“The camp is a great opportunity for the students to learn a little more English, become a little more familiar with school routines, numeracy, literacy, co-operating — all through play and hands-on activities,” said McGinn. Camp SAIL (Summer Adventures in Learning) is a cozy group of just 15 students, who are helped by Arabic translator Intisar Al-Pachachi, an Iraqi-born basketball coach whom the kids call “Miss A.”

With each question they answer in English (How many tomatoes do we need? “Six!”), each trip to the local splash pad, each visit from a Canadian artist, the camp helps these children of upheaval find a footing in school, in English, in Canadian life.

“The ultimate goal of the camp,” said McGinn, “is for them to really understand this is their school.”

Summer literacy camps have been shown to help students avoid the “summer slide” — forgetting what they’ve learned. More and more school boards across North America offer them free in high-needs neighbourhoods.

So the idea made sense for Syrian refugee students across the GTA, many of whom have had little if any formal schooling.

“We encourage them to write in Arabic as well; it helps with language development,” said McGinn. “They have had such varied experience with school; some write in Arabic, some can read but not write in Arabic, others can’t read or write Arabic. At our school we like students to be able to speak many languages.”

It has made a dramatic difference in the Syrian children’s English skills, noted “Miss A.”

“When I first started, many didn’t understand almost anything, but now they seem to understand about 80 per cent of what they hear because every day we spend seven hours together.”

The Toronto District School Board is running a four-week day camp for 37 Syrian teens at Marc Garneau Collegiate, in partnership with the local Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Centre. They do language activities for three hours in the morning and take field trips each afternoon to places like City Hall and the Art Gallery of Ontario, said principal Alisa Cashore.

“It’s been amazing; they were learning to tell jokes one morning in English,” she said. They learn a word of the day “and continue acclimatizing themselves to belonging here in Toronto, and Canada.”

Not that integration is always smooth.

When the Syrian students in Mississauga brought bowls of tabbouleh to share with other day campers in the building, some cast a wary eye at the chopped green mixture. But earlier, the Syrian children had their own encounter with novel food when they stopped at the grocery store lobster tank and watched an employee lift a live sample out of the water for them to see.

It looks like an insect,” said one student in Arabic.

“Is it halal?” asked another, in English.

Metro cashier Christine Jeffries caught the spirit of this cultural adventure, and held up a bag of lemons.

“What are these?” she asked the little group of shoppers.

“Lay-mons!” came the reply.

“How many?” Fletcher continued.

“Five!”

As they left, Fletcher smiled: “How fantastic.”

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KIDS EXPRESS THEIR FEELINGS:

• Malak Alnajar, 9:

Why did she write “I Love Canada” on the blackboard? “Because Canada is peace,” she said through interpreter “Miss A.” Malak comes from Daraa, Syria, which has been at the heart of some of the worst fighting.

“She says she is happy to move away from the problems,” said Miss A. “And she liked going to the lakeshore here. It’s safe here, but it’s not safe back in Syria.”

Malak’s goal is to try to read a book in English every day, to improve her English.

• Shahed Saad Al Haj, 9:

“What do I like best? Have fun! Play!” she told Miss A in Arabic, and the adults aren’t surprised. For refugees, fun and play are among the casualties of war, so become some of the first activities it is important to reclaim. Shahed comes from Damascus, where she said she saw war planes flying overhead before they left.

“Now I like drawing, and learning to count — I can count to 100 in English!”

• Nour El Din Al Sabbagh, 8:

Nour is one the more confident English-speakers in the camp; he learned a fair bit while at school in Lebanon, so comes out with sentences, often unprompted. When he had chopped parsley on his fingers, he announced: “Miss — look; my hands look like my Mom’s hands!” The Damascus native also enjoyed planting kidney beans in soil at the day camp, and bragged to a visitor “Yesterday my plant is 19 centimetres tall!” He has planted roots, literally, in Canada.

• Kusai Alzoubi, 9:

Kusai, who also is from Daraa in Syria, says he enjoyed the camp’s visit to a nearby splash pad.

“We do have them back home but you have to pay,” he said in Arabic through Miss A. “So they’re only for rich people.”

“I’ve made a lot of friends here. At camp, I learn English and more math. It’s an easy country, Canada. It’s easy to learn.”

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SYRIAN REFUGEES BY THE NUMBERS:

• 29,207: Total number of Syrian refugees who have arrived in Canada since Nov. 4, 2015.

• 306: Communities across Canada that are welcoming refugees, not including those in Quebec.

• 17,523: Refugee resettlement applications in progress.

• 2,479: Refugee applications that have been finalized, but they have not yet travelled to Canada.

• 16,025: Number of government assisted refugees who have already arrived.

• 10,417: Number of privately sponsored refugees who have arrived in Canada.c