Looking for an exciting field-trip location in Colorado? How about Frontier Park, which features a “funny outhouse shaped like a Christmas tree”? Or maybe you’d prefer the “big, dark, noisy, scary power generating station” in Denver?
In “Explore Colorado Kid Style,” a new regional guidebook, 71 Jefferson County students offer their youthful perspectives on the sights to see and places to go in Colorado’s Front Range.
Sponsored by the Westridge Elementary PTA, the book is the fourth in a series published through the school’s summer enrichment program. This summer, 26 teachers received college credit while teaching 4th- through 6th-graders about publishing.
These “mentors” helped to check the accuracy of students’ comments, although they practiced a high degree of tolerance in editing. “We left the candid things in,” says Judy Cozzens, founder of the program.
For example, they spared the interesting observations that the Governor’s Mansion in Denver is “a real big house,” and that a tour of the U.S. Mint inspired in a young visitor “the great urge to take a plunge into the barrels of coins!”
Greater restraint may have been necessary in the description of a chamber pot’s nocturnal function. “In the morning, the children would empty it,” the young author wrote.
The students also rated restaurants, one of which featured a menu that is “low in salt and would be good for everyone, even your grandparents.”
And one budding critic observed that “the best food depends on your palate.”
Copies are available for $8.45 each, including postage and handling, from Explore Colorado Kid Style, P.O. Box 6992, Denver, Colo. 80206.
