junior program summer site : conversations : first session



	griffin from new jersey (7/5) Griffin is a 5th grader returning for his second summer at Explo. When he isn't busy hunting for his kingdom or mastering some EMT skills, you might just find him spinning around on his head for a Twizzler! What have you been up to this week? Well, my two classes are “Break a Leg” and “Creating Kingdom” and they’re really fun! What have you been doing in “Break a Leg”? Right now we’re learning about sound effects. We use different items, like, random items, to make different sound effects. We use black tubes, tin foil, and all that stuff. Like, if we use tin foil, we might shake it to sound like wind or something; if we use the black tube, we could stick a ruler in it and spin it around and it might sound like a blender. We’re also starting to work on “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”. Ali Baba? Yeah. We’re incorporating sound effects into the story. Like, if it says, “They heavily walked in,” then somebody would take, like, I don’t know, coconuts, and they would snap them on the floor to make that sound. Our teacher broke us up into groups and gave us each a few pages from the story to make sound effects for. Cool! So what are you doing in “Creating a Kingdom”? So we just finished dividing the class into two kingdoms, and now we’re starting to work on making classes for our kingdom. Today we became knights! What did you have to do to become knights? You have to go through three stages to become a knight. One is page, one is squire, and the third is becoming a knight. What will you be doing with your kingdoms? After the end of the session, we’re going to see which kingdom's society has grown the most. They grow a little bit each time. Like, yesterday, we practiced hunting for our kingdom. Our teacher hung a plate from a tree and it kept blowing around, and you had to try to hit it with a ball. Every time you hit it with the ball, you got a loaf of bread for your kingdom. And whichever group got the loaf of bread first got five shillings. Shillings are the money for your kingdom, but our group didn’t get any. What can you buy with the shillings? Well, we all got a few shillings before the hunting to start us off, and we bought a slice of bread for two shillings. Aside from food, you can buy supplies for your kingdom. One of the other groups' castles broke down so they had to spend some of their shillings to get it repaired. What are you taking for mini-courses? I’m taking “EMT + First Aid Skills” and swimming lessons. In “EMT + First Aid Skills” we looked at all the parts of a first aid kit and Standish [the teacher] showed us how to use them. We looked at top sponges, ace bandages, and pre-tape. Have you ever used any of those things before? No, but I know how to now. You use the top sponge to put over an open wound if it’s really bleeding, and then you wrap the ace bandage on top of it to help stop the bleeding. Do you like to go camping often? Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. I wanted to learn these things just in case. What do you do at Explo besides your courses? Well we have a lot of activities. Today is July 4th so a lot of the activities are themed for July 4th. Like one of today’s activities was making the “Declaration of Exploration”. Did you do that activity? No, I did the “Hi, Mom” activity. We made posters that had messages for our family or friends at home, and then we held them up and got our picture taken for the website. My poster said “Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad! Hi, World!” Cool message. I’m sure your parents will be excited to see it. Yeah, they will. Which activity are you planning on doing next? I’m going to the “What would you do for a Twizzler?” activity. What would you do for a Twizzler? I’d eat a Twizzler . . . Do you think it’s going to be that easy?! Probably not, but I’d do a lot of stuff because we don’t get to have candy very often. I’d probably spin on my head or act like a chicken or something. Well, good luck! What else do you like besides the activities? Well, the assemblies are always really fun; they’re never boring. Na’eem, the announcer, plays the “question game” sometimes on stage. He starts off by asking a question, and then the other person has to answer his question with another question and it has to make sense. It’s actually pretty hard. Assemblies are also when the staff does activity announcements. Whoever is leading an activity will dress up in fun costumes and get on stage to do a skit to describe their activity. Explo has some regular activities like kickball and stuff, but a lot of the activities are kind of goofy and different, so they do the skits to help you understand the activity. Like, for the “Hi, Mom” activity, you would never know what that activity was about from the title. What else happens during assembly? We always celebrate everyone’s birthday. If it’s your birthday, Becca, the staff member in charge of birthdays, comes out on stage. She “crosses over into the birthday zone,” and then if it’s your birthday you go up on stage and get your crown. Then, everyone does the Jamboni, our birthday dance. Oh, and we also do the “Daily Challenge” during assembly. What’s that? Every day we get an Explorer, which is basically the schedule for the day with all of the activities. It also has the Daily Challenge, which is a different question each day about an Explo staff member and you have to go around asking all the staff if they’re the answer to the Daily Challenge. Today’s question was, “Which Explo staff member is going to be a zamboni driver next year?” The answer was Juli. You write your answer on a piece of paper and then Na’eem pulls one out during assembly. If you win, you get a freezie pop. How is Explo different than other summer programs? Well, for one thing, you don’t usually get to choose what you get to do at other programs. Usually you just do something random every day, and if you don’t really like it, you still have to do it. But at Explo you get to choose all of your classes at the beginning. You submit a few of your top choices. I got both of my first choices. If you had to pick one favorite thing about Explo, what would it be? Making new friends. At school, your friends are all from where you live, but at Explo you can meet people from anywhere, like Korea. It’s kind of easier to make friends at Explo because everyone at Explo is really nice. Sometimes people at school are just plain mean, but most people aren’t mean here. If you were to give advice to someone thinking about coming to Explo, what would you say? Explo is really fun, and you should definitely come here. Come to Explo! If Explo were a type of food, what would it be? What’s that food that’s like . . . oh yeah: casserole. Casserole always has a lot of different things in it, and Explo always has different things to do each year. more conversations > first session \| second session