Hard as it is to believe, Aspire students are more than halfway through with our summer learning camp! These past two weeks have been filled with so much joy as students broke codes, wrote myths, and became official pirates.

Summer learning programs like Aspire are vital in helping students retain the learning they gained during the school year, keeping students safe while their parents are at work, and providing a place where students can make lifelong friendships. Last week was National Summer Learning Week, a week dedicated to shining a spotlight on the vital role high-quality summer programs play in supporting student success and closing the opportunity gap. Here at Aspire, we know how critical the summer months are for historically underserved students to be able to keep learning so that when school starts up again in the fall, they can hit the ground running.

You can read more about the impact of our work in our recent news coverage, including a CNN article, NBC news segment, WAMU article, and WBAL news segment. When asked about Aspire, our students shared that Aspire makes them feel more competent and they get extra support here. One said that Aspire had helped her with her English and now she translates for her parents.

If you want to read more about what our students have been up to this summer, you can catch up on the first two weeks of camp in our blog post. Stay tuned for details about the final weeks of camp!

Week Three: Ancient Mythology

The third week of camp took students back in time to explore Ancient Mythology, which took them on a trip from ancient Greece to Scandinavia and the Mayan Empire to the Golden Age of Piracy. They learned about the Mayan calendar, created glyphs, made their own island, and more!

• Making clay artifacts inspired by the ancient Maya of Tikal. Students learned about Tikal’s art and culture to create clay artifacts inspired by the ancient Maya. First, they studied Tikal’s history and its importance as a major Mayan city. Then, they made figurines and pottery that linked their work to the Mayan people’s culture.
• Creating their own myths. Throughout the week, students used their storytelling skills and worked together to create their own myths, inspired by Greek mythology. After carefully crafting the different parts of their myth (the setting, the problem, the characters, the resolution), they invented original myths that taught lessons from Pandora’s Box, the myth of Icarus, and more. Our middle schoolers even created original poems based on the myths they wrote!
• Granting their friends immortality. Students learned about the Norse goddess Idunn, who grows gold apples that give the gods their immortality, during a lesson on Norse mythology. Focusing on her  gifts of immortality, they wrote kind messages for their classmates on apples which they painted gold. After they gave their apples away, students reflected on the messages they wanted their peers to carry with them forever. 
• Building their own wings. In a lesson on aerodynamics, students connected mythology with science. They focused on the Myth of Icarus. After learning how the wax on Icarus’s wings melted when he flew too close to the sun,, they talked about how to improve the wings in a lesson about physics. They studied lift, drag, and weight. Finally, they used their problem-solving skills to build and fly their own paper airplane wings! They had fun testing these wings in the hallway and seeing whose could go the farthest.

Week Four: Dragons & Knights

This week, students turned their heads toward the sky to learn about Fiery Dragons and Knights! They solved riddles, decoded ciphers, wrote folklore, and even built castles that could withstand dragon attacks!

• Solving and writing knight and dragon-themed riddles. To start off the week, students solved knight and dragon-themed riddles. They found the solutions by working together and using their logic and language skills. Then, they wrote their own riddles, applying their creative thinking skills in the process! See if you can solve this one: “I breathe without lungs and roar without a mouth. What am I?”
• Using their codebreaking skills to find hidden treasure. In their math lesson, students decoded secret messages about pirates, knights, and codebreakers! This lesson helped students practice math skills, develop their logic skills, and crack the codes!  Can you crack the code? 20-8-5 20-18-5-1-19-21-18-5 9-19 14-5-1-18! You can find the answer at the bottom of this newsletter.
• Creating their own dragon folklore stories. This week, students learned about dragon tales. After getting background information on a tale called Saint George and the Dragon, students invented plots and designs to create their own stories. Using their imagination, students drew colorful dragon characters and wrote sentences on each page. They showed their creativity throughout the lesson–some dragons were friendly, and others even had pets!
• Building castles that can withstand a dragon attack. In their engineering lesson, students built model castles. First, they learned about key elements of castle design–strong walls, moats, towers, and secret passageways. Then, they used recycled materials, like toilet paper rolls and folded cardboard, to create strongholds that could survive a dragon attack! Students worked in teams to design their castle’s features, build models, and test stability. During the activity, they improved their teamwork skills by sharing ideas and listening to their teammates. They also put their problem-solving and design thinking skills to use. It’s safe to say that no dragon would be able to knock down their castles!

Pirate Takeover

The Skullduggery Crew, a local crew of historically inspired pirates, came to visit Aspire and give students a fun lesson on what it was like to be a real pirate. Recent funding cuts mean that we haven’t been able to take students on as many educational field trips as we usually do, so the Skullduggery Crew came to us and took over a room for a few hours! They showed students historically accurate weapons, taught them some new facts about surviving on the open seas, and even swore them into their pirate crew. 

Want to become a pirate with our students? Repeat the pirate swear-in: “I have not been doing me homework. I have not been cleaning me room. My financial portfolio is a mess! Therefore, I have no choice but to become a pirate!”

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Answers from week four

Riddle: Fire

Code: THE TREASURE IS NEAR!