There’s been a lot of fun going on at Dent Elementary the last two weeks where Escalon schools have been hosting the Great Valley Writing Camp. This for-credit CSU Stanislaus sponsored program is all about writing.

“While the theme of the camp for teachers is using mentor text to teach writing, the focus for the students is to be immersed in writing: writing to learn, writing for fun, writing to process information,” explained Coordinator Sally Hale.

The younger group of kindergarten through fourth grade students has been studying Garden Friends and Foes.

“They have a wormery in the corner of the room; there’s a ladybug house on the counter; there are slugs and snails in terrariums and various insects in their own little homes around the room,” Hale noted. “Students are writing poems and descriptions and charts and stories about friends and foes of the Dent School Garden.”

On a recent camp day, they were painting rocks.

The fifth through seventh graders are creating multi-genre reports. Each student has chosen their own topic to learn more about and been researching while they are introduced to many different types of writing that can be used to share what they have learned, Hale said. Topics range from camping to Wyoming to Walt Disney and the Beatles; products range from poems to interviews to letters of inquiry and more.

“Putting together the online anthology is a team of three Escalon High students who work under the leadership of a high school graphic design teacher. They do an amazing job building the anthology website and do all the photography,” added Hale.

Participating Escalon teachers are Mykel Campbell, Jayme Lueck, Elizabeth Stone, Rene Taro, Amanda Gutierrez-Taylor, and Nathan Caton. Leaders are teacher-consultants with the Great Valley Writing Project and include Dent teacher Nicole Harp, as well as Cassie Gregory, Sally Hale, Leslie McCoy, and Kerry Teicheira.

Teachers and students have issued an invitation to the Escalon community to their Great Valley Writing Camp Open House, set for Friday, July 28 from 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., on the Dent Elementary School campus. Students will be sharing their work and there will be light refreshments.