Horizons Opens Fourth Year

In our fourth year, Horizons at Saint David's welcomed 67 boys from five Harlem schools across four grades. The school is humming with activity this summer as boys work, learn, and socialize with each other.

Horizons continues to grow. This summer, eight teachers are coordinating the homerooms with five teachers working as specialists in science, music, art, and athletics. A reading specialist oversees the implementation of the comprehensive reading program. Nine Saint David's alumni volunteers support the program daily, along with three Saint David's teacher volunteers. Horizons is administered by a team of three.

Following are a few highlights of the first two weeks:

First graders are learning about plants. Last week during STEM time they planted wheatgrass that has already grown several inches.

A highlight for fourth grade boys is their study of simple machines. In addition, Lynn Wright and The Actors Company Theater (TACT) have teamed up with our fourth grade boys and their teachers to teach improvisational theater techniques. As part of their study, the boys visited the Classical Theater of Harlem to learn about their performance of Shakespeare's "Tempest" and get a behind-the- scenes look at the stage.

Following the Saint David's tradition of team sports during athletics time, the third and fourth grade boys now have sports together, facilitating a four team rotation for games. It has proven to be a very exciting part of the day.

Second grade boys are studying insects and using Beebots in their STEM classes.

Third graders are learning about rockets. This summer, they will design and build their own rockets and launch them in the backyard testing height, speed, and velocity.

During Friday afternoon assemblies, several boys from each grade are recognized each week for something special.

The second, third, and fourth grades last week traveled to Marymount's Fab Lab to learn about circuits.

For our fourth grade boys this is their fourth summer in the program. They have grown so much academically, socially, and emotionally. The program is a smashing success. This Wednesday morning is an Open House, drop us a line if you'd like to view the program in action.

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OLIVER!

This morning our fifth graders continued a great year-end tradition at Saint David's, The Fifth Grade Musical. The boys performed Oliver! and they were fantastic, providing impressive performances and demonstrating great vocal ability. They have been mastering the dialogue and musical numbers for weeks, and clearly gave it their all. Congratulations to the cast on a job well done, and to their Producers/Teachers James Hubbard and Jamie MacNeille, Director Phyllis Clark, Musical Conductor Jeff Moore, and the Parent Committee of Cynthia Chapman, Susan Kissane, Tara Neumann, Joyce Restituto, and Ann Roberts. Musical theater is alive and well at Saint David's!

Sixth Graders Meet with Dr. Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History

Dr. Carter Emmart with Saint David's Sixth Graders This past Friday, as part of our unique partnership with the American Museum of Natural History, sixth graders had the great honor to attend a private lecture given by Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at AMNH. Dr. Emmart told the boys about his passion for science along with an overview of the history of the Hayden Planetarium. He also gave the boys advice on how to take scientific information about the universe and compile it into an interesting and captivating show for an audience. The boys were able to see Dr. Emmart's original sketches, which helped create the Uniview program they are using to develop their presentations. The session provided our boys with an opportunity to learn how art and science come together in the planetarium, and to obtain expert advice on developing their own space shows from one of the creators of Uniview . You can learn more about Dr. Emmart's work and Univie...

Surf's Up for Horizons at Saint David's

Little can top catching a wave to beat the heat on an exceptionally hot summer's day. Yesterday, as the temperatures soared into the nineties, the Horizons at Saint David's Eighth Grade class traveled to Rockaway Beach with their teachers for surf lessons with New York's premiere surf school, Locals Surf School. The boys have been taking swimming lessons through our program since their first summer with us in 2012. At that time, they were were rising first graders, and our inaugural cohort of Horizons students. Yesterday, they were ready to go, and, as these pictures show, they had a blast while learning a new skill. This is the eighth year of Horizons at Saint David's, a six-week multi-faceted academic and cultural summer experience whose mission is to prevent summer slide in elementary school boys from low-income families. We began the program in conjunction with Saint David's 60th anniversary in 2011, as one way that Saint David's as an ins...

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