Spring Break Camp
At The Foundations School, we celebrated Spring Break with wildly fun activities! Our week-long camp, open to any interested students, used Susan and James Patterson’s book Cuddly Critters for Little Geniuses as the foundation for curriculum about animals and the natural world. Each day, all the students’ lessons and activities were built around a specific ecosystem, such as the wetlands, the forest, the grasslands, and the ocean.
Students started each day with a read aloud from Cuddly Critters that reflected the animals and ecosystem the class focused on that day. From there, students practiced their reading, math, and science skills with various creative activities that stayed on theme. For example, younger students learned about the Jerboa, a hopping desert rodent, by measuring how high they could jump and comparing that to the Jerboa. The students recorded their jumps on a big piece of paper and created a graph. This helped them practice math and science in a fun, engaging way.
In the afternoons, students focused on an arts integration activity. This allowed the students to learn about their ecosystem through a hands-on, creative project. For example, when the older students studied the tundra and the desert, they used model magic to recreate the ecosystems. When they studied the wetlands, they focused on the roseate spoonbill, creating their own version of the creature out of construction paper.
On Thursday, students received a special visit from the Busch Wildlife Center. They brought five local animals to show the students and staff. Students learned about these special creatures that live right in their own backyards and were able to ask questions, like: can a snake have two heads? (The answer: yes, but very rarely).
Our Spring Break camp was a huge success. We’re grateful to everyone who made it possible, including the Split Rock Foundation, the Kukla Family Foundation, and the Ailes Initiatives Foundation, who underwrote the Busch Wildlife Center visit.
If you’re interested in enrolling your child at The Foundations School, you can learn more here. Keep an eye on our social channels and this blog for more information about CCE’s Summer Academy at The Foundations School.