junior program summer site : conversations : first session



	Kaela from Massachusetts (6/30) Kaela is entering the 4th grade, and it's her first year at the Junior Program. She's excited for her classes, Creating a Kingdom and 3D Studio -- two subjects she's never tried before. More than anything, she's excited for a great first summer at Explo. Is this your first time at Explo? Yeah, I'm going into 4th grade. What got you interested in coming? My babysitter was talking about how excited she was to be coming to Explo and she kept talking to me about it. I went to my mom and dad and asked them if I could go too. So what did you do for the first day? We had classes first -- I'm taking Creating a Kingdom and 3D Studio -- and then group activities after lunch. What do you do in Creating a Kingdom? Well, they split the class into teams and there's six people in your group, which is your kingdom. Then the two kingdoms have to find food and water and they have to battle against each other and trade. So today we decided who would do what in the group, and made plans for our empire and made maps. I'm the architect, so I get to design the town and the insides of the castle. We don't know what we're going to make the castle out of yet, but we made the blueprints for it today. Sounds awesome. And what's happening in 3D Studio? We make things that are 3D every day -- like, a different type of sculpture each day. We get to use different things each class like papier-mache and wire and stuff. How do the classes here compare to the classes at school? They're fun! You know, not boring. I'd never even heard of some of the stuff that they do here, like the medieval kingdom class. That's totally new. What did you do during today's group activities? We made a flag for our [day] group. We designed it with crayons and stuff, and our motto was “Color your Imagination.” That's great! What happens during the assemblies? Well, usually they do some skits with the RA's [Residential Advisors] and DA's [Day Advisors] to announce the activities. They'll put on music and a few people will dress up and start acting the skit out and dancing. My favorite one so far was where they danced to “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” -- it was really funny! Do you know what workshops you're signed up for? The first one is called Team Challenge. Basically, you get broken up into a team and are given a challenge that you all have to work together to do. Like, you might have to move through a “mine shaft,” but if you spoke one word it would collapse. So you have to figure out a language that doesn't use talking to get through it safely. And what about your other workshop? It's called I Can't Believe It's Not Stained Glass. We take a piece of glass and put really thin color paper against it and it comes out looking like stained glass. It's like an arts & crafts type thing. I don't really do that kind of stuff at school usually. If Explo were an ice cream flavor, what would it be and why? It would be coffee ice cream, because coffee is my favorite and so is Explo! more conversations > first session \| second session