About a dozen kids spent last Thursday and Friday at the Government Center reading, taking part in activities and doing fun crafts at the Winter Reading Camp, sponsored by Sherburne County 4-H and the Minnesota Reading Corps. It was the first time 4-H tried such a program. It was the idea of Andrea Engelmeyer, a member of the Minnesota Reading Corps and a former 4-H counselor. “I decided to a reading camp to incorporate two things I really enjoy doing - camp and reading,” she says. The goal was to combine reading with related activities and crafts. Engelmeyer says she had to choose books that were appropriate for younger kids and lent themselves to fun activities. “I decided it would be fun to do a book that was also a movie,” she says, “so I looked online and found four books.” She chose two books, one for each day of the camp. The first was Bartholomew and the Oobleck, a Dr. Seuss book about a king who ordered his royal magicians to do something special. “The king wanted something different to fall from the sky, so he gets his magicians to make oobleck, a gooey substance,” she says. “It falls from the sky and makes a terrible mess.” The kids not only read the book, they got to make oobleck using cornstarch, water and food coloring. Later, they read another Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hears a Who and made elephant ears during craft time. The second day of camp, kids wore their pajamas, drank hot chocolate and took a simulated ride to the North Pole while reading Polar Express and watching the movie. Then they sang songs, colored pictures from the book and made reindeer antlers during craft time. Engelmeyer says she originally thought about splitting up the young kids from the older ones, but changed her mind. “I decided it would be more fun to have them together so the older kids could help out,” she says. “It went very well. The kids had a lot of fun.” Sherburne County 4-H Director Joe Rand says the camp went well and the kids really enjoyed themselves. “The parents who dropped their kids off Friday morning said their kids were really tired out from the first day,” he says. “That’s always good when they say they’re worn out at the end of the day.” Rand says the turnout of about a dozen kids from kindergarten through fifth grade was okay, considering it was the first time they tried doing a reading camp - and it was during holiday break. “We decided this would be a good week because the kids would be out of school and the parents don’t have anywhere for them to go,” he says. For a fee of $10 per day or $15 for both days, kids spent the entire day (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) in the Government Center board room. “The fee just covered supplies for crafts and snacks,” says Rand. “We had a donation from the Clear Lake Lions to pay for the books. So all the kids got books to take home, a Dr. Seuss book Thursday and Polar Express Friday.”