junior program summer site : conversations : first session



	rachel from new york (7/7) Rachel is a rising 5th grader from New York who is returning for her second summer at Explo. Aside from being a pasta-throwing artist and master quilter, Rachel enjoys being able to choose her classes, activities, and trips at Explo. She can even paint posters with her feet! Where did you go for your trip today? Canobie Lake Park. It’s like a water place and you can also go on all these types of rides that are dry and wet! Like Boston Tea Party -- that’s a ride where you go up and then you turn and then you go down really fast. And then you get wet under a tunnel of water. I got soaked, but it was nice to get wet because it was hot out. Fun! What else do they have there? Well, they have the Turkish Twist, which is a ride where you lean up against the wall and it spins around and the floor drops and you stick to the wall because you’re spinning so fast! They also had a ride where you sit on these swing things, and then you go up, and then you go out, and you spin really fast! What did you like best about it? I liked that there were, like, water rides . . . and then there were rides to cool you off . . . and then there were many other types of rides -- like, dizzy rides and high rides. And there are rides for you to calm down on after a crazy ride. Which one was your favorite? I don’t know. I liked a lot of them. I couldn’t pick one. I liked them all. Which trip did you go on yesterday? I did the quilting weekend workshop. It was really fun, but it was also a lot of hard work. We first had to plan out how we wanted to do it, and then we had to sew everything on. It took, like, three hours. It takes a lot more hours to do a full quilting project -- we just made small quilts. How did you make them? Well, first we planned out how we wanted to make them on a piece of paper. There was a white background and a black background, and I chose the white background. You could either sew something on or stitch something on, and I usually just stitched something on. What did you put on your quilt? A tree. The trunk was brown and there were, like, different kinds of leaves. There were blue leaves, pink leaves, orange leaves. It was fun. My favorite part was when we were done with the front. We took the second piece and we stitched it on, and then we turned it inside out and put the fluff in! What made you decide to come back to Explo this year? I always have a lot of fun and I love the trips. We do a lot of stuff that’s fun, like we do a lot of dances and stuff. We always do the "Numa," which is a dance where, um . . . it’s kind of hard to describe. It has a lot of cool moves and it’s a really fun dance. How are your classes going? They’re going really well. I’m taking “3-D Studio” and “I Want To Be A Superstar”. In “3-D Studio” we’re making sculptures. The first sculpture we made was on cardboard. We ripped up cardboard and glued them together, and then we glued shells on and stuff. For the next sculpture, we threw pasta at a canvas. You threw pasta? Yeah. The first time we did it, it didn’t stick very well because it only got cooked for a really short time. When we did it the second time, it stuck really well because we cooked it longer. Then we let it dry and stick. And then we made sure that it was stuck on. We glued some other pasta on and we’re going to be painting them soon. It was really fun. What about your other class? In “I Want To Be A Superstar” we’ve been acting. For the first few days, we practiced by not using words and just acting out what we wanted to say. Then we could use our voices and use our movements to show when we were happy, sad, or excited. That way, everyone knew what the words meant to people and how they reacted to those words. We’re also going to do a play at Off-Broadway Night. What is Off-Broadway Night? A couple days before the end of Explo, all the people in the different acting classes perform what they’ve been working on. I don’t know what we’re going to pick for what we’ll act out; we’ve just been practicing so far. There are going to be animals in it and stuff. And we’re part animal and part human, so we can act like an animal but we’re also a human. What’s your favorite part about Explo? I don’t know. Explo is really fun so I like a lot of it. I wouldn’t be able to pick one thing. I like how there are a lot of different classes to pick from. I like all of the staff because they’re really nice and exciting. They like to have fun and do a lot of stuff with us. How are your classes different than your classes at school? Well, there are a lot more choices. Like, there are a lot of acting classes, and there aren’t many acting classes at school. And there are so many art classes, and there aren’t many art classes at my school, either. I love art. Would you recommend Explo to a friend at home? Yeah, I would! I would recommend it because you get to do a lot of fun stuff! You get to swim and do a lot of activities. There are art activities, sport activities, swimming activities . . . My favorites are the swimming and art activities. The one I liked the best was “Fantastic Feet Art”, where we painted with our feet. First I scribbled to get the hang of it, and then I made a picture for Anna, one of the staff members leading the activity. I tried to make flowers and grass and a sun, but it didn’t really go that well [laughs]. But then I made a superhero sign, and that one went well. I made a Superman poster for Superhero Day. Did you paint with your toes like finger painting, or did you put a paintbrush in between your toes? We used a paintbrush. If Explo were a type of food, what would it be? I think it would be cheese because cheese is my favorite food. Explo is like cheese because there are different types of cheese, and there are always different things going on at Explo. more conversations > first session \| second session