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Students at Dixon Elementary had the opportunity to express their creativity and exercise their brains at the "Nature Art 'n' Writing" summer camp July 15-18. The camp focused on exploring nature through activities and using their imagination in writing exercises.

The students searched through nature magazines to find a scene that was interesting to them and wrote a haiku with the scene in mind. A haiku is a Japanese-style poem that contains a total of 17 syllables. Haikus traditionally involve themes of the natural world. 

The students also had the opportunity to make tunnel books out of the nature magazines. Tunnel books use three-dimensional art to tell a story. They are made up of a series of pages that are layered on top of one another and held together by strips of folded paper on each side. From the side, the tunnel book will start looking like an accordion. The overall effect of the tunnel book is to create the illusion of depth and perspective.

Other activities included making animal collages out of pieces of the magazines and making handmade puppets. The students also wrote different skits that they could perform with their puppets to exercise their writing talents.

Emily Freeman from The Missoula Writing Collaborative (MWC) lent her time and experience to volunteer at the camp this year. Freeman earned her Master's in Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota. Throughout her career, she has taught writing to schools, universities, and nonprofits in New York, Minnesota and Montana. The MWC teaches literary competence, critical thinking, cultural awareness and encourages creativity.

Writers from the MWC have been working in classrooms throughout Western Montana since 1994. In those 24 years, the writers have worked with more than 35,000 students. The MWC also partners with Writers in the Schools Alliance, which has literary education programs serving K-12 students and providing professional development for teachers.

Each of the summer camps at Dixon Elementary are Monday through Wednesday in the classroom and Thursday is reserved for a special field trip that follows the camp theme. Students of the Nature Art 'n' Writing camp were treated with a trip Arlee to visit the Hanging Art Gallery and the Jocko River Trout Hatchery.

Nature Art 'n' Writing was the third of four day camps this summer at Dixon Elementary. The first camp was Deciphering Dixon, where students had the opportunity to learn about the rich history of Dixon and explore the community. On the fourth day of camp, the students took a trip up to the "D" in Dixon.

Courtesy Photo

CREATIVE SPARK – Kindergartner Christian Johnson shows off the tunnel book he made from scraps of nature magazines and original artwork.

Science and Me was the second summer camp, allowing students an opportunity to learn about what makes each of them unique. Students used tape and pencils to shade their fingerprints and see how no two are alike. The students also studied the genomes of different monsters and drew pictures of them based on what the genome code indicated about their characteristics. 

The last summer event planned was a Wild Water Adventure camp, which ran July 29-31. Tthe summer ended with a field trip to Splash Montana water park in Missoula on August 1, where kids explored the wonders of water with different activities. 

On Saturday, August 24, Dixon Schools will celebrate 100 years. The event will include tours of the school, older yearbooks on display, a Dixon history presentation, a parade, dance, and plenty of games for kids. There will also be a breakfast at the Dixon Fire Department beginning at 7 a.m. and a buffalo dinner served at the Dixon Senior Center 5-6:30 p.m..