PUTNAM COUNTY
Putnam County’s Summer Inspiration Program keeps children busy during the summer months and continues to teach them practical skills in a fun and engaging way. Rising kindergarteners to second graders in the Happy Little Gardeners camp learned how to grow their own vegetables.
Young gardeners planted watermelons, tomatoes, squash, and carrots.
They also were taking care of plants that members of the Garden Club, a club for second graders at Putnam County Primary School, planted during the school year.
They planted seeds using little shovels and watered them using little homemade watering jugs.
“We are working in the garden, and we are also learning about healthy eating habits,” class teacher Amy Babb said.
All crops the campers had grown were distributed among them at the camp to enjoy later at home.
At another camp, Trash to Treasure, students in kindergarten through first grade learned that with a little bit of creativity, someone’s trash may be turned into a treasure.
“It’s an art class. We take things that are normally thrown away and turn them into art,” Tina Fortson, the teacher for this camp, said.
In one activity, campers made pencil holders out of tin cans and woven pipe cleaners that were glued to the outside of the cans. In previous weeks, they made dollhouses and dolls out of cardboard boxes, wind chimes out of Gatorade bottles, as well as rocket ships, cars, and spinners.
“I got the idea of these projects looking online,” Fortson said. “You know how kids play with the box quicker than they play with the toy? I like art, too.”