Episode 5: Holiday Road

Week 6 Challenge – Animal Diorama Week 6 Group Field Trip – The National Zoo

Reminders: Wash your hands

Wear a mask Have a great day

Look for purple cows Be excellent to each other

Don’t worry be happy!

2020 Summer Adventure @ John Baker

Desperately Seeking Purple Cows As you know by now, this summer we are on a quest to locate a bunch of purple cows. This week we channeled our inner wizards and tried our hand at magic and some spells to locate the cows.

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The Snow Leopards decided to summon a cow with chalk art and included pictures of themselves so the cows would know where to go.

Jim tried his spell, Bippity Boppity Moo, and found this little guy named CiCi wandering around the site last weekend. They teamed up and created a picture scavenger hunt for the kids to do at the end of the summer, complete with a fun dairy treat at the end.

Taco Pugs Spells: Teleportation theme?

Carter: ’Cowus Tobowus’ – teleports a purple cow to you and makes them bow at your feet and do anything you say.

Graham: ‘Tele Cowus’ – teleports a purple cow right to you.

Miles: ‘Cowa Kazam’ – Teleports every single purple cow in the world to you. Be ready!!!

Dono: ‘Ala Ka Bam’ – teleports you to the planet of purple cows.

Andre had a different, and rather brilliant, idea: If you want purple cows you need purple grass so let’s turn the grass purple and see what we get.

Stormtrooper Spells

Cooper: ‘Balloon Fiesta’ – everything turns purple. ‘Purple Kazam’ – purple cows come to you.

Andrew L.: ‘Alakazam’ – turns a regular cow into a purple one.

Ayden: Give it cow food and the purple cow will re-spawn.

Week 5 Pod Challenge – Fireworks Art

Commentary from the Snow Leopards:

Emma: I love the 4th of July cause of all the cool fireworks. We always go to our grandma’s. Gianna: I love the 4th of July because of the fireworks. Isla: I really like hanging out with my family & watching fireworks together.

The Taco Pugs decided to paint over our giant canvas for their firework art display. We’ll keep it for 2 weeks before we let the

Snow Leopards have their turn.

Fieldtrip of the Week: 2019 Fireworks Show in Japan

Commentary from the Snow Leopards:

We asked our kids why we celebrate the 4th of July: Riley: It’s the day we do fireworks, duh. Rowan: Well, it’s called Independence Day, but I don’t know why. So we watched a video that explained Independence Day to kids before the fireworks show. Riley: America became free from the king and queen. Rowan: 4th of July is when we celebrate America’s birthday Gianna: It’s when they signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Commentary from the Stormtroopers:

Andre: Woah, look! Ayden: I’m not scared of fireworks.

Given the short holiday week we decided to take a somewhat different field trip. We checked out a 30 minute long fireworks show in Japan from 2019. It was rather different from what we see here for the 4th of July but it was a lot of fun too.

Pod 1: The Snow Leopards

Chopped

This week we used a variety of ingredients to make a culinary masterpiece. They were being judged on creativity, transformation of ingredients, name, and color palette. Rowan: Mine is called Mysterious. The apple and orange have surprises in them when you open them up. Riley: Mine is called Purrilicious. It is the face of a cat. The carrots were really good for the face. Emma: This is an apple biscuit with applesauce icing and cheese as a topping.

Next week:

Foil Boats Blind Sound Race Animal Sellout

Friendship Bracelets ‘Dolphins Reef’ Movie

A Tale of Two Apples

Miriam found this ‘experiment’ online and decided to try it with the Snow Leopards. Miriam: So I got 2 apples similar in color and shape. I dropped one on the ground repeatedly so that it was beat up on the inside but still looks the same outside (don’t let the kids see you drop it). I showed the 2 apples to the kids and we talked about how they were similar.

Rowan: They’re both shiny. Samuel: I wanna eat them. Jesse: They look sweet Alyssa: Those are Gala apples. Miriam: I took the apple I dropped and said ‘I don’t like this apple; it’s ugly.’ The kids were confused and asked why. I said I just do. I want you guys to not like it and say mean things too. Emma: You’re ugly. Rowan: You’re garbage Alyssa: You’re sour Samuel: Your stem is small Riley: You stink apple Jesse: I don’t like you Miriam: Next we took the un-dropped apple and said nice things about it. We talked again about how the apples are the same on the outside. Next we cut open the apples to revel the apple we said mean things to was bruised and dark on the inside. We talked about how when people say mean things to us we may look okay on the outside but are hurting inside. The kids shared some things about bullying or when people have said hurtful things. Riley: Sometimes I feel like that when my friends say mean things to me. Rowan: I’ve felt mushy like that before. Miriam: The kids even felt bad for the apple and ended up saying ‘sorry’ to it.

Pod 2: The Taco Pugs

Next week:

Rocket League

Dude Perfect Challenge

Castle Building

(Soft) Frisbee Dodgeball

Back Drawing

Cops & Robbers Dodgeball Tag

String Art

How many slugs?

The Taco Pugs are often subject to our reminders about proper social distancing. We found this poster from Zion National Park that we felt illustrated the

concept quite well.

Zeke’s Hoop Hop Challenge incorporates rock, paper scissors, hula

hoops, and hopping for a fun, challenging, active game that teaches

good sportsmanship.

Sara likes to start the day by reading for a while. This week her pod wanted to read about Rocket and Groot, two members of the Guardians of the Galaxy. In this story, our heroes are stuck on a planet without trees (other than Groot). Andrew: If there are no trees how do they breathe? Ayden: Because they’re aliens. That answer prompted a discussion about how we breathe, why trees are important for oxygen, and how we would breathe on other planets. We also got these insights into the book: Andrew: The nacho cheese restaurant was my favorite cause they got to see the robot versions of themselves. Andre: I liked it when Groot got huge and put the space monster’s 17 heads into headlocks. Kylee: I liked when they went into the candy store and blew it up with Coke and Mentos.

Pod 3: The Stormtroopers

Cooper: This took a million work.

Next week:

Shrinky Dinks Scavenger Hunt

Paper boats Letter to Future Self

Sometimes you gotta get your hands dirty to make great art.

The Site Directors

Megan

Jim

The Staff - Unmasked!

Greetings & Salutations

Sterling

Andrea

Keeping Things Squeaky Clean

Daniel Amber

Take Me To Your Pod Leader

Kylie Miriam

Kenny

Zeke

Sara Mikaila

We are excited to be working together for our second summer and will work hard

to make it a safe and super fun

experience for everyone.

Sterling joined Children’s Choice in November of 2018. She graduated from Eldorado High School in May of 2013, and is currently taking classes at CNM. She likes working with kids because she loves interacting with them and watching them grow.

Andrea joined Children’s Choice in September of 2018. She graduated from Albuquerque High School in May of 2018. She has enjoyed babysitting prior to joining the Children’s Choice team. She likes working with kids because they are always ready to play and have fun.

Daniel joined Children’s Choice in December of 2019. He has a BA in Chemistry from the University of New Mexico. He likes working with kids because she their innocent view of the world is something we could all learn from.

Amber joined Children’s Choice in May of 2019. She is currently pursuing a degree in Business from the University of New Mexico. She likes working with kids because they are honest, fun, easy going, and creative. She is also one of the leaders of the Taco Pugs.

Mikaila is a leader of the Stormtroopers. She joined Children’s Choice in June of 2019. She graduated from Farmington High School in May of 2019. She likes working with kids because she loves teaching them new skills, and helping them find their interests.

Sara is a leader of the Stormtroopers. She joined Children’s Choice in October of 2015. She is currently taking classes focusing on early childhood education. She likes working with kids because of the opportunities to make a difference.

Zeke is a leader of the Taco Pugs. He joined Children’s Choice in February of 2020. He graduated from Valley High School in May of 2018. He likes working with kids because their energy keeps you on your toes, and you can learn valuable lessons from them.

Kenny is one of the leaders of the Taco Pugs. He joined Children’s Choice in March of 2016. He likes working with kids because seeing and helping them accomplish their goals is rewarding. He wants the kids to know that he is trustworthy, and available to help them with any problems they might have.

Miriam is a leader of the Snow Leopards. She joined Children’s Choice in February of 2017. She graduated from Rio Rancho High School in May of 2014. She likes working with kids because they are imaginative, funny, and very creative.

Kylie is one of the leaders of the Snow Leopards. She joined Children’s Choice in September of 2018. She is currently enrolled at CNM studying to become a Dermatologist. She likes working with kids because they are creative, and for their love of adventure/new things.