11.17.21
Hi Everyone,
And, just like that! We are halfway through our fall program. Once again we had a brilliant weekend with superb attendance from our students. Many thanks to all of our parents for helping make this happen!
Check out some highlights from this weekend…
One of the most challenging aspects of running a program on Saturday morning is ensuring that students are motivated to attend. That means that each aspect of the program, be it academic or enrichment based, needs to be enjoyable and active. Enrichments tend to have that in natural abundance but the traditional academic component needs to be well thought out to have the same impact. Done just right, students learn and have fun at the same time. In the picture above, Mrs. D’Aiutolo is doing just that by using a fast paced, competitive card game to teach multiplication facts.
The Harley School has an abundance of places where students can design and build projects. The Makerspace located in the barn is such a place. We were thrilled to be able to partner with the head of the department, Seth O’Brien, to have our middle school students immersed in a construction project. After building wooden boxes with a plexiglass base, students worked in small groups to build Foosball tables. After initial measuring, drilling, and dowel placement, the next phase will involve designing the players using digital printers. Here, Jayla uses CAD to begin the design phase of the project.
Reading instruction is a central part of the Horizons program both during the Summer and throughout the year. With group sizes that rarely exceed a 5:1 ratio, teachers are able to work much more diagnostically with individual students and quick progress can be made in areas of weakness. During the summer, two reading specialists work with individual students every day. Here, Miss Kelly is working with her second grade group on locating the common matching vowel sounds in words.
Support Horizons:
Attendance is often used as a guide to how the program is progressing. This weekend 28 of 29 (97%) students attended the program. That’s how we make a difference. Our program is entirely funded through the support of individuals, businesses and foundations. People like you! If you would like to support our ongoing work, you can visit us here: https://www.horizonsatharley.