junior program summer site : conversations : second session



	Riya from Massachusetts (7/23) Riya, a fourth grade day student, is taking "Extreme Science" and "Hot Off the Press," a journalism class. In her first year, she's already tried some awesome new things -- like "Scrimshaw," a soap-carving activity in which her fish-to-be came out more like a whale. What does your average day look like? Well, yesterday, I had breakfast here. Then we played some board games before we met our DA's. We talked with them for a little while and then went to the locker room to put our stuff away. Then I have my first course, which is “Extreme Science.” My second course is “Hot Off the Press.” Then we have lunch. After that we have our activities. Yesterday, I stayed late and I stayed for the main event, which was staff-vs-staff basketball, which was really fun. Which staff team were you rooting for? The Red Team, because my DA was on it. Who's your DA? Gina. She's really nice and she does activities with us and she helps us with stuff and takes us where we need to go. And what's your day group like? Well, there's eight girls and they're really nice also. I knew one of them before -- she's my neighbor. Today we made these friendship bracelet thingies. We all had a circle of beads that represented us and kept them on our lanyards, but mine fell off. But I'm going to find it! Then we made wizard hats, because it's Harry Potter theme day tomorrow. What are you up to in your classes? In journalism, we wrote a story about. . . well, it was something that happened in class. We were about to take a quiz, and Jonah, who's our teacher, he told us to not turn over the papers. Then a wizard popped out and shouted “Razzle dazzle!” and Jonah fell and gasped, “Turn over your papers.” When we turned them over, it said, “Write a breaking news story about what just happened. Who? What? When? Where? Why?” So we wrote the story, and then had to get Jonah back. So how did your story read? Well, my story was “One day, Jonah's journalism class was going to take a quiz, but then a wizard popped out and said, 'Razzle dazzle' to Jonah, who fell to the ground.” Then I said, “Jonah will recover soon.” What about in “Extreme Science”? In “Extreme Science” we got to use the microscope and we looked at flowers and leaves and stuff, because we were learning about plants. They looked different up close, because you could see all the veins and stuff. They looked like yellow little stripes on the leaf. I think they carry food for the plant. And what activities did you do yesterday? I did “Scrimshaw” and quiet reading. What's “Scrimshaw”? In “Scrimshaw” we carved soap. I made a mini-whale. We took plastic knives and because it was soft soap, we could just carve around it. I actually wanted to do a fish, but it came out like a whale. Do you think it's easy to make new friends as a first-year student? Yes. All you really have to do is walk up to say “Hi” and ask what's their name, and then you've made a new friend. If Explo was a dessert, what kind of dessert would it be and why? It would be golden cake with chocolate frosting, because that's my favorite thing to eat for dessert. It's yummy and it's fun to eat. more conversations > first session \| second session