Hollywood 

Healey: This week in Hollywood was a whirlwind of creativity and dedication as we prepared for our show, centered on the inspiring theme “Colors of Nature.” Our groups brought together a vibrant mix of sculpting, dance routines, and skits—each designed to reflect hues and elements found in the natural world. The kids learned how to incorporate real components from nature, like leaves, twigs, and flowers, into their art designs, deepening their connection to both art and the environment . In drama club, a key goal is to build confidence and self‑esteem, and the results speak volumes—so far, the children are doing great and truly shining bright. We had a fantastic week and we can’t wait for Animal Camp next week ! 

Healey: The first week of our summer program was a giant splash. This week is a splash of color. In Destination Imagination, we are learning some basic techniques of using color. 

The three activities for the week are drawing a sunset, making marble art cards, and an introduction to abstract art. We used oil pastels to draw our sunset and explored color transitions. To create the colors of the sunset we transitioned from a golden yellow at the horizon through orange to a deep red higher in the sky. We used overlapping of color and smudging of the oil pastel medium to attempt to create a smooth transition from yellow to red. We made marble art cards inspired by Turkish Ebru art. Instead of the traditional materials - oil based pigments floated on water and mixed with ox gall and shaped with combs, we used shaving cream, popsicle sticks and food coloring! This activity teaches students about mixing colors as students swirl primary colors together combining to form a wide range of colors. Last, we will watch an informational video introduction to abstract art and then make abstract art of our own.

The processes involved in this week’s art were somewhat messy and many students seemed to enjoy getting their hands (and in some cases their clothes) dirty.

Destination Imagination

East: This week in art class, our theme was Colors of Nature and students explored the beauty of the outdoors through creative projects. 

We learned about what dragonflies due for the environment and crafted vibrant 3D dragonflies. The groups made leaf/flower spray paintings using paint and water in a spray bottle and real life leaves. For the finale we mode our own suncatchers to catch the summer sun. 

Each activity highlighted natural colors and textures in a fun, hands-on way and brought nature to life! 

East: This week in STEAM we are learning all things nature. We read the book “Leaf Man” and then students created their own leaf person/creature. It was fun to see where their imaginations went with this. On Wednesday we went for a nature scavenger hunt after listening to the book “We’re going on a nature walk”. Students enjoyed looking for the different things they had to find like rocks, bugs, trees, dirt, different colored leaves, houses, clouds, etc. It was fun to compare our findings at the end of class! On Friday our students used legos to engineer a nature landscape. They had fun building and telling the teachers what they were creating. It was a very fun week in STEAM! 

Healey: Hey hey hey  you know what time it is!

It’s the most exciting part of the day.  Just Do It!

In gym, we’ve been having an absolute blast! Our kiddos have been staying active, stretching it out, and giving it their all on the soccer field. This week, we kicked things up a notch and took a trip around the world for our very own World Cup Soccer Tournament!

Each team proudly represented a different country, and after some intense matches and great sportsmanship, we’re down to the finals: Brazil vs. Colombia.

Who will take the crown? Tune in next week for the thrilling finale of Just Do It!

Just Do It

LIT's - Healey 

The LITs have been having an awesome 2nd week of summer camp. On Monday, we played our second massive game of jeopardy. We have two teams - Team Starvin' Marvin and Team Horse with No Name. Horse with No Name continues to lead by winning the second game by only 300 points (out of many thousands.) They won the first game by only 200 points out of many thousands. Needless to say, the games are very close which makes for a fun and competitive experience for the kids, and is a good icebreaker experience the first day of the week for new students as they meet the other kids in the class and can jump right into talking to them. After that, we headed outside to take care of the Community Garden. We will be taking care of the school garden this summer as a community service project - cleaning up trash, watering, weeding, harvesting, and maybe planting more if we get the go ahead. The beans and tomatoes are doing well and the school said we can harvest them and take them home when we're ready. We then played a massive soccer game in the gym to prepare for the LIT Games this Friday. In the afternoon after gym time and lunch, we went down to the pool, which is one of their favorite things to do, and we were lucky to have great weather for it this week. On Tuesday, we went to "Bowlero" in Lowell with the rest of the camp. We bowled, ate pizza, drank lemonade, and played in their arcade. Great spot. On Wednesday, we had a big day. We left the school in the morning, walking to the Gilman Square T station, which we took into Boston to the Prudential Center. We took the super fast and really cool light up elevators all the way to the top floor (52) where we visited "View Boston." We saw a 360 degree view of the entire city and metro area indoor on the top floor, and learned about some of the things we were seeing. We went down a floor to the outdoor observation deck (which has a really nice restaurant and bar I'd recommend for anyone interested in the future - looks awesome). Then, we went down to the last floor which had a museum about all of the sites we had seen that day. Then, after lunch, we took the T back to Somerville and went to the pool for an hour. We trudged back to school, exhausted. We look forward to our exciting trip to Nahant Beach on Thursday, and on Friday, taking care of the garden and checking on those beans and tomatoes, playing against the staff in the LIT Games (soccer this week), and then getting another trip into the pool in the afternoon and watching the camp show. 

Healey: Happy Week 2 of Summer Adventures and our continuing journey of learning about friendship!  

This week in Counselor’s Corner, we focused on how scientific research has shown that friends boost our physical and mental health. For example, we discovered that friendships protect us, in part, by changing the way we respond to stress and can help lower our blood pressure and heart rate. People who have friends and close confidants are also more satisfied with their lives and less likely to suffer from depression or anxiety. We even found out that friendship can be contagious and, when we are around friends who make us happy, we are better able to fight colds and other illnesses. Our activity this week was making bracelets to keep and share with our friends and family so we can spread our friendship and happiness around!

We look forward to week 3 and learning more about the importance of friendship and being a good friend!

Counselor's Corner 

East: Blooming with Colors and Emotions

This week in Counselor’s Corner, we took a colorful journey into understanding ourselves and the emotions that shape our experiences. Building on last week’s introduction to the Zones of Regulation, we explored the different feelings that can come up in everyday situations—happy, sad, mad, worried, and everything in between. We reviewed how these feelings connect to the color zones and discussed how our emotions can shift throughout the day depending on what’s happening around us.