Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

RADILIH KOE'/FORT GOOD HOPE
Youth in Fort Good Hope are spending three weeks participating in a special summer camp for the first time this year, said organizer Lael Kronick.

Hendrick Drybones shows off his work in his daily journal during Literacy Camp in Fort Good Hope earlier this month. - photo courtesy of Lael Kronick

Frontier College's Aboriginal Summer Literacy Camps, which take place across Canada every summer, was launched in Fort Good Hope for the first time on July 29.

Kronick said the camp’s goals are to promote literacy and to keep kids learning over their summer vacations so they’ll be better prepared to start school again in the fall.

“The main objective is to help prevent summer learning loss and to make reading and writing fun,” she said. “Sometimes in summer, there is no reading or writing happening and a lot of skills they learned during the school year starts to deteriorate. It makes the transition back to school that much harder.”

About 30 youths from ages five to 12 are participating in the camp, which runs every weekday from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. at Chief T’Selehye School. Breakfast and lunch are provided to the campers.

Kronick said the Yamoga Land Corporation and the territorial Department of Education, Culture and Employment provided funding for the camp and the district education authority made the school available.

Kronick said the camp has been so popular, organizers had to create a waiting list for kids hoping to participate. Summer students and volunteers are running the camp.

“It’s been a very successful program,” she said. “We have some kids on a waiting list. We don’t have enough staff and facilities. There is lots of interest from the community.”

The morning begins with a story that is read aloud to the campers before activities begin, Kronick said.

“The idea is to incorporate literacy and numeracy into all of the activities,” she said. “We start every day reading a story together and base the day on themes from that book.”

One of the main events is cooking class, where everyone takes turn reading recipes and ingredient lists.

Kronick said cooking is an ideal way to promote reading and comprehension.

“There are a lot of literacy skills involved in that,” she said. “It’s a great way to show how literacy is incorporated into your everyday activities. Most of what we’re cooking is related to the books we’re reading.”

Twelve-year-old Melina Tobac said cooking is one of her favourite camp activities. So far, she has learned how to make blueberry muffins and watermelon coloured Rice Krispies square treats.

“I didn’t know how to make blueberry muffins at first and watermelon Rice Krispies,” she said. “We just used food colouring, green for the outside and red for the inside.”

Kronick said the camp also incorporates traditional activities, such as going on the land with elders to pick the blueberries that were later used in the muffins.

Campers read the book Blueberries for Sal before heading out.

In addition to cooking, Tobac said she is enjoying looking at arts and crafts books and creating some of the ideas featured in the books. She has already made paper doll window decorations.

“They go on the window for everyone to see,” she said.

Participants also get to do conventional summer camp activities, such as going swimming.

The camp will finish up on Aug. 16, but Kronick said she hopes it will continue next year.

She said the group is looking at ways to ensure more kids will be able to participate.

“We’re hoping next summer to run it earlier on and maybe have two sessions so more kids can be involved,” she said.

If it runs next year, Tobac said she would be one of the first to sign up.

“It’s fun,” she said.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.