Lisa Cousineau
Summer finally has begun for 12 children who attend St. Michael’s School here in Fort Frances.
These children, heading into Grade 3 this fall, were at school for the first two weeks of July as part of a pilot project spearheaded by the Ministry of Education.
The ministry was interested in knowing if giving students intensive summer programming would be a benefit for them heading into the next grade.
While at “Camp Read S’more,” the children worked on their reading strategies, with the main focus being on reading for meaning.
They participated in daily physical activity with St. Michael’s principal Brendan Hyatt, and also had the opportunity to work with peers and community partners.
The theme for the two-week reading camp was “Outdoors Canada.”
The children learned about animals in Canada and participated in activities that happen in outdoor Canada.
These included building bird houses with Henry Miller, who talked to the children about the bluebird that would live in the bird house and how they could keep the bird houses clean.
They also participated in a two-hour presentation by Laura Darby and the Ontario Stewardship Ranger Program.
During this presentation, the youngsters were able to learn about animals native to Northwestern Ontario—and even make castings of animal footprints and compare them to their own handprint.
They also were able to see and feel the furs of these animals.
Special guest Randy Kirk showed the children how to make their own fish hooks—and guaranteed that the hooks the children made would catch walleye.
The children had a camp-out making s’mores, cooking hotdogs over an open campfire, and even eating a little bit of “dirt pie with worms.”
To finish up the two weeks, the children participated in a bike rodeo at the Memorial Sports Centre run by the summer students for the OPP.
All in all, the children loved “Camp Read S’more.”
They were sad to see the time end, and said that they wanted it to be longer.