f P^ge 2 . | Spily^y Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon July 19,2007 Summer Academy creates fun in the classroom For some students, summer break is a chance to get outdoors and enjoy the sunshine. ' For others, it means an opportunity to stay in the classroom and focus on even more learning. Two hundred students signed up for this year’s summer academy at Warm Springs Elementary and Principal Dawn Smith said an average of about 140 attend every day. Classes spend time learning about a variety of entertaining subjects and still incorporate ba­ sic subjects like math, writing and science. For instance, in David Gregg’s classroom, stu­ dents that will in fitst grade next fall are learning about anything involving discovery. “We’re just learning how to look at stuff,” Gregg said.' “We’ve, looked at anything we can look at and try to discover.” ’; . At the end of the session, students will be putting together their own discovery book. Other classes are exploring artistic mediums, the rainforest, different plants, or geographic lo­ cations like Mexico or Hawaii. In Esther Kalama-Culpus’ classroom, students are studying everything involving rocks. From pet rocks to the ways in which rocks are formed, the students are using math, science, and even writing by creating stories about rocks. The students, who will enter second grade this fall, have also made clay beads and have a sand­ box in their room. it wasn’t until Kalama-Culpus showed, them a bottle with water and silt that they started to un­ derstand the process, she said. “That kind of clicked for them,” she said. “Nbw it’s going pretty good.” Kevin Rodin is teaching a group of students how to use Power Point as well as GPS tracking, compasses, and other aspects of computers. Their class will later give power point presen­ tations to Vicki Moore’s class. In return, Moore’s class*. who is studying Mexico, will throw a. fiesta for the class Rodin is teaching. Moore said their classroom is also preparing to create a news broadcast. , ; Summer Academy will end on July 27. t Students in Vicki Moore’s class are learning about Mexico. Some students learned how to use microscopes (above), while another class learned about the human body by creating paper models complete with internal organs (shown below). Students worked to color designs after painting clay turtles that they sculpted. Students in Esther Kalama-Culpus’ class created clay beads and also painted pet rocks. 4 Sara Ohman’s class demonstrated the hula they learned while studying Hawaii. Power point presentations are part of the focus of Kevin Rodin’s class. Students in David Gregg’s class learned about dust mites and studied the dust under their classroom’s carpet. Students in Angie David’s class, which featured both second and first graders, traced photos of the proboscis monkey. Children in one class cultivated a variety of plants and plan to put a book together at the end of the session. Photos and text by Leslie Mitts n till M M w m ii ■ Mtiatiaa $