Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosKindergarten and first-grade students clean their paintbrushes while working on a mural Wednesday during the Jungle Adventure English Day Camp at Redmond’s M.A. Lynch Elementary School. The students, who are from Spanish-speaking homes, attended the camp to get some extra help in English-language instruction.
Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
Schoolkids brush up on English skills
By Sheila G. Miller / The Bulletin
Published: August 27. 2009 4:00AM PSTREDMOND — Paintbrushes in the air, the kindergartners and first-graders in the M.A. Lynch Elementary cafeteria watched carefully Wednesday as an art teacher demonstrated how to paint palm trees and giraffes.
Faces screwed up in concentration, the children focused hard on their mural, mimicking the noises and saying the names of jungle animals as they worked. It looked like another average day camp for kids waiting for school to be back in session.
But the Jungle Adventure English Day Camp, put on by the Latino Community Association and Redmond School District, seeks to do much more than simply entertain its campers. Its objective is to help students from Spanish-speaking homes get a head start to the school year, learning English and getting reacquainted with the language after a long summer of speaking mostly Spanish at home.
“This week, they’ve had lots of practice communicating in English,” said Sarah Woods, one of the teachers running the program. “They’re getting a refresher in words they haven’t heard in a while. It just provides a springboard for success.”
This is the camp’s first year, and about 42 kindergarten through fifth-graders have attended the eight-day camp. Funding was provided by the Oregon Commission on Children and Families, the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation and the Oregon Community Foundation.
The day camp, which ends today, recruited students from a summer program at Lynch Elementary, as well as a migrant education camp. Then, organizers cold-called families whose students attended Lynch Elementary last year to see if anyone was interested.
Maria Gradilla, 6, said she liked going to camp even though she had to do some schoolwork. Still, Maria said, she most enjoyed arts and crafts.
“We made bracelets and art and did stuff like making masks,” she said. “That’s the best. Doing art.”
Each day, students spend about 45 minutes working on formal English-language instruction, then move on to arts and crafts, outdoor activities and other recreation that gets kids moving.
But the entire day is conducted in English and focused on communicating in the language. On Wednesday, for example, Woods led the kindergartners and first-graders into the cafeteria to work on an art project. While giving directions to the students, she held up a paintbrush and asked them to repeat the word, then mimed sitting down while asking them to take their seats.
During the art project, teacher Sheryl Neff helped a student with her painting, pointing to the color of paint and repeating the color’s name.
It goes like that most of the day, Woods said.
“We do lots of pictures and songs and movements to reinforce those holes,” she said. “Just in case they don’t know a word like paintbrush, we’re modeling those.”
At the end of each day, students have a 45-minute Spanish literacy class that is taught by Spanish-speaking parents from the area. Students learn the basics of reading in Spanish, just like they do in English during the school year.
Studies show that students who are literate in their native language have an easier time picking up a second language, like English.
While the camp focuses on English, it’s also about making students comfortable.
“It’s not quite a school environment. We give it a camp atmosphere, and then we’re sneaking in school, but keeping it fun,” Woods said. “It’s important, especially for the kids entering kindergarten. A lot of them are scared to death, and this way they can break the ice and it won’t take the first week or two being too scared to talk.”
The Latino Community Association’s Brad Porterfield, who is overseeing the camp, said the idea stemmed from his teaching experience in Thailand. Each summer, teachers put on English-language camps in rural villages.
Porterfield hopes campers will feel more comfortable entering school in two weeks.
“I want them to be excited about learning and feel comfortable going to school,” Porterfield said. “Especially the kindergartners, who are just learning language skills.”
He’s also hopeful the camp will influence parents to become more involved in the school.
Today, parents are invited to attend camp to see the work their children have done. Community organizations also will be there to talk with parents about the services they can provide.
“We want them to have an opportunity to observe and get a sense of the rhythm of the school,” he said.
Whatever the reason for the camp, Bryan Guevara, 7, said he was having fun.
“I liked drawing the giraffes,” he said. “And painting.”
Sheila G.
Miller
can be reached at 541-617-7831 or at smiller@bendbulletin.com.
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