The Summer Academy wrapped up its four-week camp at Highland Elementary this week with a mini-showcase on July 29 where the 120 campers shared their projects with other students and teachers
Run for the third year by math supervisor Kate Perez — who will step into a new role this fall as assistant principal at Westfield Intermediate School — and English language learner program supervisor Anna Antropova, the Summer Academy serves students entering first through fourth grade.
The program also focuses on literacy using Project Lead the Way hands-on curriculum. Forty percent of the students are English-language learners.
“Every day, these students demonstrate remarkable perseverance as they continue to develop a new language while actively participating in challenging academic and hands-on learning experiences. At the same time, they enrich our entire school community by sharing new perspectives and helping all of us see the world through a wider, more vibrant lens,” Antropova said.
This year, the Summer Academy also partnered with the Western Mass Literacy Collaborative. Through its Summer Earn & Learn Literacy Corps program, four literacy intervention student teachers at Westfield State and other area colleges worked with students and staff under the supervision of Kolby Palmer, a reading interventionist at Munger Hill. “It was awesome to partner with the college students,” Perez said. “The college students received specialized training in evidence-based literacy instruction while gaining valuable hands-on experience in the classroom.”
Each grade spent the month at camp working on a different Project Lead the Way learning module.
First graders worked on the Spatial Sense unit, which involved giving directions to robots through coding. Students learned directional words such as ‘left’ and ‘right,’ in addition to technology.
WSU graduate Katherine Pawlikowski was working with first grader Selena Maldonado, whose robot, Vex, was a dinosaur trying to find dinosaur eggs. Pawlikowski said she wants to teach preschool or kindergarten and serve as a literary interventionist. In another group, Viviana Jara and Esther Petrovych named their robot Pikachu after the Pokémon.
Second graders studied animal adaptations and designed shoes for different outdoor environments using adaptations they learned about. Ethan Chancellor designed a shoe for cold weather, using sticks for protection and strength, and pom-poms and feathers to keep the boots fluffy and warm. Asked if he would wear the shoe he designed, Chancellor said, “No. It’s made out of paper!”
Third graders made designs inspired by nature after studying biomimicry and camouflage. Antropova said they kept logs of their projects, using the scientific process. “A part of it is discovery and exploration,” she said. Mark Bezmakernykh created a camouflaged frog house for a frog he made out of clay, and he shared the project with first grader Ki’Moni Jenkins and teacher Diana Kelly.
Fourth graders studied the science of flight by experimenting with gliders they made. Their focus was adapting to fly into natural disasters, such as volcanic eruptions, flooding, wildfires, earthquakes and thunder & lightning.
The Summer Academy also provided transportation and lunch for the students. Antropova said they also used a positive behavior incentive approach, in which students earned SHINE tickets and chose from a cart with prizes supplied by parents and teachers. She gave a special shout-out to the Summer House Ice Cream in Southwick for donating eight gift cards to the program.
“The students were very engaged with Project Lead the Way. The creativity, resilience, and adaptability they brought to these engineering challenges were incredible to watch. Our partnership with the Western Massachusetts Literacy Collaborative and encouraging core values through our SHINE program allowed us to build a truly inclusive, hands-on learning community,” Antropova said.
“This program is a wonderful opportunity for students to stay engaged in learning throughout the summer. It’s an incredible group of students and teachers, and I’m always amazed by the meaningful relationships we’re able to build in such a short amount of time. This program is truly special; it’s fun, welcoming, and an experience that leaves a lasting impact on everyone involved,” Perez said.