Last year the theme for Summer Quest was Pirates of the Medina. Pirate Lord Brent Walker and Admiral Deborah Queen of the Knowledge Trading Company led children through a summer on the literary seas. Kids had lots of fun with our 8 literary classes:
This class focused on finding Mythology in literature. The Rick Riordan series "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" was used to teach Mythology and show the differences between "accepted" or "original" mythology and the changes that have been made in literature over the years. Animals live all around us. This class focused on understanding animals and looking at the world from their point of view. Animals have a lot to teach us and we learn from them all the time, although often we don't realize it. The discoveries of Jane Goodall were the foundation of the curriculum for this class. From Star Wars to iRobot, technology and robots are working their way into literature. This class took a look at what a robot really is, how they work, and what their place is in our world and in the literary world. A look at plays and the theater is a crucial part of any literary study. This class taught kids about plays and the students culminated their knowledge by writing and performing their own plays. In real life and in literature there is culture. Some stories have characters and races with complete cultures and languages, others borrow from real cultures and make changes. This class taught kids to recognize the elements of culture and to identify real and fictional cultures in literature. Your body is precious so take care of it. This class helped kids to learn about staying healthy, physically, mentally, and socially. Kids discovered the perils of eating fast food and unhealthy foods through readings and internet searches. Every story has a hero. But what is a hero? This class discussed what it is that makes a hero, in literature, and in real life. If there is going to be a hero, there also has to be a villain. Children in this class also learned what makes a villain, and about the anti-hero, who saves the day in an uncouth way. Our planets resources are limited. This class taught kids to be responsible when using our natural resources. Water conservation, recycling, and much more were taught in this class. The Edwards Aquifer Authority provided many helpful resources and knowledge sources. Other fun events that went on were Puppy Camp, the Summer Writing Camp, Movie Nights, Circus Night, and much more. |