It isn't summer school. It's summer camp.
It's going to be fun, says Kelvin Colliar, superintendent of curriculum and instruction with Light of Christ Catholic School Division, of four literacy camps to be held this summer.
Colliar says Light of Christ and Living Sky School Divisions are working together for the summer project. Funding of $20,000 each has been made available by the Ministry of Education.
Colliar said recently, "We want to turn kids on to reading."
It will be an opportunity to plant seeds to grow a love of learning, he added.
The camps are not aimed at children who need extra help, but at fostering a love of reading, said Colliar. There will be activities designed to engage children in reading, and perfect attendance will earn children one book per day of the camp to take home.
Colliar is working on the project with Joanne Kasper, language and literacy consultant with Living Sky. Two camp leaders have been hired, each with Bachelor of Education degrees - Elaine Fischer and Ellen Chomey - and a camp counsellor, Richard Cameron, has also been hired. They attended a training session in Prince Albert prior to the camps.
The camps will run until July 29 at McKitrick School, with one camp in the morning aimed at children from Grades 1 to 3, and another in the afternoon for children in Grade 4 to 6. Two more camps will run at St. Mary School from Aug. 2 through 19.
Each of the four camps can accommodate 30 to 35 children, says Colliar, and the registration is free, on a first come first saved basis. Information has gone out through all the schools.
Children can expect to take part in excursions throughout the community as part of the activity planned for the camps.
"It will really enhance the summer for the kids," said Colliar.
He hopes the project could become an annual one.
The camps fall under a provincial government announcement that they will provide $560,000 in one-time funding to support summer literacy camps in 20 communities in 2011, the second year that the summer literacy camps are to be held in communities throughout Saskatchewan.
In announcing the funding, Education Minister Donna Harpauer said, "Improving literacy among Saskatchewan youth will help them succeed and become future leaders in their communities. This funding will assist in delivering a camp experience that children will benefit from for years."?
Working in partnership with local school divisions, Frontier College, the Saskatchewan Aboriginal Literacy Network, the Pahkisimon Nuye?áh Library System, local communities and private donors, this funding will support the literacy camp.
"We are thrilled with the province's announcement to support the aboriginal summer literacy camps and to continue our work with the local school divisions," Frontier College president Sherry Campbell said.
"This funding will help us build on successes from 2010 where over 670 kids participated in fun, interactive, learning camp activities and continue over 100 years of Frontier College literacy innovation in Saskatchewan."
In addition to Light of Christ and Living Sky, camps will take place in 20 communities in the Creighton, Ile-a-la-Crosse, Northern Lights and Prairie Valley school divisions.
One camp project partner, Frontier College, operates a variety of literacy programs in locations across Canada.
As Canada's original literacy organization, Frontier College has been recruiting dedicated volunteers to work with Canadian children, youth and adults from coast to coast since 1899.
