Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Tuesday, July 07, 2009

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'A Passport to Adventure' summer camp offers six small groups: music club (violin), foreign language club (Chinese), dance and drama club, technology club (computers and photography), art club and book club.

Students from all across town have gathered for an unusual summer camp at William Wells Brown Elementary School, where “A Passport to Adventure” takes them all around the world.

“Kids have the opportunity to ‘travel’ to different countries and experience what it is to live in different places,” said Fabio Zuluaga, a Fayette County elementary schools director who helped design the program. “The main goal of the camp is to enrich, with the ultimate goal of making sure their literacy skills do not regress during the summer.”

The camp offers six small groups: book club, music club (violin), dance and drama club, technology club (computers and photography), foreign language club (Chinese) and art club – all taught by FCPS teachers from various elementary schools. About 60 children from Arlington, Ashland, Booker T. Washington, Harrison and William Wells Brown elementaries are exploring such exciting destinations as Australia, China, Africa and South America.

The clubs focus on a new theme each week. For instance, while studying China, the kids designed travel brochures, practiced a scarf dance, read a folk tale and created paper lanterns.

Three girls who’ve become friends through camp agreed the Chinese component has been one of the neatest experiences.

“They did a lion dance and showed us how to speak Chinese. … The decorations have a meaning. (The people there) like red and yellow and gold,” explained Julianna LeBlanc, a rising fourth-grader at Ashland. “Not everyone has cars. And you can only have one child.”

Ja’Lexus Catlett, who will enter sixth grade at Morton Middle School this fall, proudly displayed the paper lanterns and decorative candleholders she and her fellow campers made. “Learning different languages comes in handy,” she added. “Now I know three languages – Chinese, English and Spanish.”

Ja’Lexus said another favorite is art club, where “I get to express the way I feel in drawing.”

Destiny Marshall, who will be in fourth grade at William Wells Brown, prefers musical pursuits, saying, “I like dancing and singing.” Julianna agreed, saying her favorite club is violin, though she also enjoys drama “because I like to act.”

The children have had myriad opportunities for self-expression during the five-week program, which wraps up in mid-July.

“We really wanted to create an atmosphere of hands-on learning so they have a very productive summer experience,” said Zuluaga, who said the district might expand the program next year.

The camp is a joint effort between Fayette County Public Schools and Lexington’s Parks & Recreation department. Swimming and visits to the public library are weekly activities. There’s no camp on Fridays, when Parks & Rec staff take the children on field trips to interesting places like the Louisville Zoo, The Beach Waterpark and the University of Kentucky’s art museum.

The children are divided into groups of 10 or fewer, and each student spends 45 minutes a day in each club. Ashley Holbrook, the dance and drama teacher at Ashland, and Meredith Dunn, the curriculum coach at Northern, said the small groups add to kids’ comfort level and help create a sense of community where students speak up more freely.

Camp director Cari Boyd, who teaches at Lansdowne, described the program as “phenomenal.” Exposure to new material and new vocabulary keeps students thinking, she said, noting, “It’s that constant daily engagement.”

Boyd likened the camp to a summer arts academy with lots of movement and interaction. “It’s very conducive to what kids enjoy and want to participate in,” she said.