explained the schedule of the week to come, that beading was an alternative to outside activities due to disagreeable weather, and was far enough ahead of schedule for an impromptu reading from The World According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney, a book from the point of view of a classroom hamster. Everyone was very quiet while she read out loud, and then the Learning Centers began!

In my rotation around the different stations, I learned piece by piece what people in each station were doing, except Pleasure Reading which will remain a mystery today due to its closed doors: no distractions in Pleasure Reading! In Reading Comprehension, womaned by Lois H., everyone read a paragraph of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone aloud and took it apart with questions like "Who is Harry Potter?" and "What do you think this character looks like?" Near the end they did a magic trick with dollar bills and paperclips, and the group I saw followed all the directions to make it work.

The Writing station, headed by Ginny Birney, confused me on my first round through when they started talking about someone eating books and everyone got a pair of safety scissors, but as I learned later, today was more of a crafty day – they were making covers and the pages for the journals they'll be writing in throughout the week! I saw a lot of great covers, and all the kids were really excited to have their books made.

The third station is Phonics and Decoding, a package deal that comes with a package deal – Neil and Ginny E. Neil used flashcards and something I thought very clever – a rubber ball with high-frequency words all over it that he threw for each kid to catch, read a word, and throw back.

Our last station, Reading Strategies, headed by Tammy Jones and assisted by Ashley, is the station I became most acquainted with today – Tammy has to leave after the first Learning Centers session, so with Ashley's assistance and my observations I manned the last three groups after the snack break. Tammy has the kids take off their shoes and sit on a pillow, where she tells them they'll be reading the same book silently for ten minutes anywhere they like in the room. After the silent reading everyone reconvenes on the cushions and reads one page per person out loud, and the book is discussed. She asks the kids what kind of books they like to read, what kind of activities they enjoy doing, how often they go to the library when they're in school; questions to figure out the individual child's strengths. Tammy believes the best Reading Strategy is to read, read, read, and learn to love it.

After the last Learning Center sessions are over, it's time to go swimming – and from the beaming faces and wet hair, it's easy to see the kids had a great time. Everyone had a snack and went to the fireside room to hear a reading from the author of A Year at the Folk School, Eleanor Lambert Wilson. Ellie read about attending the country fair, seeing the judged livestock, and playing games and riding the Ferris Wheel at the Midway. After her reading she had a question-and-answer session, and described the folk school: a school that taught its students to care for animals, make crafts, and all kinds of useful things. Everyone applauded and thanked her for coming to see us, and then it was time for the last activity of the day – walking to the Community Arts Center. Since I stayed here to labor at the blog, we'll be in the dark about the Arts Center until tomorrow!

-Written by Britney Kingery, newcomer to Trinity Episcopal Church, Danville, KY