Summer Programs Offer A Variety Of Options For Students

By Eliza Hallabeck

From terrariums to Lego robots, students have been learning many different skills through Newtown Continuing Education’s SMART (Summer Music and Arts) Summer Camp Program and other summer courses.

At Head O’ Meadow Elementary School this summer’s SMART programs began on July 5 with the first session running through this Friday, July 15. The second session of SMART is scheduled to run from July 18 to 29, also at Head O’ Meadow. SMART camp marked its 20th year of offering programs to local students in kindergarten through sixth grade this summer. Camp offerings include jewelry design, clay creations, puppet making, textile creations, science wizards, keyboarding, and more.

On Monday, July 11, instructors Joan Nolte and Michelle DeLuca were overseeing the Intro to Dance & Musical Theater course with 2011 Newtown High School graduate Megan Preis. On the cafetorium’s stage, Carly Brennan, Isabella Correia, Julia Shuman, and Lindsay Dievert practiced for a play they will perform with the other 13 students taking the class during the first session of SMART.

 Megan wrote the script for the play after meeting with Ms Nolte and Ms DeLuca and brainstorming ideas for this session’s production.

Across the hallway in the school’s art room, The Great Clay Adventure instructor Don Kopyscinski was helping two students mold clay pots on potters wheels. Other students worked at the multiple tables in the room on their own clay creations.

Rising third grader Aiden Foss said he made up the design for his clay creation, and took the course because he enjoys art.

“I really love it,” said Aiden. “It’s actually my favorite thing to do. I like to draw a lot.”

Fellow incoming third grader Eliza Roth said it was her second time taking The Great Clay Adventure course, and she returned this year because she really enjoys the program. Eliza created a clay sculpture of a dragon during the course on Monday.

In another area of Head O’ Meadow, students modeled terrariums they designed in the Small World Designs course, overseen by Marianne Mulvaney. Ms Mulvaney, who also oversees the Textile Creations and the Young Authors and Illustrators courses for SMART, said parents still have the option to sign students up for the second session of the course.

“They have been doing such a fantastic job on these,” said Ms Mulvaney.

Incoming sixth graders Lizzi Hodge and Danielle Samson said they knew they wanted to sign up for the course after reading the description.

Danielle said she knew terrariums involved plants, “and plants always fascinated me, so I signed up for this class.”

Interns also work with the program instructors to oversee the SMART camp. In the Small World Designs course on Monday, Newtown High School rising seniors Katie Peters and Troy Neves both said they enjoy working for the summer camp.

“I went to the camp,” Katie said, “and now I work here.”

Since 1991, as part of Newtown Continuing Education, SMART Camp has offered educational and creative summer courses for thousands of local children in kindergarten through sixth grade.

Classes on art, music, science, and performance — taught by professional artists and local teachers — are offered through the camp.

To celebrate 20 years this summer, there were several new class offerings.

“Along with our teachers, artists, and interns, the campers get to explore, create, laugh, and play in a great, safe environment,” Continuing Education Director Elissa Gellis said at the start of the summer.

Other courses, like instructor Tim McGuire’s Wedo Robotics and Accelerated Reader were underway at Reed Intermediate School on Monday.

In a downstairs computer classroom at Reed, Mr McGuire oversaw students building robots out of Legos and using a computer application called Scratch to program the robot.

The WeDo Robotics Construction sets, made by Lego, come with instructions and suggested ways to build robots, but Mr McGuire also allows students to come up with their own robot designs and programming after they master the initial design.

Sixth grader Rory Edwards said he was enjoying making a robotic arm that could swing up and down, and was enjoying the course so much on the first day that he would tell others to sign up for the course in the future.

“I’m trying to make a car,” said rising fourth grader Devin Johnson.

While Devin admitted he had never attempted to build a robot out of Legos before, he was enjoying learning how to do so. To design his Lego car robot, Devin used the room’s SmartBoard to research different design options.

Jack Armstrong, a rising sixth grader, was one of multiple students working to building a robot that could spin. He said he enjoyed the course because he likes robots.

Mr McGuire said he plans to offer the WeDo Robotics course, a Game Maker course, and an Intro to Scratch Programming course next summer. While WeDo Robotics and Intro to Scratch Programming course are for students in grade four and up, the Game Maker course is for students in sixth grade and up, according to Mr McGuire.

Mr McGuire also said he wanted to offer the WeDo Robotics course because, “it’s Legos and it’s fun for me. And it is an extension of what we have been doing with Scratch.”

All three of the summer programs Mr McGuire plans to offer next summer are also offered during the school year as after school programs, according to Mr McGuire.

In Reed’s Library/Media Center on Monday, students sat around the room hunched over books or playing chess in the summer’s Accelerated Reader program. While Accelerated Reader is offered during the school year at Reed and at Newtown Middle School, Reed library/media specialist Virginia Snowden said the program is slightly different in the summer, with the added option of being able to play either chess or Monopoly after completing half-an-hour of reading.

Library/media specialist Beth Murphy is overseeing the summer Accelerated Reader program.

“A lot of kids have come in,” said Ms Murphy, who was a library/media specialist in Darien and is the daughter of a teacher at Reed, “and they all seem really enthusiastic about reading.”

Ms Snowden said the program has been welcoming roughly 50 students a day, and began on July 1. She also said the program is scheduled to run through the end of July, and parents can sign students up for the reading program up until the last week in July. Roughly 150 students in total are signed up for the Accelerated Reader program, and can stop by the school to read for the full hours, 9 am to 1 pm Monday through Thursday, or can stay for a short period of time.

Like the Accelerated Reader program in place during the school year at Reed and the middle school, the summer version also has students set reading goals and take tests after completing a book.

At one table rising sixth grader Michael Arther, rising seventh grader Kevin Arther, and rising fifth grader James Doyle each read a book. The three boys with their friend Robert Disibio, a rising fifth grader, come to the program together for a quiet place to read.

“I like everything about reading,” Michael said, “because you can kind of live through another person and see their perspective on life.”

Through books, Michael said, he can learn about different places, too.

“I just like books,” said his brother Kevin, “because they can always take me to another world.”

Kevin said he also enjoys the suspense that builds up toward the end of a book.

“If there is a problem [in a book],” said James, “it almost feels like you have to figure it out. Like, what would you do? And I always like the excitement of getting near the end of a book.”

Like the quietness of reading a book, Kevin said the Accelerated Reader programs offers a place away from distractions, like family or pets.

Robert, who took the opportunity on Monday to sit in one of the room’s rocking chairs, said he liked playing Monopoly after reading for a bit.

The boys agreed the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, have been popular reads so far this summer at Reed. Kevin also added that books on the Connecticut Nutmeg Book Award list this year have also been popular with the students reading at Reed.

Other summer courses offered include Graphic Design & Print Production, Stray Kats Theater Productions Broadway Bound, and summer school courses, according to the Newtown Public School District website, www.newtown.k12.ct.us.

More information on programs offered in the SMART program and as summer courses are available under the “Departments” tab on the school district’s website.