Wet and Wild II! & Camp BLOWOUT!

Our final week of camp was definitely "Wetter and Wilder" and TONS of fun! With trips to Piedmont Park and "The Beach" at Clayton International Park, and today's End of Summer Camp Blow Out, our campers had fun in the sun, playing games, spending time with friends, and creating memories we hope your children with cherish forever! Please view some of those memories from this week here:
 and from today's Camp Blow Out here: The children truly enjoyed the water slide, bouncy house and our cook out! Again, thank you for choosing to be a part of The Children's School and Camp Discovery this year! We value your input and ask you to complete our camp evaluation here. This includes Innovator's Playground and Summer Bridge. Thank you and we hope to see you next summer!

Wet and Wild I!

Camp Discovery had a BLAST during "Wet And Wild Week!" It was a hot and humid week, but our campers kept cool with fun at Piedmont Park, Browns Mill Aquatic Center, and an amazing time at Funopolis Family Fun Center...the children and the staff) didn't want to leave!

TCS Summer Bridge session 3!

Session 3 TCS Summer Bridge Our second/third grade Friday’s project was to create a travel brochure of a place they visited this summer. Alan Pickens thought the project was awesome because "we can draw, write and let our minds go wild." Lily Brown and Joseph Smith enjoyed it because they remembered all the fun times they had.

Rising second graders spent the week practicing adding three 1-digit numbers and utilized mathematical language such as "4 threes" and "2 groups of 5" to describe equal groups of numbers. Students also played "Addition Top-It" to reinforce addition skills. In Language Arts, students worked on short and long vowel sounds and practiced grade-level sight words.

During Session 3 of TCS Summer Bridge, the kindergarten and first students shared their ideas and thoughts of what Friday’s project should encompass. Several students decided they wanted to make banks for saving money. They made a plan of what materials were needed and they had a clear creative acumen of how to proceed. When asked, “Why do you want to create banks?” The answers were filled with selflessness compassion. “To help other children who are not happy be happy,” “To help homeless people” and “To buy my friends a birthday gift if they had a birthday” are a few of the amazing responses. It was only fitting for these progressive learners, who expanded their thinking to the community, to listen to the story "The Tooth" written by Avi Slodovnick. What an amazing thought provoking read for youngsters. Enjoy!

Camp Discovery presents: Project Blueprint

"Project Blueprint" was a fun-filled week of exploration through engineering, design and architecture. Camp Discovery took a trip on Tuesday to the INK Museum (Interactive Neighborhood for Kids), where campers discovered the different buildings and businesses that create a neighborhood. On Thursday, campers made a visit to LEGOLAND to work on their building and design skills. From the Innovator's Playground perspective, the children focused on building for the future. On Tuesday, Innovator's Playground visited the Museum Of Design Atlanta (MODA) to learn about the Beltline Project and begin their discussion about possible future uses for the Turner field area. They then visited the old Fulton County Stadium site and Turner Field to get an idea of the size of the space and to get a feel for the community around it. From that experience, students imagined what the re-development of the area might look like. By collaborating, compromising and working as a team, they built two different models of what the Turner Field area might become. Though the specifics of their two models differ, all the students agreed on the importance of green space, pedestrian access and sustainability. Camp Discovery and Innovator's Playground joined together on Friday in the gym to present their creations within "Box City." Thank you to everyone who came by for a visit and we hope you enjoyed your children's visions!

Actor's Studio play!

Camp Discovery presents: Actors Studio and Summer Bridge!

During this week of "The Actor's Studio, Jr. and All the World's a Stage," students learned about theater, stage and ensemble skills. We started by creating various characters and statues. Then we worked on several types of mime. Using those two basics as a platform, we created our week. The students used their characters and mime skills to create movement in a song. All the students were cast in a short theater scene where they learned the WHO, WHERE, WHAT and WHY of a scene. They memorized their lines and practiced working as an ensemble to provide energy and support to their fellow castmates. We also played a number of improv games to help the children learn the importance of teamwork. Camp Discovery had a blast during Thursday's trip to the Center for Pupperty Arts, where they saw "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type," and had an opportunity to create their own puppets! Our week culminated with a fantastic group performance in the gym, featuring a medley of beloved classic plays. It's been a great week of exploration, energy and FUN! During the second session of Summer Bridge, first graders continued to explore Singapore Math, finding number stories exciting. They drew, wrote and acted out stories and then played teacher to demonstrate number sentences. First graders also enjoyed their first “math puzzles.”

Dawn & Dianne's 2nd and 3rd graders read the story “But Martin” by June Counsel. It's about an alien called Martin who goes to school. The children then used recycled materials to make their own space aliens. After an incredibly productive brainstorming session of all the things they could tell someone about their alien. The 2nd and 3rd graders wrote their own descriptive piece of writing about their alien using lots of juicy adjectives.

Emotions of pride and nostalgia were running high with Nicole and Wilma during Summer Bridge. TCS alumni Nicole Segal and Wilma worked with a kindergartener/first grade combination during the second session of Summer Bridge. The encouraging process and terminology used with kindergarteners and first graders to support letter formation and identification, reminded Nicole of why TCS remains a special part of her life’s journey. On the last day of Nicole’s internship with the Summer Bridge program, the happy and engaged students made birds with clay and painted brilliantly colored bird houses. We experience amazing symbolism reflected on that day, as we send our students off with wings to fly and they choose to return.

Camp Discovery "Grossology" & Summer Bridge

CAMP DISCOVERY The Adventurers explored “Camp Grossology” week by learning how many of our “gross” bodily functions keep us healthy. In preparation for the Grossology Fair, Adventurers made snot, plasma and Oobleck. The Explorers discovered how important saliva is when eating, and in preparation for the Grossology Fair, they made edible kitty litter and poop. The Trailblazers explored how the brain works, and for the Grossology Fair, they made edible worms and fingers. Camp Discovery also had a great day of exploration at The Fernbank Museum on Tuesday! We explored how the brain functions and took a trip back in time by visiting the dinosaur exhibit. During Thursday’s visit from High Touch-High Tech, campers had a hands-on experience with animal organs, and creepy and crawly creatures! ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMER BRIDGE During the first days of Summer Bridge, third graders wrote and shared biographies, getting to know each other a little deeper. They also wrote detailed paragraphs based on words that expressed their feelings. The children enjoyed the activity and said it was, "EPIC!" In the slideshow, you’ll find Dawn giving the rising 2nd graders their first taste of our new math program, Singapore Math. Dakota said "I love this new math. It's so fun and colorful." Eric said, "This is so much better than our old math. I'm excited to do this in 2nd grade." First graders began writing and illustrating “Small Moment” books, in which they wrote about an event in their lives. They are working to add details to make their writing more interesting. Kindergarteners found it exciting to create a pattern museum. While visiting their friends' pattern exhibits, the curious and creative kindergartners discovered it was fun to count the number of items in their pattern and to identify their patterns by color, shape and letter.

Innovators Playground

Dear Parents, Thank you for allowing us to work with your amazing student designers and innovators during our first Design University/Shark Tank week. This week your student learned the primary principles of design technique and design thinking. Using these these principles, they were able to come up with amazing project ideas geared toward making our planet a better place. Listed below is a calendar for the past week showing how each day corresponded with a different design and innovation technique. Monday: Introduction to design thinking and design technique - Students were given an overview of the design thinking process. Students were allowed to brainstorm as a whole to define issues that currently exist in the world and to form an understanding of these issues to begin the design thinking process. - Students chose their groups and decided what their focus for the week would be. Tuesday: Design and construction - Based on their brainstorming areas from Monday, students began the design and construction process. Wednesday: - Students continued construction and design of their projects and also began to test their prototypes. -Students also began the process of working on their scripts for their Shark Tank presentation. Thursday: - Students began the branding and marketing process for their projects -Students were tasked with completing their scripts and branding marketing in preparation for the Friday Shark Tank. Friday: Finishing touches and Shark Tank -Students completed their final run through of the project and did a demo presentation for before their Shark Tank experience. During their Shark Tank experience, our students were asked questions about their innovative designs and at the end were graded on their designs based on knowledge of target audience, creativity, and presentation.