This summer New Haven Reads Summer Literacy Camp was full of learning and fun! With support from the Woman’s Seamen’s Friend’s Society of CT we were able to bring Mystic Aquarium to our Kindergarten and Pre-K camp five times this summer! Students learned about many aquatic animals including penguins, crabs, lobsters, snails, turtles and more. During each visit students learned about a specific animal and its habitat, while getting to touch various live animals! In addition, students brought home a brand new book each week that focused on a sea animal!
When we were not enjoying visits from Mystic Aquarium our rising 1st
graders worked on phonics, sight words, and comprehension each day, while focusing heavily on short vowels and decoding leveled text. While focusing on literacy, we also provided math instruction based on Common Core Kindergarten and 1st grade standards. We also included a variety of art projects and hands- on activities throughout the summer.
Our rising Kindergarten camp ran on a shortened, age appropriate version of the morning schedule. Every day students enjoyed a story, letter of the day instruction, and an art project.
This year we tested our campers in the beginning of camp to gauge their individual starting points and to tailor our instruction to their specific needs. In 5 short weeks, we saw improvement in 100% of our campers in one or more categories! Our rising first graders improved in letter recognition, phonetic spelling, short vowel sounds, consonant sounds, digraphs, and sight word knowledge. In addition, our rising first grade students collectively improved their score in phonetic spelling and short vowel sounds by more than 50%!
66% of our rising kindergarten students made improvements in at least 6 of the following categories: letter identification, letter sounds, book knowledge, concepts of print, and beginning sounds. Collectively our rising kindergarten students improved their letter recognition, letter sounds, book knowledge, and concepts of print by more than 50%!
Ultimately, campers had a great summer experience and learned so much! Our youngest students are ready for kindergarten and first grade this coming school year!
