Harker’s big yellow buses don’t sit idle in the summertime–there are eager campers in color-coded T-shirts headed to destinations near and far.
The planetarium, ice skating, aviation and tech museums, boating, wildlife centers and beaches: Every age group has its own field trips and each camper attends one every two weeks. Children signed up for all eight weeks experience four unique adventures.
Harker’s field trips help set it apart from other summer camps, but the difference is not just in where the kids go and what they do there. Also important is who accompanies them and how.
Shepherding a couple dozen or more children through an off-campus experience doesn’t seem a suitable job for the faint of heart. But it’s not as hard as you might think, says Vanessa Bullman, Harker’s calm, competent and unflappable program director. The campers wear their identical camp T-shirts on field trip days, she says, “and we always bring plenty of staff. At Harker, it’s always ‘safety first.’”
“We do this all the time,” adds Kelly Espinosa, director of summer programs, “and we train our staff very well.” In fact, it’s not uncommon for children from other camps to approach Harker counselors on a field trip because they are very visible and accessible, she says. “They are the ones out there doing the activity with the kids.”
Staff members are deployed strategically by the program planners, who expertly assess each location. As an example, Espinosa says, “We noticed that one venue has a door to the outside in a place that is not usually monitored. So we put a staff member there for the entire time we are there.”
Of course, the kids don’t know about all the planning and training that precedes an off-campus adventure. For them, the experience starts with getting on the bus. Here, as in other areas, Harker has a clear built-in advantage. “Parents like that we use our own buses for field trips, with our regular Harker bus drivers,” says Espinosa. “The kids get to know the drivers as part of the staff.”
And when they get off the bus, the campers should find an experience that is stimulating and a little bit different. “We try to offer field trips that are really fun, and either new to most kids or something they don’t get to do very often,” says Bullman.
Shonak Gosh, Gr. 1, said he enjoyed touring the Hiller Aviation Museum this summer with his group, the Owls (Gr. 1-2). Besides seeing the exhibits and making an airplane in a workshop, his favorite aspect of the trip was “getting to turn on the radio in an airplane.”
The staff consistently incorporates new field trips while keeping and refining favorites for each age group. Since most campers attend the same camp session (A or B) each year, the trips are rotated annually. At the end of the two-year cycle, the campers have moved into the next age group–and on to different field trips.
A perennial favorite with the kindergartners is Ardenwood Historic Farm in Fremont. There they can see a variety of farm animals and a working garden, and learn about such activities as grinding corn and making rope.
Kelle Sloan, program director, says that the students really enjoy just walking around experiencing such a different environment. She adds, though, that the biggest highlight in the past has been a ride on a historic 1885 North Pacific Coast Railroad flatcar pulled by draft horses.
At the other end of the age spectrum, the Eagles (Gr. 5-8) enjoy temperature extremes. One week they go ice skating, and another they head to the beach in Santa Cruz (lifeguards in tow) for an afternoon filled with games, water play and a sandcastle-building contest.
Meanwhile, the Condors (Gr. 3-4) traveled recently to Natural Bridges State Park. There, the campers divided into groups and embarked on a docent-led nature walk. Alexandra Janssen, Gr. 4, said that her group received an impromptu visit from a painted lady butterfly and “we got to see this really cool, mossy lake. It was all greenish on top because of duckweed.” Alexandra loves the field trips her group takes. “I like that they are really fun and educational, but they are not too educational because they still have the fun in them,” she says.
Families looking for a two-week summer camp for grades 1-4, or for a different kind of academic experience, find it in Harker’s thematic curriculum option. Like their four-week counterparts, two-week campers study in the morning and join activities in the afternoon. But instead of focusing primarily on math and language arts in the morning, they examine a broad topic from a variety of disciplines.
In this year’s thematic program, titled Big Blue Marble, three sessions explored Africa/Asia, Australia/Antarctica and the Americas, respectively. The curriculum integrated science, history, the arts and social studies–and of course math and language arts–into a multidisciplinary study of the continents.
Veteran Harker teacher Kathleen Ferreti taught all three modules this summer. Early on in their study of Antarctica, she equipped the students with compasses, which they calibrated and learned to use before trooping outside. “If we’re going exploring like scientists, we need to be able to find our way,” she says.
During this hands-on lesson, they answered questions like: What is the eastern- or western-most part of the campus? What direction is our classroom from where we now stand? “My classroom has no walls,” says Ferreti. “My objective is to take it outside as much as I can, and to do real-life stuff.”
When they did get back inside, the students were tasked with making their own compasses by rubbing a steel needle in one direction on a magnet, attaching a cork and floating the apparatus in water. It points north!
Some of the lessons tend to integrate a lot of science, like this one did. Others lean toward culture and the arts. Among Ferreti’s many talents is taiko drumming. During the study of Asia, her taiko group paid a special visit to the class.
During the Africa module, students made hummus and fufu (sweet potato balls). They also used a spaghetti maker, not to make pasta but to press beads for African-style necklaces. They studied mummies and hieroglyphic writing, and created 3D square and triangular pyramids.
In each two-week session, students write in their travel journals, count in different languages and read fiction–some historical, some classic.
Language arts and mathematics are inseparable when it comes to reading and discussing “One Grain of Rice,” a folk tale that has taken many forms throughout Asia. It always features a peasant hero who is awarded one grain of rice, doubled each day for a month. He ultimately feeds his whole village; meanwhile, Ferreti uses a matrix to show each step, from one to more than 1 billion grains of rice.
“I really enjoy the integrated curriculum. It gives me a chance to explore things in a way I don’t have time to do during the school year,” she says, adding that students who attend Harker also seem to find it something of a break. “It’s a chance to look at things in a different way and have a lot of fun doing it.”
The thematic approach appeals to more than just Harker regulars. Third-grader Natasha Goudarzi attended Harker for the first time this summer to study the Americas. Of Ms. Ferreti she says, “She’s really nice and cheerful and we do a lot of games with her and fun stuff.”
In class, Natasha made fast friends with Hailey Horton, Gr. 3, and her sister, Caroline, Gr. 4, both of whom were also new to Harker. The class read “The Great Kapok Tree,” and the girls enjoyed creating a play in which each student took on a rainforest animal role (or three) and admonished a would-be woodcutter.
Their favorite thing, however, was a taste test of Brazilian agricultural exports, specifically chocolate and bananas. The coffee beans were not for tasting, said Caroline, “but we got to smell them.”
“And some crunched-up ones, too,” volunteered her sister. “They smell a lot like coffee.”
So many choices, so little time! On any given day one can find hundreds of lower and middle school students remaining on campus after the academic day ends. These students have a wide range of enrichment activities from which to choose, many provided by the staff of BEST (Bucknall/Blackford Enrichment and Supervision Team). At each campus, students can sign up for regularly scheduled enrichment classes or can drop in for a variety of activities, both physical and less active. Some classes are taught by outside instructors, some by BEST staff, and all are quite popular.
the Bucknall campus, students can choose from classes such as musical instrument instruction, Hindi, yoga, chess, cheerleading and art. One of the most popular activities is dance. In K-Gr. 5, 290 students chose dance this year, and 250 of them – all but the kindergartners – danced in the May dance show. Preethi Kandappan, Gr. 5, has been taking after-school dance since Gr. 1, and took up tap dance fourth quarter. “I like being on stage and being with my friends,” she stated. Laughing, she added, “I like everything!”
Jason Ting, Gr. 3, participates in jazz ensemble, chess and dance after school. His favorite is jazz ensemble, which is a new activity this year. In this class, he said, ”I get to interact with other students, and I like playing the trumpet.” He likes chess because, “I actually get to play with other people and get to experience new techniques.” He has taken chess and dance since first grade.
Amanda Crook, program coordinator, is a typical example of an enthusiastic BEST staff member. One of her favorite activities is the end-of-year Kiddie Carnival, held for school. “Every year planning a party for the last day of school – what could be better than that?” she asked.
Kim Coulter, Bucknall’s BEST program director, has been with Harker since 1987. The program has grown since then from one full-time director, Kelly Espinosa (now director of summer programs) and five part-time staff members to two separate programs, each with its own director, and eight full-time and 25 part-time BEST staff. Each campus has additional learning workshop teachers and outside companies that provide programs as well. In addition to leading enrichment activities, BEST staff members provide supervision before and after school as well as at recess and lunch.
Coulter, who has a B.A. degree in liberal studies with a minor in child psychology, is constantly working to find new ways to improve the BEST program, and feels that children should be provided as many different enrichment options as possible. She recently explained, “It is my hope that the children can find their passion and talents through the BEST program, allowing them success in doing what truly makes them happy.” She added, “The BEST program is like no other program you’ll find. We have amazing staff, offer a variety of activities and provide the ‘neighborhood’ to the students of The Harker School.”
Erin Clifford, Blackford’s BEST program director, has been at Harker since 2005, and holds a B.S. in kinesiology with an athletic training emphasis and a minor in sociology. She is also driven to find new programs. “The middle school students have so much energy and curiosity!” she exclaimed. “I enjoy the challenge of finding enrichment classes and activities that will peak their interest.” This includes classes such as Photoshop, Mandarin, food science and Club BEST, in which students can choose from a different daily physical or non-physical activity. “The most important part of BEST is giving the students a sense of security while having fun,” Clifford said.
The staff certainly seems to provide that. Melina “Bean” Nakos, Gr. 6, likes the drop-in and special activities offered after school. She explained, “I like when they do competitions, like when they did the competition for spirit week on making a cookie.”
Ian Richardson, Gr. 8, also enjoys Club BEST. He added, “I kind of like when the BEST staff gets all fun with us and we play the Ninja game. It’s kind of fun because they interact with us.”
This article originally appeared in the summer 2010 Harker Quarterly.
On a beautiful, sunny afternoon in early May, lower school students were given an opportunity to show off their relatives at the annual Grandparents’ Day. Approximately 180 students had grandparents or grandfriends present and all were treated to a special afternoon.
Chris Nikoloff, head of school, gave the opening remarks and was followed by special grandparents’ Day performances – students in Gr. 1 and Gr. 4 sang songs and Dance Fusion performed. After the performances the students and their families toured the campus, with many a beaming grandparent holding a small hand in theirs. Refreshments were served and visitors met with teachers, viewed art exhibits and reveled in seeing a slice of their grandchildren’s day. Once again this event was extremely successful and we look forward to seeing everyone again next year.
First day jitters at the start of kindergarten are expected, but many families skip the butterflies altogether by participating in Harker’s KinderCamp, which provides a gentle transition into the school’s youngest grade level.
While conforming to the summer format of morning academics and afternoon activities, KinderCamp’s primary objective is to help students become familiar with the Harker environment, and allow them to learn and practice some of the skills needed for kindergarten.
Faculty never lose sight of the fact that this is a first experience for the kids. “It’s very nurturing,” says veteran kindergarten teacher Grace Wallace. “That is my number one goal: for it to be very welcoming for both the parents and the children.”
The morning academics are designed to engage students in learning through games, songs, crafts and manipulatives. “Summer is very hands-on,” says Wallace. “We want to promote learning in an environment that is really enjoyable, one that makes them curious and want to explore.”
On a recent day, the students stacked Fruit Loops in different combinations adding up to the number five, for a delicious take on problem solving and computation. Playdough provided an opportunity to build finger strength and motor control while learning and practicing shapes.
Weekly themes include Pets and the Fourth of July. Cat crowns, puppy puppets, and Uncle Sam hats challenge a variety of motor, computational, and phonetic skills. “I’m a big believer in implementing a skill through crafts,” Wallace says. Hence the patterns practiced in red, white, and blue pinto beans and the puppets printed with three-letter words. There is a lot of learning going on under the guise of fun and games.
Wallace says she feels like she has done her job if the kids “are happy and love coming to school, and feel that they can succeed here socially, developmentally, and academically.”
Gr. 1 parent Trupti Kapadia is glad she took the advice of other Harker parents and enrolled her twins in KinderCamp last year. “The summer is so relaxed and fun that my kids loved school from day one,” she says. “There was really no breaking in period when school started, because they were familiar with the campus and the people.”
In addition to offering an unusually hands-on curriculum, the summer program differs from the school year in that classes are smaller and fewer in number. This provides an opportunity for the children to become familiar with the kindergarten environment when it is less busy.
The schedule is more relaxed as well. During the school year, kindergartners often visit a different teacher for either math or language arts. They have a separate science and social studies curriculum, and they go to P.E., Music, Art, and Library. During the summer, they remain with the same teacher all morning and, while other disciplines are integrated into the curriculum, the focus is on math and language arts.
The students practice more than their letters and numbers, however. “We’re focusing a lot on social skills and listening skills,” says Wallace. “We do it during the school year, too, but summer gives us a chance to really zero in on those. They learn social skills in the morning in the classroom, and they learn them in a different way playing in the afternoon.”
During the optional afternoon program, the youngest campers form their own group, known as the Sparrows, and take full advantage of camp activities, including swimming, archery, crafts, and games. “With the exception of the climbing wall, they get to do everything the big kids do,” says program director Vanessa Bullman.
Of course, some activities look a little different when it’s the Sparrows’ turn. Their swim lessons, for example, are conducted in very small groups, with no more than 3 students per instructor. Also unique to this age group is naptime. Each day, one 45-minute activity period is allocated to nap or rest time. Children are not required to sleep, but it’s a quiet interlude guaranteed to inspire envy among grown-ups.
Perhaps most popular with the kids are the field trips. Twice during each four-week session, the Sparrows don their trademark orange camp T-shirts and head for such destinations as Happy Hollow, the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, indoor playland Jungle Island, and Ardenwood Farm in Fremont.
The Kapadia children liked KinderCamp so much last year, their mother says, that “every day, they woke up and couldn’t wait to go to school. In fact, one Saturday, my daughter asked just to drive by and see the school, even though no one was there.”
The Harker Gr. 6 class entertained an enthusiastic audience during the May Spring Sing concert. The crowd was very impressed with the diversity of the songs, which included “Castle On A Cloud” from the hit musical “Les Misérables,” “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” by Elton John, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin, “Life Is a Highway” by Tom Cochrane, the classic American hymn “When the Saints Go Marching In” and Journey’s famous anthem “Don’t Stop Believing.” The production also featured such famous icons such as Uncle Sam, Betsy Ross and Frank Sinatra.
The 2010 lower school dance concert, titled “When I Grow Up,” took place in May and featured more than 250 dancers Gr. 1-5, in addition to 26 dancers from the Harker faculty and staff. The spectacular show was directed by Gail Palmer, with assistant direction from Amalia Vasconi, Karl Kuehn and Rachelle Ellis. Back in October, dancers had roundtable discussions with the dance instructors and told them what they wanted to be and do when they grow up. The Bucknall faculty and staff were also asked what their wishes were for the students, and the routines reflected these concepts.
Dance routines included our students’ desires to: graduate high school; travel the world; be an athlete, doctor, scientist, firefighter, musician, artist, parent, rock star and teacher. Dance styles included jazz, hip hop, tap, lyrical, ballet, modern and musical theater.
They also included the faculty and staffs’ hopes that the students be happy, have love, be caring and compassionate with each other, work hard and use their talents, be confident with integrity and morals and keep their youthful exuberance. All hoped the students would take care of the world and make it a better place.
In May, lower school musicians gave the summer a warm welcome at the End-of-Year Concert. Members of the Bucknall Choir, Jazz Ensemble and Orchestra played a varied selection of songs, including “Ode to Joy” by Beethoven, a medley of famous Bach pieces, the theme from “Jurassic Park” by film composer John Williams and “Smoke on the Water” by English rock band Deep Purple. The entire round-up of performers collaborated on “The Harker School Song,” written by David Len Allen, and the finale “I Am a Gummy Bear” by Christian Schneider.
For the first time, choirs from all three campuses came together one March evening for the United Voices concert, which featured the lower school’s Bucknall Choir, the Gr. 7-8 singing group Vivace (both directed by Jennifer Cowgill) and the upper school groups Bel Canto, directed by Catherine Snider, and Cantilena, directed by Susan Nace. All four groups thoroughly entertained the evening audience at the Blackford Theater, each singing pieces in a number of different styles from cultures all over the world. Among the many highlights were the Bucknall Choir’s version of the Spanish folk song “Que Llueva,” Vivace’s rendition of Mozart’s “Luci Care,” a performance of the Mack Gordon and Harry Warren classic “At Last” by Bel Canto and the closing song, the American folk hymn “How Can I Keep From Singing?” by Cantilena.
The kindergarten classes took their audience on a jungle cruise during the 2010 kindergarten show at the Bucknall Theater on April 22. Directed by lower school music teacher Louis Hoffman (who also played the part of Baloo the Bear), the production featured students from each class playing the roles of various wildlife, including elephants, tigers and bears.
Backed by a well-crafted set designed by Whitney McClelland and lighting that provided the ideal safari atmosphere, the students performed and sang songs that fit the event’s theme, such as “Banana Phone” and “Morgan the Monkey.” There were also several songs from Disney’s “The Jungle Book,” including “Elephant March,” “That’s What Friends are For” and “The Bare Necessities.”
A highlight of the show was a special song and dance number featuring the quintessential jungle anthem “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” featuring choreography by lower school dance teacher Gail Palmer.
Technical director Danny Dunn and assistant technical director Ivo Salemink ‘04 (a former exchange student) received help from Dunn’s Gr. 5 technical theater students, who all played a key part in running the show.