Community Ed Classes

We let each kid pick one class/camp out of the Community Education brochure for this summer, and then I scheduled them all for the same week.   Colton chose to do a lego/engineering camp and both the girls wanted to do theater.  I'll write more about each camp below.

Larkyn

Larkyn's camp, STEAM Dreams, was from 10:30-noon.  STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics and they learned about jobs like engineers, architects, and scientists throughout the week, while collaborating ideas from their own imaginations to create art and a theatrical production surrounding these topics.  They learned that there are three things actors must use: their VOICE, their BODY, and their IMAGINATION and they practiced each in fun ways.  Their teacher, Ms. Meredith, was from STAGES theater and did a fantastic job facilitating and teaching the preschoolers SO much in their time together, as well as helping them create a really fantastic show to put on for parents on the last day.

  Here are two videos from their show.  The first is a song the kids sang and the second is their theatrical show about a problem (the class decided on a giant robot), a solution (the class's collaborative idea), and the importance of working together.

Larkyn Song:



Larkyn Show:


Larkyn was SOO excited that Grandma T was able to come to her performance!

Larkyn's teacher, Ms. Meredith

Me with my two budding actresses :)

Colton

Colton was not pictured in the above pictures because he had his class at the same time as Larkyn had hers.  Colton's class was called Varsity Builders and met from 9am-12 each day this past week.  The kids built five different lego projects: a pendulum clock, a walker, a dogbot, a bat, and a gear racer car.  They each had a guide that taught about mechanical things like a pawl and ratchet, how a pendulum height affects speed of the clock, first/second/third class levers, pullies, cams, and gears.  They got to use motors.  They learned how things things worked, built them, and made predictions about what would happen if they changed certain things in their LEGO creation and then tested their hypotheses.  It was a really cool class!  I asked Colton to bring his camera to class so I could see what he built as they had to disassemble their LEGOS each day to be ready for the following class. I included a few pictures from his camera below, but I had to take a picture of his screen as we don't currently have a cord that will transfer his pictures to my computer :).   On the last day they got to race their gear racer cars down the hallway and Colton said his came in second :).

Summer

Summer chose a Prairie Fire Children's Theater camp.  According to their program, "Prairie Fire was founded in 1987 and tours year round to over 200 communities providing a week-long professional theatrical experience" for kids ages 7-18.  It was really a cool experience.  The two leaders of the camp, Darius and Madison, were full of energy and fun (think camp counselor style mixed with dramatic flair) and were so organized!  For two hours on Monday afternoon, the almost 80 kids learned about the week and and tried out for parts.  On Tuesday afternoon, they spent 2 hours learning their parts.  On Wednesday afternoon they went through the full show once.  On Thursday afternoon they went through the full show twice.  On Friday afternoon they got their costumes, had their dress rehearsal, did makeup, and had their first performance at 6:30pm.  They had their second performance on Saturday morning at 10am.  Within one week, they learned parts, dances, songs, choreography and more and put on a fantastic 80 minute show at the Rosemount High School theater!  It was impressive!  And it gave the kids the feel of being in an actual theatrical production from start to finish, yet all in one week.  This week's show was a rendition of Snow White.  Summer was one of the Forest Creatures, the "Goldfinch", and enjoyed having lots of time with Snow White (who was so sweet and great role model).  This camp was a fantastic experience for my junior thespian!  I didn't video the whole 80 minutes, but here are a few videos and pictures. 

They asked for parent volunteers to help with makeup before the show, so I got to paint noses and whiskers on the forest creatures and Grandma T was in charge of powder :)

Summer was so excited that Grandma T and Grandma and Grandpa K could come watch her show!

With the directors, Darius and Madison.  They were so fun!

 

Here are two videos of our little Gold Finch in action!  

Fun Week!

It was a really fun week and the kids really enjoyed their camps as they grew in the unique interests and talents God has given them!  It is so fun for me as a mom to learn what my kids love and then watch them enjoy doing it!