Horizons at Westminster

We are back! Horizons at Westminster is back on campus and welcomed students in grade 1-4 for in-person learning on the beautiful campus of Westminster School. Executive Director Kathleen Devaney welcomed new Program Director Kelly Wosleger into the program as well as many new and returning teachers and students. After a summer of virtual programming in 2020, it has been energizing to have everyone back on campus for Six Weeks of Happiness in 2021!

This week began the journey for our first graders' experience at Horizons. We have spent time practicing routines and developing our class charter by talking about how we want to feel and how we can make that happen. During our reading time with Mrs. Goodwin, we have been practicing rhyming with games like “Pass the Rhyme” and “Rhyming Word Ladders.” Mother Bruce helped us dig deeper into identifying a problem and solution. With partners, we have been using reading strategies to improve our word reading. Math and Science with Teacher Jayce has been a blast! Students have been strengthening their understanding of place value and number sense for numbers up to 120. Science was all about exploring Space and how the Sun affects our lives on Earth. Some of our other favorite activities from this week were visiting the Simsbury library and finding some treasure at the end of our scavenger hunt. Our first graders are excited to see what we have planned in our upcoming weeks!

This first week began with good friends meeting up again after a long year of virtual learning. Morning meetings were always full of exciting activities such as hot potato, name game and relay races. Mr. G was in charge of the fun morning meeting activities. We checked in with our feelings and discussed ways to maintain our sunny outlooks. Math was always a blast. We learned that there are many ways to represent numbers. Mr. G taught adding and subtracting and showed the students that math can be fun!!

We took an interesting nature walk on Thursday. We saw turkey vultures and hawks gliding across the sky looking for yummy meals. We took a walk through a “forest” and noticed chipmunks, squirrels and other forest creatures. We collected leaves and conducted an investigation about the leaves we collected later on in the afternoon. Wow! Who knew there are so many kinds of leaves? We shared our observations and claims about what we knew about leaves. This week we discovered that learning is fun and challenging. We can’t wait to see what is in store for us in the next five weeks of this wonderful Horizons learning adventure.

This week, third grade students reunited with old friends, established routines, and often expressed why they keep coming back to Horizons every summer. In the classroom, students participated in reading, writing, and math activities. They also experimented with baking soda and vinegar, and to their surprise, created gas to inflate a balloon! The most enjoyable experience this week was exploring the campus of Westminster to discover a track, trails, and fields that students are excited to learn more about in the upcoming weeks as they learn how to play new sports.

This week, fourth graders took a virtual field trip to the Amazon Rainforest! We learned all about different plants and animals in the rainforest habitat and how deforestation is affecting animal habitats. Then we also took our learning outside for a rain cloud science experiment! We are thrilled to be back together on campus this year and have been enjoying each others company and learning together outside in the sunshine!