Danville Third Day report

Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Danville Trinity Reading Camp

Today we start out with what's been going on in Ginny Birney's Writing station. You'll remember from Monday that everyone made journals, and now we know what they're writing in them! Below is an example of what the kids wrote yesterday.

My name is _____.
In the summer I went to Reading Camp.
I like to read at Reading Camp.
Every day we go swimming unless it rains.
We went to the Community Arts Center and made wands on Monday.
My wand was black and gold with glitter.

They're doing great, aren't they? They could take my blogging job, these young writers! And remember they get to write in their very own handmade journals.

This morning we had Keith Dunn back with his guitar to wake everyone up for breakfast, and today's breakfast was a lively repeat of Monday's. The kids sang "She'll be Comin' 'round the Mountain," "Michael Finnegan," and "Big Blue Frog" with Keith, and repeated on their own the popular bananas song from yesterday! Then Victoria explained what's going on today: the kids will get to swim for a little longer today, then come back to Trinity and change back into their regular clothes for a trip to the photography studio, and hurry back for another author visit!

Also announced was our new teacher for the Pleasure Reading station – Trinity's own organist, Vicki Bell. She let me in on what's happening in Pleasure Reading: the door wasn't closed to keep people out, but to keep Sallie, Father Rob and Victoria's greyhound, in the room! In Pleasure Reading they read out loud to Sallie, and have 15-20 minutes of silent reading, and if they're reading the same book they'll talk about it for the last few minutes before they change stations!

This afternoon everyone had lunch and special cookies before they went swimming – the cookies were a gift from one of the camper's mothers! After eating, off to swimming the campers went.

Immediately after swimming everyone came back to Trinity to change their clothes and walk to Mary Robin's photography studio, where she and her assistant talked about how to use reflections to increase or decrease light, and then everyone had a big group picture!

After the photography studio we hurried back to Trinity for today's other special event – an author visit! The author of Sometimes I Get So Angry, David A. Anderson, came to see us and tell us about his book before reading it aloud. He talked about writing and how hard it is to get a book published, and that he published this book by himself so his children could read it while they were still kids. He said his inspiration for the book came from when he was doing research about criminals, and figured out that most crimes happen because people don't handle their anger well. He decided he wanted to try to help people learn how to let anger out in better ways, so he wrote his book! In his book he mentions all kinds of ways to handle getting mad – taking a walk, listing things that make you happy, and singing songs! The illustrator for his book was a local Danville artist, Paul Sirimongkhon, and all the kids loved the book and the illustrations!

Everybody had a great day today, and they've been working hard on their reading skills and playing even harder. We're all looking forward to tomorrow!

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