SMS sixth-graders attend a new kind of summer program

Sixth-graders from Solvay Middle School have spent part of their summer with their peers, filling their days with reading, writing, reflection, and plenty of great snacks. Mrs. Alton and Ms. D’Eredita recently wrapped up a successful sixth grade summer program, thanks to the 21^st Century Learning Grant.
 
During the summer school program, students were able to experience a variety of assignments and tasks throughout their days. At the start of each day, students worked on a responsive classroom chart and attended an engaging morning meeting. Students had plenty of interactions with their peers during the day, as the class would sit down and eat their breakfast and lunch together family style. Some of their favorite meals were chicken and waffles, sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich on a pretzel bun, chicken poppers, barbeque turkey sandwich, and French toast sticks. During the summer school program, students also enjoyed developing and writing their own recipes for popsicles. They then followed their recipe to make them in Mrs. Cole’s kitchen – thank you to Mrs. Cole for letting us use your kitchen!
 
When not visiting and engaging with their peers, the sixth-graders read the novel “Flush” by Carl Hiaasen. As an extension of the novel, the students developed individualized projects to complete, which they then presented to the class. Some of the projects included creating a game board based on the novel, writing letters to the author, developing a poster on the Florida Keys (the setting of the novel), researching and creating a google slideshow about marine animals, and creating a mural of a polluted ocean.
 
After reading “Flush,” the students took their lessons from the book even further. In groups, students researched the effects of water pollution. As a culminating project, one group wrote a script about water pollution, rehearsed, recorded it, and presented it to the class. The other group wrote a talk show based on their research of the water pollution in Onondaga Lake. Both the talk show and presentation were a success.
 
At the end of each day, the students reflected on their day in writing, recapping what they enjoyed and sharing their thoughts on the events of the day. Mrs. Alton and Ms. D’Eredita responded to their reflections using Google Docs.
 
Great job to our sixth-graders on successfully completing their summer school program!