Hanging out in the camp-room

Danette Goulet

The children sat around what appeared to be a roaring fire, under a

sea of floating stars and sang out the words to the book “The Bear Went

Over the Mountain.”

Monday was their first day at Whittier Elementary School’s Camp

Read-A-Lot in Costa Mesa.

When they got off the bus at 8 a.m., the nearly 50 campers started by

singing camp songs before they split into groups and headed off to

different “cabins.”

One group stayed in the multipurpose room, where they worked on

creating a play of one of the stories they’ve read, such as “Little Red

Hen” or the “Tortoise and the Hare.” They’ll perform them at the end of

the two-week camp.

Another gaggle of campers headed off to the camp resource room for

structured reading.

In the library “forest,” campers split into two groups. One went off

to read a chapter from a book about dolphins, and the other joined Jan

Marquardt, the teacher who runs the library at Whittier, around the

campfire.

All around them the room was positively transformed.

In the center of camp was a huge waterfall. It began near the ceiling

with two colors of crinkled blue construction papers leading down to a

plateau of rippling, slick blue plastic with a scattering of rocks.

It then dropped off again with a blue tarp and iridescent streamers,

which flowed to the floor. At the base of the waterfall, plants and rocks

and pools of real water completed the look. Bigger rocks, or miniature

boulders, were also set up for campers to sit on while they read and put

their feet in the water.

A crumpled brown construction paper path strewn with rocks led from

the waterfall, past the campfire and between picnic tables, tall fake

trees and colorful pup tents.

After campers finished reading “The Bear Went Over the Mountain”

around the campfire, they scattered, grabbing new books and scrambling

into the tents to read. Then it was over to the tables to write a

sentence in their books about the story.

“Mmmm . . . mmmm . . . ow . . . ow,” said Andrew Reyes, 8, who was

determined to sound out the word “mountain” for his sentence.

Then, like at all good camps, the chow bell rang, signaling that it

was time for some grub.

“Maybe they’ll give you some bug juice,” Marquardt said, gaining

immediate groans of disgust from children.

* SCHOOL’S OUT is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Danette Goulet visits a summer camp within the Newport-Mesa area

and writes about her experience.