SummerFest – Day 2

Saturday was even more packed than the first day here at ImpACT Summerfest. How so, you ask? Many of the Franklin, Garfield, and Ruby Bridges elementary students who came on Friday rejoined us, grinning wide and amped up for a second day of non-stop, educational and extracurricular fun. The day started with a brainstorming session within each team to create their very own team cheer; from the “hungry” Princeton Tigers to the stickin’-to- it Georgetown Hoyas to the roaring and clawing Golden Bears, each team got to display some serious teamwork and team spirit by demonstrating their sonorous cheer as Principal Tony entered. After that it was off for yet another few mind-boggling hours of academic exploratory classes in which the students constructed, concocted, dissected, baked, drew, played, imagined…and envisioned their own futures and potential careers before them.

Large group time hit off with a session of magic tricks led by our resident magician, Teacher Nathan, who wowed the students with his rather “colorful” magic book trick and admonition to “Stick To It!”, even as the secrets to his magic tricks remained perplexing to many of us. Teacher Josh continued where he left off with the “Stick To It!” message by teaching the students how sticking out a life situation requires having vision for our lives, and that people close to us can often help develop this vision. In order to illustrate this concept, student volunteers and their Team Leads were given such hard tasks like recreating an unclear image with Playdough and reaching an object with a blindfold on. Nonetheless, the students managed to persevere through the challenges of “blurry” vision with the aid of their faithful Team Leads and a wildly-supportive crowd. The day wrapped up as the students worked on their “vision plates”, in which each student had imprinted their handprint on a plate with yellow paint, and asked their leads, teachers, and helpers to impress one finger upon their own hand imprint’s fingers. We hope this activity demonstrated how the students have many individuals who are rooting for them and their futures! It was truly an impacting day for all the kids and ImpACT volunteers, and we are gearing up for Day 3 of SummerFest!

SummerFest – Day 1

Day 1 down, 2 more to go! This year’s SummerFest festivities began Friday, June 18. Sixty-two students joined us from Franklin Elementary School, Garfield Elementary School, and Ruby Bridges Elementary School. Early Friday morning, students gathered together in teams to eat a scrumptious breakfast and become acquainted with fellow team members. After a short introduction by Principal Tony, teams shuffled excitedly into their first classes of the day…Baking Bonanza or Making Melodies , anyone??? Whether dissecting a cow eyeball, constructing a personalized bridge composed of towers and cables, or watching flames of fire come to life from magic “juice”, the students had a fabulous time taking in all the head knowledge and applying it with their hands.

After three rounds of back-to-back classes, it was time to gather altogether for large group time, complete with some heart-pounding singing and dancing time, a group game, and a message by Teacher Josh.  Teacher Josh had more than a few words of encouragement to illustrate the 2010 SummerFest theme of “Stick To It!”, and we all learned about the value of persevering through life hard things such as hard schoolwork, family circumstances, and generally-puzzling situations. Students were challenged to do impossible acts, like write the Pledge of Allegiance in 10 seconds or solve an incredibly long multiplication problem. Though it would be easy to give up, with the cheers of fellow students to “Stick with it!,” the volunteers worked hard to complete their challenges. One ImpACT volunteer also shared how she herself went through the ImpACT program as a second grader from Garfield Elementary School and was able to stick through the struggles in her life to become a successful student at UC Berkeley. The first day went by so fast! We are all looking forward to Day 2 and 3 at ImpACT SummerFest!

Tutoring

We’ve been busy at ImpACT Tutoring over the last few months! We kicked off the month of March with our academic focus on grammar, specifically nouns, in order to reinforce what students are learning at school. Although we tutors love spending one-on-one time with each student, we decided to change our schedule around for two months to provide time for mini-lessons in a group setting, which at times included some fun games and activites before going into individual tutoring.
But the fun didn’t end there! The students gathered at the UC Berkeley campus for a tour led by the tutors themselves, who are current undergraduates at Cal. We posed for pictures under the T-Rex fossil, heard each other from opposite sides of the famous whispering bench, and took in the breathtaking sight of the Bay Area from the Campanile, Berkeley’s clock tower. Students learned historical facts about the university, as well as interesting stories about various buildings and landmarks on campus. The tutors had as much fun as the kids did! We ended the day with a yummy picnic lunch where students asked the tutors about college, and played freeze tag on the grassy hills of Memorial Glade.

In the middle of March, after completing the grammar curriculum, we switched gears in the classrooms to prepare the students for STAR testing at school. Each tutee had a chance to study test-taking as a genre and review test-taking strategies with their tutors.

For April’s outing, students and tutors went mini-golfing! The day was full of fun, despite some challenging obstacles on the different golf courses. One first-time mini-golfer, Sherry, hit a hole in one at the end! Early in May, we went to Fenton’s Creamery in Oakland – the same one featured in Pixar’s movie Up! It was a sweet time of sharing fries, banana splits, and ice cream.

It’s been amazing to watch the transformation of the tutor and tutee relationships since from September to now. We’ve all grown much closer and developed strong friendships with one another, and that’s one of the things that make ImpACT so special. The students have come to trust their tutors in a way that really helps foster an environment for learning and having fun together. These days, the girls step off the bus and give their tutors a big hug, and the boys will run up to their own tutors, excitedly chit-chatting about what happened during the past week. As the school year wraps up, we hope to carry on our relationships with more ImpACT tutoring.

What We’ve Been Up To…

California History
In this class, we learned about the Ohlone Indians, the four California regions, and the California gold rush. The Ohlone Indians were the first people to live in the Bay Area. Using artifacts, we learned how hard it is to make acorn mush, which is something the Indians ate daily. The Ohlone Indians were resourceful people; they did not waste anything! For example, they would use a deer’s meat for food, bone and antlers for a knife, skin for clothes, and sinew as string. We also got to play the hoop and spear game, which Ohlone boys played to learn how to catch dinner! For our field trip, we went to Coyote Hills, to hike and play where the Ohlone Indians once had.

In the California regions class we learned about the land, water, and animal forms in the desert, valley, mountain, and on the coast. Did you know that a bay is part of the ocean and is surrounded by land on three sides? That’s why Oakland is considered to be part of the Bay Area! We also decorated and ate our very own California cookies with the four different regions on them. California never tasted so good! In our gold rush class, we saw how hard it was for miners to strike rich and find gold. We pretended to be miners who went to prospectors to find out how much money we would get for the gold we discovered by using antique weights and a scale. Gold is actually really heavy, unlike fool’s gold. Then we panned for gold just like the 49ers did in 1849! California History sure came to life in this ImpACT class.

Biology of Plants
In “The Biology of Plants” class, the teachers used creative ways to teach the students important concepts behind plants. We kicked off the series by introducing students to the amazing world of plants. We learned about the different parts of a plant and played a fun game in which students guessed which plant families certain fruits and vegetables belonged to. Students also had a chance to create their very own plants in a fun drawing activity, creating a range of imaginative plants, from the “Meat Eater Plant” to the “Fairy Plant.”

As the weeks progressed, students learned challenging functions of plants such as germination, photosynthesis, and pollination. The students squealed and giggled as they watched an experiment on chlorophyll (green pigments in plants) extraction, which yielded a cup of neon-green liquid with pale-colored leaves. They had fun working together to pull apart different types of flowers to count the number of petals, carpals, and stamens – just like real botanists!

Though plants can look very frail, the students learned that they are very versatile creatures. Just as we put on warm jackets and scarves when it is winter time and wear shorts and T-shirts in the summer, plants adapt when they are in different environments. We learned about the different environments plants grow up in all over the globe, and each student got to take their own plant home at the end of class! They were eager to see how much more their plants would grow in the coming weeks.
We wrapped up the course by taking the students to Tilden Botanical Garden where we saw different native California plants. Some of our favorites were the Redwood Sorrel that bends downwards when it gets too sunny, the smelly and oily Mountain’s Misery, and the huge California Redwood Trees. The students were excited to learn about all the cool ways that plants adapt and we grew to have a strong appreciation for plants.

Music
Each week in “Music” class we learned to appreciate different aspects of various kinds of music. First, we learned that music can tell stories. We listened to various types of music such as classical, jazz, and movie theme songs like Pink Panther and drew pictures that came to our mind. Some of us drew dance competitions, horse races, weddings, and even the circus! During the second week of class, we learned that music has notes and beats. We were blown away by watching a scene from a drum-line competition. The students eagerly learned about the half, quarter, and eighth notes so that they too could play cool beats. The students showed off their skills by playing the beats they composed and wowed the teachers and the team leads. Our last class was probably everyone’s favorite: guest teachers brought in various instruments such as the violin, trombone, clarinet, cello, flute and – everyone’s favorite – the electric guitar! We were so excited to try these instruments and so shocked that some of these instruments were even bigger than the students!

For the past three months, ImpACT students went on various field trips to hear and see music come to life. One of the groups went to Beethoven’s Wig where we listened to four singers sing hilarious lyrics to famous classical pieces. At Dr. Noize, we learned how to make music electronically and some of us even danced on the stage! Lastly, one of the groups went to Toucan Jam where we heard about legends and saw the musicians play instruments from all over the world. Maybe one day, we too will become famous musicians, playing one of the instruments we learned about!

One Day, Two Outings!

Girls Outing
By popular demand, the girls got to bake at their outing. After separating into chocolate and vanilla teams, we got a mini lesson on fractions when we learned about all the different proportions of ingredients it took to create cupcakes. As we waited for the cupcakes to bake, the fun continued as we got to design our own t-shirts! Starting with iron-on designs, each of us created our own unique t-shirt with puffy paint and markers. It was interesting to see the girls’ personalities show up on the t-shirts. Even though everyone started with the same material, the t-shirts all ended up looking different. We couldn’t wait to wear it so that we could proudly show what we made ourselves (in fact, the next day, a few girls were already wearing their t-shirts)!

While the teachers patiently ironed on the designs, the girls played outside with their team leads. The girls continued to show off their unlimited creativity with decorating the side walk with chalk drawings. They drew each other and a hop-scotch course, which all of us tried out. After a lunch of spaghetti and some dancing to JOYland songs to help us all digest after the meal, it was sadly time to go home. Though the girls were sad, they were cheered up with the promise of another outing in the future…what will we do at our next outing? We can’t wait to find out!

Boys Outing
What do pizzas, cardboards, cars, and ImpACT boys have in common? Pizzas are packaged in cardboard boxes, which then can be made to cars, and ImpACT boys absolutely love eating pizza and racing cars! We all definitely had a blast coming together for the first-ever all-boys outing. The students assembled a bunch of cars out of cardboard wheels and sticks as hulls while using the balloon as the power to push the car forward, then had their own mini derby with a makeshift racing track. The boys blew up the balloon attached to their car, set it down and let it race across the floor. These little racers that the boys made can really move, making a clean getaway as soon as you set them down.

Jesus, who dreams of being a car designer one day, actually built a car that flew off the table and took off faster than the teachers’ cars! Who knew we would apply Newton’s Third Law of Motion, that is, the balloon pushes the air back, and that pushes the car with equal force in the opposite direction. While everyone was making cars and racing them, our very own cooking guru and team lead, Mr. Tran helped the boys make their own pizza. It was a first time for many boys and teachers. These homemade pizzas tasted especially yummy. Julian said that “[this is] the best thing I have done ever done in my life!”