About This Activity
Campers grow their love of reading and writing through garden science, nature journaling, art, games, and more. Our young scientists sharpen their powers of inquiry as they observe, document, and explore both language and nature. Hesitant readers and writers thrive in this nurturing environment by using their literacy skills for meaningful activities like reading about the life cycle of worms in order to find information we need to care for our worm bin and then writing a hilarious worm story. Campers blossom into garden scientists as they explore the natural world in the St. Paul’s Episcopal School courtyard gardens and regular excursions to the diverse habitats of the Gardens at Lake Merritt. This is not just reading camp or writing camp - children will exercise their bodies as well as their brains on the playground and in Lake Merritt's wide-open fields. Our East Bay reading camp is offered in one-week sessions for your family’s scheduling convenience but campers are encouraged to attend more than one session. Returning campers build on their experience while exploring new themes including pollinators, life cycles, adaptation, bugs, “plants we eat,” and our own 5 senses. With curiosity as our guide, we explore both nature and words - in Words in the Wild reading is an adventure! Note that St. Paul’s offers early drop off and after-camp care AND a variety of other camps (e.g. art, basketball) for siblings. Campers will: Grow their love of reading and writing through nature-y and camp-y activities that embed structured literacy learning Improve spelling and reading, expand vocabulary, and deepen reading comprehension through science of reading activities embedded in nature Investigate words in context, practice phonological and phonemic awareness and explore stories of words through Structured Word Inquiry Draw, write, count, and study plants and animals through guided nature journaling
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