It’s the second week of the Horizons at KCC summer learning program at Kellogg Community College, and the kids say it’s been lots of fun. In addition to instruction in literacy and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) each weekday morning, the kids take field trips each afternoon, often to swim at the Battle Creek YMCA.
Last Friday, as the kids made brightly colored “slime” out of glue and paint, the instructors said the theme they came up with for this year’s Horizons at KCC program is “Wild Things,” based on the children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak, who died this past spring.
In keeping with that theme, last week the students visited Growing Point Pet Center in Battle Creek, where the kids said they saw spiders, snakes, lizards, fish and a parrot, among other creatures. In class, they made “monster mouths” and used them to learn about greater than/less than math (see the video above). This week, they visited a private residence, where they were able to see, ride and learn about horses.
The instructors said that each week of the summer learning program — which runs through July 27 — a different teacher develops different lessons around a different theme. Last week the theme was fish, and in addition to visiting the pet center the kids saw a fish puppet show and did “fish cracker” math.
This week the theme is birds, and the group is scheduled to visit the W.K. Kellogg Bird Sanctuary for a field trip tomorrow, weather permitting.
Click through the Horizons at KCC link above to learn more about the program, or visit www.horizonsnational.org to learn about Horizons National.
For information about the new elementary education degree program at Kellogg Community College, visit www.kellogg.edu/education/secondary.html.