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.

Camp Discovery presents: The Camp Cook Off!

"Lance's What's Cooking Camp"

Camp Discovery’s “Awesome Week in Review” – During this week's "Lance's What's Cooking Camp," our Adventurers tested their culinary skills by making their own flavored butter, pasta salad and spinach wraps in preparation for Camp Discovery's Cook Off! During their trip to Piedmont Park Conservancy on Tuesday, Adventurers got to visit the garden and make delicious salad dressing! During the Trailblazers' trip to the conservancy, the group loved preparing their vegetables to make their own shicabob. The campers also made their own dressing, using fresh basil leaves. On Thursday's visit from Adonai Desserts, our campers experienced fun, themed cupcake decoration! And our cooking week concluded with our Camp Discovery Cook Off in the gym. The Explorers created their own mystery drink and challenged the Trailblazers in making quesadillas and tacos, using a secret ingredient provided by the Adventurers! The cook off winners were Team "Rising Temps" with their award winning quesadillas! Congratulations! Math Mania’s “Awesome Week in Review” - This week in Math Mania, we discussed the distance of the planets in our solar system and created a scaled model from the perspective of the TCS campus. Students performed calculations to determine how long it would take to fly to the planets, and the best angle of trajectory for launching foam rockets. The campers also artistically explored math patterns by making tessellations and mandalas. Ten Marks was used throughout the week as a supplement for building and solidifying math competency. ~ Suzy & Ugarhon, Math Mania Instructors