Day 6

Week 2 of camp got off to a great start as today was indeed a good day. I like the days in which everything seems to be in sync and today was one of those days. Today's theme was: Respect. First, Evan introduced an art activity that he learned in school. The night before, he had used a rectangle of 12 pieces of paper to draw the outline of a giant picture of The Lorax. Then each camper got one of the pieces of paper and filled it in with designs using colored pencils. When they finished their designs (or after 20 minutes, whichever came first) the campers put the "puzzle" together to see the picture. None of them had heard of the Lorax before so they thought the picture was of a walrus living in some sort of strange tree. No one could explain why the walrus would be in the tree though so they were a bit confused. Then I explained that the "walrus" was actually a character in a story that we were going to read. So, after a rousing game of dodgeball at recess, Tanya read the story of The Lorax out loud and we talked about how we need to protect our environment--the central theme of the story. Then we gave each camper a small cardboard pot and had them plant a sunflower seed in it before they left for the day. I told the campers that they were actually planting the seed from one of the trees in The Lorax, but I don't think they believed me (Of course, Tanya winking at the campers while I was telling them this didn't help matters. Otherwise I think they would've believed me don't you think?)
On our walk home from school, Tanya asked me if she thought the campers had "got" the story. I told her I wasn't sure. The grand theme of the camp is to show the campers that they have to take care of their community, of their environment, else it become a place that they don't want to live (as in The Lorax), but this idea is somewhat new here in the d.r. and I'm not sure the campers are at a place where they can hear this theme and understand what it means for them. My hope is that we are planting a seed (metaphor intended) in the minds of the campers that will grow as they do.

On a Paris family note... My kids had a great day. Evan designed the whole Lorax art activity and even explained how to do it to the campers(In English with me translating, but nonetheless...) and Camila, for the first time wrote her reflections on the day in Spanish. In fact, she even went back and translated to Spanish the reflections that she wrote last week. I'm extremely proud of them both.

-josh


For more photos goto: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52880198@N04/