The Final Week at Leap Camp 14

Written by: Esther Kim

Esther Kim taught English in Korea for 3 years and for 8 years after that owned a private after-school education centre in Thornhill, Ontario teaching high school English, K-8 Language Arts, and ESL. She is an Ontario certified teacher, currently working as a supply teacher for TDSB. She has been part of Leacock’s Saturday program at Derrydown Public school since 2013 and taught her first summer LEAP into Literacy at Derrydown Public School in 2014.

Derrydown pouring smoothiesI couldn’t have asked for a better final week. Students collaborated as a unit to help each group member complete his or her task for our film festival project. Students who usually worked slowly, worked fast; students who sometimes have trouble focusing, stayed on task; and even students who hadn’t worked together before, found a way to use their individual qualities to pull together a perfect performance as MC’s for the red carpet film festival for the parents. They memorized their lines, spoke with confidence, and surprised each other with what they could do.

Students also prepared fruit smoothies and fruit kabobs for their parents using local, organic fruits, which they served to parents Derrydown cutting fruitafter they shared their films about sustainable food choices. Students prepared for their parents’ classroom visit by each choosing a role for the day – greeters, ushers, MC’s, and servers. I was truly impressed at how seriously they each took their responsibilities and because of that, we ran a smooth ship on the day parents came to visit!

Students this week participated in a water play day, went to PC cooking school, and had canine visitors (dogs were accompanied by their trainers and behavior therapists!).

The overall camp experience for students are truly treasured moments. The overall camp experience for me . . . well, I’ll just say that I almost cried when the students gave their speech about what it meant for them to be at camp! They learned, made friends, met great teachers, had so much fun, and would do it all over again.

I created a trailer that sums up some of the experiences that students had during this year’s camp. I hope to return next summer!

The Leap Camp ’14 Trailer by Esther Kim: 

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