The icy weather could not dampen the spirits of the 2010 Reading Camp held once again out at Assegaai Trails in June.
The icy weather could not dampen the spirits of the 2010 Reading Camp held once again out at Assegaai Trails in June.
Eighteen children from 10 different primary schools around Grahamstown enjoyed the week of a lifetime. They had so much fun learning about phonics, encoding and decoding words, comprehension, reading strategies, writing strategies and most of all: reading for pleasure.
All this ‘serious stuff’ happened through games and fun activities while vocabulary banks increased in leaps and bounds through interactions with enthusiastic and vibrant young counsellors from four different high schools.
The teachers were motivated and innovative and came from various backgrounds. It was particularly exciting to have four Rhodes PGCE students helping out this year.
Basil Mills organised the afternoon activities, telling the children about amazing experiences from meeting author Marguerite Poland, hiking, getting close to a python and telling wonderful stories about our local history.
Kariega Game Reserve very generously treated our campers and volunteers to a game drive creating memories that are still being treasured a month after the camp.
Nashua provided a copier for the teachers and organisers to run an effi cient camp; Wallace’s Pharmacy helped us combat the dreaded ‘flu with a generous donation of essential ‘muti’ for the camp nurse, Mary Jane Amick, who once again joined us from Lextington, Kentucky, USA (the founder centre of Reading Camp together with the brothers from the Holy Cross monastery, uMama Mariya weThemba Monastery).
Gadra education helped with reading books for the campers. Pam Golding provided a soccer ball to help the campers keep up with the World Cup spirit and the many volunteers who helped so selfl essly – all this made a camp to remember and the organisers feel it has now really been established as an annual event to be supported and nurtured for many years to come.
