Day 1 of the Little Minnows camp started with Miss Sherry getting the campers settled in with new backpacks full of school supplies. Since this camp is geared toward kindergarteners and first graders, several of the kids haven’t been to school prior, and it was fun to help them prepare for their first day next week.
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After giving the campers some free time to settle in and get to know one another, we showed the kids the project we did last week with the sea creatures and the Orbeez.
Next, we went to the big tipi and listened to Miss Sherry read We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom.
We Are Water Protectors is written in response to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, the book tells the story of an Ojibwe girl who fights against an oil pipeline in an effort to protect the water supply of her people.
After the story, we split the kids into 3 groups of 2 campers, with each group being led by an adult. Miss Sherry, Miss Abbie, and Miss Vicki each read a book to their group, and then helped each camper read through a book on their own. After a bit of time for practice, each of the campers was given the opportunity to read in front of the group if they wanted to.
After working on reading, the kids were given a snack of goldfish/fruit snacks, and a bit of free time to play in the bounce house. After playing for a bit, we returned to the tipi to read Babies in the Ocean by Ginger Swift. Afterwards we gave the campers the opportunity to look through some “mermaid treasure” generously donated to the library by Mare. When each child had picked out 5 pieces of treasure to keep, we picked out different shells, stones, and sea glass and put them in groups of ten. We counted with the campers to 100 as we laid the treasures out and counted backwards as we put them away.
After counting, each of the campers got to unearth a sea creature from a plaster seashell. It was a bit messy, but we all had lots of fun digging our creatures out and reading fun facts about them.
Next Miss Abbie read Rory, Quest for the Northern Lights by Sarah Cullen and Carmen Ellis. Afterwards we enjoyed a lunch of tuna fish tacos, baby carrots, chips and salsa, and fruit snacks and pudding for dessert.
When lunch was over, the campers created scenes from the story Miss Abbie read, by drawing chalk pictures on our sidewalk.
Miss Sherry also read The Pout-Pout Fish / The Pout-Pout Fish Learns to Read / The Pout-Pout Fish Cleans Up The Ocean.
What a great first day of camp! We can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store!