My daughter just spent the week at a summer camp being held in a local school district's elementary school. It was called "Camp Invention" and is part of a national chain of camps.

My daughter was really excited about her experience there: they worked in collaborative groups, they brainstormed and built, they took apart dead appliances to scavenge for parts, they learned about Newton's first and second laws and built a roller coaster for marbles, they learned about landfills and recycling... all in all, it was an exciting week for her.

In school (first grade) she was drilled on phonics, practiced math facts on worksheets (with bubbles to fill in no less), was given a Junie B. Jones book because it's "challenging" (she can read one of those in about 30-40 minutes)...

So, has anyone seen a school that's more like her camp and less like her school? Do these even exist at the elementary level? Or is everything about butts-in-seats?

Yes, we found a school like this and were all set to send DD - then we found out about major LD issues. Our district won't provide the needed special ed services there and this private - as wonderful as it is - isn't in a position to help with those needs. So they are out there - not easy to find and if like this one very expensive. If not for the LD issues we would have enrolled her in a heartbeat.

Just for example - one classroom had a full size teepee - authentically made for their study of native american culture, another had a chicken coop containing the now full grown chickens that had started as eggs in the classroom. Experiential learning, no drilling on facts, encouraging each child to explore their interests at their pace in their way. I don't know if you will find a public school that can do this, though. They all seem to be driven by numbers and test results.

On the subject of Junie B. Jones: a mom friend of mine commented that she hates these books because she thinks Junie is, um, a brat. I flipped through one out of curiosity and found a few grammatical errors, like incomplete sentences. (My grammar isn't perfect, but really - if we're going to include books in the school curriculum, shouldn't they at least have complete sentences in them?) I've seen other books on the Scholastic List that make me cringe as well... but that's a topic for another thread, lol.

Anyway.

In response to the original post, the only schools I've heard of that are like Staceychev's daughter's camp are the private ones that unfortunately cost $$$...

our district has a continuim of gifted services beginning in 3rd grade. before that they do what amounts to ability grouping by subjects within team taught classes. for instance two or four classes in a grade are clustered. there will be multiple reading groups, language arts, even science and math. the math is mostly enrichment but acceleration begins in 3rd grade.
at third grade kids can test into a gifted magnent, which is basically upper 1-3% but there is a very broad rubric with multiple parameters that give points. it includes ability testing, achievement testing, classroom performance, teacher and parent questionaire about gifted traits. and a few othr things. They also have an appeal process if kids dont get in intitally. they will consider additional information such as private testing, IQ scores etc. Kids with close scores can also get a test run at it for a semester. its alot more work than the regular curriculum so kids often dont like it if they are not really gifted. but on the other hand highly motivated achievers can be successful in the magnent.
but the home schools all have honors tracks and cluster the top 10% kids in those classes ( based on the same rubric for the magnent). and kids that are just strong in math or in reading/LA can be in accelerated classes for just a single subject.
they have to qualify again for middle school. it is also magnent and home school clusters based. the middle school kids do the state curriculum, the honors curriculum and a project based gifted curricum on top of that. its alot of work and some kids that qualify stay at the cluster based in their home schools. All kids that qualify on the rubric or in appeal are served. class sizes vary every year. class sizes are much larger in the magnent than the regular schools though. funding has been cut in the last few years so material costs have been greatly reduced and field trips etc. but the structure remains intact.

DS6 goes to a charter school here that focuses on STEM and, while they did still have some drill (which obviously SOME kids need, just not MY particular kid), they are very hands on oriented. They never MAKE anything, they ENGINEER it (and are very clear about the steps in the process). They spend time outdoors and learning from the environment every day (even in our harsh winters) and try to do as much 'real world' learning as possible. It hasn't been perfect by any means, but K went MUCH better than we would have expected in the public schools here.

My children attend a public school which is based around enquiry learning and multiage large groups with multiple teachers which are divided into smaller groups according to need. But we are in Australia.

I'm guessing you're in America, so I'm sorry, I don't have much knowledge about your options - BUT I attended a Montessori elementary school and am a great believer in the method. The ideal Montessori is what you describe, and - at least in the UK - there are 2 (independent) partially state-funded elementary schools and a handful of preschools...

Yes, I am in the US. New Jersey, to be exact.