By Bill Reynolds
La Conner Community News
The La Conner School District’s Summer Adventure Camp, now in the midst of an activity-oriented three-week run, is providing students entering first through sixth grades daily opportunities to tap their creativity and problem-solving skills.
About 60 pupils are engaged on a weekly rotating basis in the summer program’s Art Academy, Inventors Camp, and Skagit Safari components, the latter of which features regular field trips to nearby outdoor learning venues.
So far, the format is making the grade with La Conner area families.
“We’re getting good feedback from the kids, staff, and parents,” said Summer Adventure Camp coordinator and Braves Hub lead teacher Jackie Johnson.
Among favorite student projects at the Inventors Camp, which employs a nationally developed curriculum, has been creation from a materials kit of a toy robot that can follow a path drawn on paper lined with tunnels, directional signs, and lighthouses fashioned from popsicle sticks, markers, pipe cleaners, paper cups, and the like.
Meanwhile, at the Art Academy, students last week morphed empty cardboard furniture shipping boxes into an Artist’s Village complete with cut-out windows and doors, decorated walls, and further adorned with colorful paper lanterns.
“They really made it their own,” said Summer Adventure Camp staffer and La Conner Elementary Art instructor Katie Wigal. “They’ve done some awesome stuff.”
Her colleagues agree.
“They’re making some really beautiful things in Art,” noted Braves Hub Site Coordinator Jessica Pedroza, who is also part of the Summer Adventure Camp team.
The Skagit Safari field trips emphasize outdoor education. One of its favorite destinations is Lake Padden, the popular park in Bellingham known for its 2.6-mile loop trail through woodlands.
“There’s nothing like a hike to work on math,” Pedroza pointed out. “You have to figure out things like how many steps it takes to make a mile and how many miles you can cover in an hour.”
Pedroza added that “math and literacy go into everything we do.”
She alluded to how students are encouraged to write about their summer projects. During one camp session, Pedroza introduced and described plagiarism, incorporating art and reinforcing the lesson through the symbolic task of mask-making.
“There’s constant learning going on,” said La Conner Schools Administrative Assistant and Transportation and Safety Coordinator Marlene Brenton.
The Summer Adventure Camp launched on July 13, about four weeks after the spring term at La Conner Schools ended. It wraps up on July 30.
The Art Academy is held in the La Conner Elementary School building. The Inventors Camp operates out of the Braves Hub.
Each student day includes lunches prepared by Johnson and Brenton. Last Wednesday the fare was chicken salad wraps.
“We didn’t want to serve the kids any pre-prepared food,” Johnson said.
The extra work is well worth the effort, embraced by the entire Summer Adventure Camp staff, Johnson and Brenton said.
“There’s a lot of love, a lot of teamwork here,” Brenton said.
The social-emotional aspect of student growth is another positive by-product of Summer Adventure Camp, its instructors said.
“It’s an opportunity for the kids to reconnect with each other and meet new friends. And we feel that it’s a great service to our working families,” Pedroza said.
“It’s also nice for us to be back with the kids,” she said.
Brenton said the campers feel likewise.
“They’ve missed you as much as you’ve missed them,” she said, referring to Pedroza and the Summer Adventure Camp staff.
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
