Creative camp activities keep English-language learners interested

Tag : healthy shoe

In Susan VanMeakins classroom, second- and third-graders had awealth of books about mountains to look at and learn to read.
Kindergartners in Sylvia Rohrboucks class each received a mountainor owl puzzle of their own to piece together.
We have such a great team of teachers who started with nocurriculum and built so many hands-on experiences for thesechildren, Peters said. The students just love them  RogerTorrezs first-graders wont even get on the bus until he wavesgoodbye to them all.
Peters herself teaches a class of middle school students, who alongwith learning about mountain wildlife have created a store to sellsnacks, drinks and salsa.
The salsa is one of the most popular items at two shakes for 10cents, which the students put on everything from chips to animalcrackers, Peters said.
The store satisfies more than appetites, though.
In working so hard to learn English during the school year, theyoften lose other content skills like math, said Liz Dillman, whoalso teaches a class of middle school students. Some of them gointo ninth grade not knowing their multiplication tables.
So Peters spent her own money to start the store, and she impressedon her students the need to make that money back.
From the first day, they had to figure out how much things costand how much to charge. They even made some things a penny so thelittle kids could have something to buy.
The teachers have also welcomed the students families, hosting afamily picnic at Dwayne Webster Veterans Park. After the event,they sent the families home with books and with shoes courtesy ofPeters.
She had attended a public Converse shoe event where children wereallowed to decorate a tennis shoe, and she asked the companyrepresentative what would happen to the shoes when the event wasover.
She ended up taking 700 shoes home for free, as well as 400slightly used Sharpie markers.
Although the shoes were of varying sizes, she managed to puttogether more than 300 pairs of new  albeit decorated  shoes forthe Loveland students.
They loved adding to the decorations, and the parents reallyappreciated the shoes, Peters said.
Funding for the camp comes from a federal grant. As part of therequirements, the students go through both a pre- and apost-assessment to gauge what theyve learned, Peters said.
The high attendance rate also lets us know its working, becausethe kids enjoy coming, she added.
In Dillmans room, further proof that the program is working showsin a poster on the back wall.
The students were to use animal-track stamps to show the types ofanimals that would live in the mountains, and infer why their feetwould help them be able to live there.
Most of the posters have carefully stamped tracks of singleanimals, with neatly written labels.
One, however, stands out. There are two different sets of tracks,all jumbled together.
The kids said they were showing a battle between a beaver and amountain lion, Dillman said with a laugh.
Although the two creatures might not normally tangle in the wild,the students were getting the basic idea of life in the mountains wild, fierce and fascinating.