Point Elementary First Graders Gear Up for Summer With Camping Adventure

“Camp Reads-A-Lot! Camp Reads-A-Lot!” echoed across the playground at as 75 first graders chanted their camp name while they moved from one reading activity to the next toward the end of the school year.

Camp Reads-A-Lot is the brainchild of the three Point Elementary first grade teachers, Ann Zimpfer, Jennifer Koenig and Victoria Dedic, who created the event during the 2009-10 school year with funding from a Mehlville-Oakville Foundation mini-grant.

“It is a celebration of a year of learning and the gains in reading the students have made,” Zimpfer said in a statement.

During the daylong “camp,” students visited several camping-related stations including fishing in a pond full of vocabulary words, making camping vests and badges, going on a bear hunt (a wild flora and fauna tour) and campfire storytelling. And, no camp would be complete without the s’mores recipe reading activity— a favorite among the students.

“We are thrilled when the kids say they have a great time, and this camp gives them the opportunity to recognize how much they have grown,” Zimpfer said.

To host Camp Reads-A-Lot for the second year in a row, the first grade teachers reused many of the materials purchased with the Mehlville-Oakville Foundation mini-grant funds last year. The school also received private funding and donations and utilized the help of a dozen parent volunteers for this year’s event.

“I like the bookmark because I made it,” said first grader Gus Taylor. Gus’ classmate, A.J. Barnett, preferred the bear hunt.

“It was cool to do a project with reading and writing about living things and non-living things,” Barnett said.