 The sixth grade class at J.C. Booth Middle took advantage of having the whole school to themselves by participating in the second annual Camp Warrior.
Held two weeks before the start of the new academic year, the camp gives incoming sixth graders an opportunity to get acquainted with each other, find their way around the building, and learn all there is to know about their new school.
A total of 300 out of the 340 sixth graders enrolled at Booth attended. Campers were divided into four tribes, Apalachee, Oconee, Muskogee and Cherokee. The tribal groups participated in a scavenger hunt to help them become familiar with the school, worked collaboratively on tasks to build relationships, practiced opening lockers, and learned from other students about how to be successful in middle school.
Twenty-five of Booth’s 8th grade student ambassadors in the Warrior Blazer program assisted with the camp. Ambassador Marguerite Stonier thinks the camp is a great way to ease anxiety during the first week of school.
"Giving the students a sense of familiarity, the camp helps them grow accustomed to their new school. They meet new faces and have new friends before the first day,” she says.
Thanks to Booth’s business partners, the expenses of the camp were covered by donations. Each camper received a T-shirt plus school supplies, including a binder, dividers, pencil pouch, and colored pencils. The school’s business partners that helped sponsor the camp are Ajako, Inc., Camden Apartments, Club Z In-Home Tutoring, Explosive Mechanics, Grace Harbor, Huntington Learning Center, Mahaffey Orthodontics, Mathnasium, PTC Orthodontics, TCBY of Peachtree City, Urban Jungle, and Younglife/Wyldlife of Fayette County.
School counselors Terese Benefield and Lynda Manwaring developed the camp to help ease the natural anxieties students have when transitioning from elementary to middle school.
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