[Week 01] Morning Programs

We hope you all had a wonderful first week of Summer Programs. The first week is always a little bit crazy, but we didn’t let that stop us from having an exciting week of exploration and creativity.

Each week, we will have our teachers provide a brief summary of what your children did in class.

CREATOR SPACE ADVANCED
This week we created cover art for our sketchbooks using a variety of materials, learned how to tie friendship bracelets, and completed at least one–most made two! We finished this short week by creating watercolor snowflakes and then began brainstorming designs for our musubi-animal plushies.

DRAMA: SHARING STORIES

In our first week the students bravely said “Yes, And” to a myriad of improv games and exercises. They introduced themselves to one another with “sound and motion” name games, mini 3-question interviews (don’t forget the rule of 3s!), and crazy musical chairs which highlighted what we all had in common (and helped us improve our cardio!).

We begin class with a one word check-in followed by physical and vocal warm-ups, before diving into improv games which promote focus and collaboration. We have begun to explore narrative structure by identifying “themes” and “offers” as well as learning about how to “expand” upon a description or “advance” a plot forward.

At the end of every class, we have our debrief ritual where we, Reflect on something we learned, did well, or found interesting; Celebrate and acknowledge something a classmate did well, and Challenge ourselves with something we want to work on, learn about or explore in the next class.

Class Favorites include; “Kitty Wants A Corner”, “Word At A Time Expert” and “Story, Story Die”!
Memorable moments include; A three headed Russian-Nesting-Doll-Rat-Expert and the spooky story of “The Very Dry Broccoli” told in the dark with the aid of a flashlight!

We will post some pictures taken by our awesome TA Izzie very soon!

HNS: EXPLORERS
We planted bush bean seeds on the first day of class so that we can track their growth throughout the 5 weeks of HNS Explorers. We planted them in water, wet paper towels soil+water (with and without sunlight), and sand. So far some seeds have germinated, and we can see the seed coats coming off, a white root emerging at one end, and green shoots and leaves at the other end. We will continue to follow their development as we learn about the life cycle of a plant.

This week we are also studying Hawai’i’s native and invasive stream organisms to prepare for our Field Trip next Tuesday to Manoa stream. Guest speaker Cory Yap from Na Wai Ekolu visited to teach us about o’opu (Hawaiian gobies), opae (native shrimp & prawns), and hihiwai and hapawai (native snails) and how urbanization has affected our streams. We also learned about invasive species that compete with the natives for habitat space and resources. He came back on Wednesday teach us the pa’epa’e method for catching fish using nets and poles to herd the organisms to a small area to capture and sort them to return the natives to the stream and remove the invasives.

HNS: OBSERVERS
This week we learned science skills and all about plants! Students collected leaves and seeds, making observations using their five senses. We also had Uncle Cory teach about the native and invasive fish that are living in Manoa Stream. The students learned and practiced how they will catch the fish (on their field trip next week Tuesday) to take out the invasive fish and put back the native ones.

HNS: RESEARCHERS
This week we looked at our impact on our environment by looking at how much trash we create for ourselves. We also had Mr. Cory Yap come to speak to us from Nā Wai ʻEkolu about stream conservation.

LET’S PLAY SPORTS
This week in our “Let’s Play Sports” class, we worked on our basic locomotor skills, such as walking briskly, running, hopping, jumping, galloping, shuffling, and skipping. We also worked on some throwing and kicking with both our left and our right hands/feet. The last thing we worked on as a class is rolling objects to targets. To start and end class, we try to get our feet moving and we normally do a cardio game, such as Medic or Sharks and Minnows. We are looking forward to having a great Summer Program!

LITTLE JOURNALISTS
This week the Little Journalists were introduced to interviewing techniques, types of journalistic writing, and how to take photos for the newsletter. They are looking forward to everyone seeing their first week’s efforts.

STEM: DISCOVERY
This week, the students got an introduction to STEM. The students participated in team-building activities to get to know one another and learn to work as a team. They were challenged to create numbers, letters, and houses using Legos. They designed their marshmallow and gumdrop towers and collaborated with a partner to build the tallest buildings. When they were finished, the students reflected on the towers—what worked and what did not. The students also compared what happened when they used marshmallows vs. gumdrops and discussed which material was better. The students were also introduced to computer coding using code.org.

STOP MOTION ANIMATION
We started the week with activities to help the students get to know each other better.  Then the students were introduced to the distinction between  2D and 3D animation, learned some vocabulary terms and skills, and explored how to create stop motion animation. We watched some examples of classic and modern 2D and 3D techniques used in film. Finally, the students started their adventures in animation by creating a flip book and then they began creating their own 2D stop motion animation.

STORY ART, SMART ART, LET’S GET ARTED
This week in Let’s Get Arted, students jumped into art and stories! The students introduced themselves with clever Pictionary sketches and made beautiful hand made books to keep their thoughts and illustrations. We played a surrealist drawing game called “Exquisite Corps.” In the game, each student in the group is required to draw a section of the body. We ended up with some really creative corps!

Towards the end of the week, after learning about different lead styles and how to hook readers, the students brainstormed good beginnings to a wordless book and continued to work on their stories and sketches.