Out of this World!

by Dianny

This past February the Charter Corps program ran a space camp for the week of February vacation for students at Highlander Charter School. The camp started at 8:45am to 3:30 pm and the curriculum was hands-on for grades K-8th. There were 4 classes: math, literature, science, and art for grades K-4th and an independent study for grades 5th through 8th. It was out of this world and the ultimate space camp experience! If you don't believe me, ask any of the 30 students who attended the Charter Corps' Space Camp.They would all agree that the week was full of fun learning and hands-on activities in all of their classes. It was an enthusiastic, fun, and positive environment for all, including the teachers! I had so much fun teaching my 2-4th science classes and assisting in the math classes, we did experiments everyday and the students were always eager to find out what the day's experiment would entailed.

At first, I was a little pessimist about the whole outcome of the week because I was coming to an unfamiliar environment with children whom I had never met before, I had heard stories of misbehavior for the previous year's camp, and the grade level I was initially teaching was changed a week before the camp started. I was in panic the first day; I was shaking and the palms of my hands were as cold as two blocks of ice but luckily for me (and the kids) as soon as got in front of my class all that panic and anxiety went out the window. I loved teaching science more than what I thought I would because I was able to incorporate literature, math, astronomy, physics, and chemistry, and do hands-on experiments. The kids made all this possible, students are the core of a teacher! There's no bad student; the one I thought would be the most antsiest, I made him my teacher's assistant. One day I had Mr. Julius explain the role of gravity on our planet's orbit around the sun. Guess what? He did an awesome job of explaining the concept and he had an outstanding performance and delivery. So now you know, if you have that antsy student give him/ her a job that would keep him/her busy and both of you happy!

Winterfest

by Nellie

The Charter Corps put on our first community service event of the year. We put on the 2nd annual Winterfest, this time it was held at West End Recreation Center in Providence and was open to anyone from the community. We advertised the event at our service sites, Highlander Charter School, Seque Institute for Learning, and International Charter School. Our guests were able to partake in arts and crafts such as making winter scarves, face painting, and snowflake making. We also had winter themed games such as real life Angry Birds, Twister, as well as a "snowball toss". The chefs of Charter Corps cooked up many different dishes that were free for everyone to enjoy. We had a special guest snowman/woman come and play with the kids, which was fun to watch. One of the highlights was that the Director of the West End said that he would love to work with us again!

Space Camp: Sun Poetry

by Itza

During February Space Camp I had my students right poems about the sun. I thought that it might be a bit difficult since my grades were kindergarten and first grade. To ease individual worry, as the kindergarteners cannot write a lot and first graders lack vocabulary, I had them write the poems in groups.

In all, four wonderful poems were written, one by the kindergarten class and three by the first grade. We were able to complete all these poems thanks to the awesome assistance of my fellow AmeriCorps member, Nellie. Together we were able to cultivate ours students' crazy and original ideas into poems they were proud of. The following are these poems:


1.
What if people tried to eat the sun?
Just to try the taste.
They want to eat it all themselves and never share again.
They use a rocketship to fly to space, landing safely on the sun.
Dig, dig, dig. Scoop, scoop, scoop.
Just to try the taste.
Then something happened,
They all turned into part of the sun! Forever!
Never be greedy or eat the sun.
-1st grade


2.
What if the sun was a monster?
It will eat people.
Step on them.
Smash them.
Throw poison ivy on them.
Sit on them.
Smack them with a pan.
Shoot them in the butt with fire.
What a mean monster it'd be.
-1st grade


3.
What if the sun was a monster?
Maybe it would breath fire,
that way it could warm it's butt.
Maybe it would throw fireballs,
that way it could warm other people's butts.
Maybe it would be made out of fire,
then it's butt would already be toasty.
-1st grade


4.
What if the sun was made up of animals?
It would probably look like a giant animal.
Milk and eggs would fall from the sky,
sometimes on your head.
I hope the animals don't wiggle too much
or they could land on your head.
I'm glad the sun doesn't come out at night
because I'm sure it would be a noisy sun.
Moo! Quack! Woof! Meow! Bak! Oink!
- Kindergarten

Retro Gaming - Nintendo Day

By Jill W.

During the whole third session of after school, my students in Retro Gaming were looking forward to the last class of the session. That day was the only day they asked about, and they asked every single week if that day was finally here. See, on the first day of our class, I had promised them that they would be able to try out some retro games on my old Nintendo 64, and they could not wait to try it out.

The class was centered around the idea of bringing together different grade levels to work in teams and try out a shared activity - in this case, old video games. We focused on pairing up students with compatible counterparts who were a very different age than themselves, and the pair would share a computer and play old, non-violent video games. This focus on fun digital activities that do not involve fighting, shooting, or exploding, and mixing the age groups would result, we hoped, in improved community atmosphere, improved social skills, and improved confidence among students.

Our final day of retro gaming came along, and I definitely brought in the N64 as well as a Nintendo Wii. The kids LOVED it! They paired up with their partners to lobby with me to let them go first on the game consoles. They picked out sweet games to play on the laptops while they waited for their turns, and they did and excellent job managing their time and sharing the games when we only had one controller for the N64. I was so proud of their progress from shy, resistant students who only talked quietly and politely to eachother when they had to, to a group of friends who communicated actual ideas, encouraged eachother when they failed, and applauded eachother when they succeeded. The kids earned their Nintendo day, and I was glad that I could reward them for their hard work.

My First Science Fair!

By Brandford

The Science Fair was an event that was unfamiliar to me. As a primary and secondary student I didn't receive the opportunity to participate nor did my school actually have a science fair. Being at Highlander and assisting students in their projects and be able to judge science projects was a tremendous privilege for me.

I watched students successfully struggle to plan and strategize for the best project possible. Students worked each day to construct ideas, from hypothesizing, to creating a project that can be proven through their experiment. I had the opportunity to monitor the 6th grade students progressively work to complete their projects as crunch time approached.

The 6th graders had some amazing projects from demonstrating corrosion with soda, using fruit as a battery source to make a light bloom. Students also displayed what happens when certain liquids are mixed with water and of course the traditional explosion of a volcano. Knowing a lot of the information from prior knowledge and being able to see it as a actually display and project was pretty intriguing.

The day of the science fair parents, teachers, students, and other community members came out to support those that were selected to be apart of the science fair night. The positive energy and excitement that filled the room was unbelievable. The education and awareness students were providing was great. Each viewer was impressed with the scientific work that the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders put together. This was truly a memorable moment for me being that it was my first time at a science fair, I enjoyed and appreciated the work these students did to educate us in a scientific manner.

Blessings in a Backpack

By Brandford

Every Thursday the sixth graders and myself conduct community service for the assistance of Highlander community and families. Our community service comes in the form of providing food, the program is called blessing in a Backpack. What is blessing in a back pack you ask? Blessing in a backpack is a program designed to feed underprivileged children, aiding in the battle against hunger to help feed the future of America. This program serves and supports 62,000 students in 437 schools nationally and international.

During the month of January, WPRI Channel 12 news came to Highlander Charter School to work with the sixth graders in producing a fundraiser video to further promote Blessings in a Backpack. All the students were excited about the opportunity not only to give back to their community but to be meet the people from WPRI. The students asked numerous of questions about the camera equipment and why the video was being made.

They led the representatives from WPRI in the process of packing a backpack. They first made sure that they had all the assigned bins with students backpacks from each classroom. After that they laid out all the food items ranging from apple sauce, oatmeal, macaroni and cheese, cereal bars, fruit snacks, juice and more. Then the food is sorted and divided into each backpack. The backpacks are then placed into its respective bins and delivered back to each classroom.

Highlander Space Camp Artists

Our space-campers had a great time during February Vacation. Besides academic enrichment in Science, Math, and Literacy, they had a chance to participate in art for 1.5 hours each day of camp. This, of course, was a treat for students who do not normally have the chance to participate in art every day of the school week. 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders created comic strips, space creature puppets, and their own planets, which they then incorporated into a mural of their own galaxy. Their creativity and enthusiasm was impressive and an inspiration. Hopefully, it will help encourage an even larger group of students to attend camp during April vacation!

By: JM