Summer is featuring some learning and fun for Bridgeport Elementary School students who are joining in the academic summer camp through June. This year’s motto is: “Go Wild for Reading and Math.”
Curriculum Director Leslie Kosanovic said 60-70 preschoolers through fourth graders attend every year.
“Any student from our current Pre-K through fourth grade are eligible to attend,” she said. “We do provide transportation if the parents need it. We have two buses running every day.”
The little ones tried their hand at constructing paper rockets and launching them with straws in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) classroom. Instructors showed them how to seal the rockets against air leaks and to measure the distance they flew, with the objective of launching a rocket three feet. This ties in with earlier lessons about how rockets function in propelling a shuttle into space.
In other classrooms, the elementary school students researched the characteristics of different animals and wrote and illustrated their own books using the Keynote program on their school iPads. Students also got Spanish lessons and some physical education.
Kosanovic said the summer camp has become popular during the 10 or so years it has been active, with elementary students attending each year as they advance in grade. She said the camp provides a welcome boost to education during the summer months.
“It really does help to support the students. There’s lot of fun activities,” she said. “We even have some middle schoolers that used to attend our summer camp that are now in middle school that are student volunteers helping in that third and fourth grade classroom.”
Kosanovic said education students from Ohio University Eastern also join in and provide tutoring.
Elementary School Principal Kamaron Sabinski said students respond to the combination of learning and fun.
“It’s an excellent way to extend our students’ education and prevent summer slide from occurring, especially in English/Language Arts,” she said. “It is very exciting and fun for them.”
She added one key feature of the camp’s success is that the school provides transportation to students whose parents are at work and cannot bring them.
The Go Wild summer camp is held 9 a.m.-noon June 3-6, June 10-13, and June 17-18 and June 20. There will be no camp on Juneteenth, June 19.
Kosanovic said students who attend eight out of the 11 days will be rewarded with a field trip to the Good Zoo at Oglebay on June 20.
“They provide a zoo program for our children where they discuss careers at a zoo, the various zoo animals and what it is like to work at a zoo. In addition, our children get to explore the zoo and experience the zoo train ride.”
Pre-K students must be enrolled in kindergarten at Bridgeport Schools for the 2024-2025 school year to participate.
For more information, call the elementary school office at 740-635-0853 extension 1010.
