PERRYVILLE STUDENTS LEARN FITNESS AT SUMMER CAMP

PERRYVILLE -- He may hate math, but Chad Lankford, 10, is excited to be in summer school.

After two weeks of sleeping late and trips to the pool, 360 Perry County school children are returning to the classroom -- by choice.

"The students have been out of school for two weeks and a lot of them are ready to come back and do something," said Jennifer Streiler, program director. "The kids are getting bored with watching TV, and with the weather having been chillier many of them don't go to the pool much."

Perryville Elementary School's summer school program began Monday and runs through June 27.

Each summer teachers and the director work together to formulate a central theme on which to focus the camp's curriculum. In 1994, Camp Curiosity explored science. Camp Enterprise incorporated business into the 1995 and 1996 summer schedules.

This year, Fitness Camp '97 administers a dose of information on health, the human body and living a healthy lifestyle.

Students take part in more than 20 scheduled activities ranging from touring Perry County Memorial Hospital, the PCMH Outreach Van and the LifeBeat helicopter, to practicing their golf swing at a driving range, visiting an art museum and roller skating.

"Students are not just going to learn about physical fitness, they are going to learn about things that are going to get them up, outside and moving," Streiler said.

The program is free to all students. The state reimburses the school for each student who attends. This summer, PCMH and Perryville Family Care Clinic are paying for a part-time nurse to monitor students who are on regular medication.

Fitness Camp '97 shows children that summer has the potential to be more than a couch, a bag of Cheetos and Nintendo computer games.

"One of the main goals is to expose students to activities they haven't experienced or don't do regularly," she said. "Many of the kids have never been to an art museum or held a fishing pole."

To remedy this, the Missouri Department of Conservation donated some fishing poles. A fishing trip to Legion Lake in Perryville was planned.

Fitness Camp '97 is separated into morning and afternoon activities. In the morning an array of office tours and guest speakers including physicians, eye doctors, orthodontists, dietitians and police officers constitute the academic part of the curriculum.

The objective is to teach students about their bodies, how they work and how the community relates to their fitness and wellbeing, Streiler said.

Since nutrition is a major focus of health, Ellen Meyer, a fourth-grade teacher, will work with her students to pick a healthy snack, make a list of its ingredients and help the children buy food at a grocery store. Students will prepare the snack in the classroom.

"By learning how to eat better, students will learn how to stay fit, healthy and in shape inside the body," Meyer said.

In the afternoon, students are divided into three groups: literature, the fine arts and physical education. From books to art to exercise, students learn about teamwork and that wellness involves the whole person.

The last day students will participate in a fitness carnival where they can spend carnival tickets they earned daily for attendance, punctuality, teamwork, team spirit and good sportsmanship.

The tickets can be used at booths organized by each classroom. Booths will feature physical challenges like bean-bag tosses, miniature golf and bowling. One class will borrow a police radar to record how fast the children can kick a soccer ball.

Family members who attend can participate in the carnival's activities with a matching envelope of their child's tickets.

Natalie Bachmann, 10, knows she will have a lot of fun spending her tickets at the carnival and going on all the field trips. But she realizes it is important to get something out of these three weeks at Fitness Camp '97.

"If you want to become a doctor, if you are in a car wreck or want to keep from getting sick, it is still important to know about health and the body," she said.