It was an intense two weeks, yet also low key.
Students took to the Chromebooks for the Great Valley Writing Camp, hosted at Van Allen Elementary School, closing out the summer program with an Open House celebration for family and friends on Friday, July 26.
Theme for this year was the Olympics – past and present – and the timing of the Open House actually coincided with a livestream of the Opening Ceremonies for the 2024 Games being hosted in Paris, France.
“It’s always fun, this is so low key but it’s such a good experience for them because they’re organically coming up with their own topics, which gives their writing a lot more authenticity,” Camp Director Sally Hale said of the students. “We give them a theme, but within that theme, they’re free.”
Hale said the Olympics was a natural fit for this year’s camp and the kids enjoyed exploring the different cities that have hosted the Games in the past, as well as delving more deeply into the sports themselves.
Hale praised the work of high school volunteers that worked with the younger students to showcase their writing.
“They’re amazing, they just kind of came in and took over, basically they are the photographers,” Hale explained of the high schoolers. “They do all the photography work and they put the website (displaying student work) together.”
Several teachers from the district were on hand to lead the two different age groups.
Ten students were in the class for those going into TK up to third grade, with 11 students in the group going into fourth through seventh grades.
Teacher Cassie Gregory said the groups had different activities based on age.
“Primarily with the writing program, we work on putting a lot of input in for the kids,” Gregory explained, with several presenters coming in this year to talk about a variety of sports from bicycling to water polo to equestrian events. “So this year, instead of just relying on books and the Internet, we had experts … all competitors.”
Sharing their work with family and friends during the Open House, seven-year-old Grayson Jefferson had an extra special connection to the Olympics, as his grandfather, George Papadopoulos, served on the security detail for the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece.
“I was there for five weeks; it was very interesting,” Papadopoulos said. “I got to see all of the gymnastics, men and women, saw the basketball finals, when we weren’t working, we were free to see whatever events we wanted to.”
He also said as security workers, they were given credentials which allowed them to access public transportation and visit many of the sites around Athens, free of charge. Papadopoulos said he was able to visit family in Greece while there, after the Games concluded, and it’s an experience he will never forget.
Grandson Jefferson said his favorite sport is archery and he enjoyed writing stories on his Chromebook as part of the camp.
Kaili Featherstone, 10, listed fencing as her favorite sport and friend Olivia Vermeulen, 11, said the best part of camp was learning new things.
Making a visit to the Open House on Friday was San Joaquin County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Troy Brown. He was impressed with the overall camp experience, the caliber of work created by the campers, and the high level of expertise provided by the teaching staff and assistants.
“This is amazing, just talking to the kids, one of them was talking about equestrians, one was talking about gymnastics; these are seven-year-olds telling me about that, so just seeing the level of learning that comes about because of this program is just fantastic,” Brown said. “The more reading and writing we can get our kids doing early, we’ll change communities so I love that we were invited out to this and any support we can provide, for sure, we’re there. And I love the other piece to this too, with the high school students working on a website, that’s a great skill development for them as well.”
Hale said the writing camp was definitely a success and she is looking forward to returning next summer for another two-week session.
