Photo Friday: DallasKidsRead 2011

Dallas Kids Read 2011, presented by AT&T, took place yesterday at the J. Erik Jonsson Dallas Central Library.

Prior to opening the doors to the public, 1,300 Thriving Minds Summer Camp students spent the morning and afternoon interacting with award-winning children's authors and illustrators.  Students learned first-hand about the process behind taking a children's book from an idea to the bookstore shelves.  Along the way they asked lots of questions, collected autographs from their new idols, took home books for their home libraries, and smiled their way from school to library and back again.  The event served as a perfect ending to four weeks of summer learning, where children read, wrote and drew alongside teachers and artists at 17 Dallas ISD campuses.

Thank you to AT&T and to the other individuals and organizations who supported this event - American Airlines, Chef Doug Brown and Univision - as well as our partners at the Dallas Public Library, The City of Dallas and Dallas ISD!

Welcome to Ancient Egypt!

Today I had the opportunity to visit Choices Leadership Academy and attend their end-of-summer camp performance.  Over the past four weeks, 42 middle school students were immersed in the world of ancient Egypt.  They learned about the country's geography, history and culture through core academic studies in math, English, science and history.

Their culminating performance, called Journey Down the Nile, encompassed original music, dramatic performances and visual art on topics like the rulers and gods of ancient Egypt.

As part of the visual art component of the program, students created a giant, three-dimensional map of the Nile River and designed and hand painted the Egyptian themed shirts you'll see them wearing in the photo slideshow below.

Perhaps most enjoyable was the final scene - So You Think You Can Egyptian Dance, where students performed songs they had written about the lives of King Tut and Cleopatra.

Thanks to these talented students and their instructors for their thoroughly educational and entertaining performance!

Callie's Fair Park Live! Wrap Up

This summer, more than 1,800 Dallas ISD middle school students have been participating in the Thriving Minds Summer Camp at Fair Park. The mix of academic learning and exploration with the museums and institutions at Fair Park is re-thinking how students can learn during the summer.

On Thursday, July 21, the Tower Building was bustling with the energy of Fair Park Live! presented by Ernst & Young. Students walked the floor of a special kind of tradeshow to learn about careers and the importance of education. Along the way they interacted with professionals from 50 organizations on project-related tasks from industries including accounting, engineering, nuclear science, dentistry, airline transportation, law enforcement and publishing… just to name a few.

Many presenters met with students in small groups, which allowed them to receive individual attention, ask lots of questions, and learn by doing. Some of the flashiest displays that I saw included:
• Designing magazine covers with D Magazine
• Launching rockets and operating robots with Lockheed Martin
• Tinkering with lighting and sound equipment on a full technical stage from Alford Media
• Racing to put on a protective hazmat suit with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• Learning geography and what it means to soar with American Airlines

Big Thought thanks Ernst & Young for their sponsorship and support of our first ever career event for middle school students, as well as everyone who made Fair Park Live! a vibrant and meaningful success.  Thank you also to our partners at UNT and to all of the professionals who shared their time and talents with these students.

Summer Camp News From the Field: Trinity River Audubon Center

Intern Callie here again! On Tuesday I got to travel out to the Trinity River Audubon Center about ten minutes from downtown Dallas. It is remarkable how driving just ten minutes from the hustle and bustle of the city can lead you to this lush forestland full of different plants, lakes and animals! The Center sits on 120 acres and has been open since 2008. Fun Fact: it is the first LEED-certified green building supported by the Dallas Parks and Recreation Department.

The middle school students participating in Big Thought’s programs got to visit the Center this week to do an Eco-Investigation. On Tuesday, the students from summer camp at Hill and Storey Middle Schools piled off buses for a day of fun. There were more than 275 of them who all broke in to small groups of 20 and rotated through various stations.

Despite the scorching heat, the kids all seemed to really enjoy the activities. They got to do a guided river-walk around the premise, examine microorganisms from the lake, formulate their own chemical reactions, learn about the Trinity River from a model complete with flowing water, and lots more! The hands-on aspect of the activities engaged the kids and the enthusiasm of the Audubon staff resonated with the students and made for a fun-filled day. It reminded me of how great field trips used to be!

To see more photos of the kids in action, visit the Trinity River Audubon Center's blog. 

Summer Camp at the South Dallas Cultural Center

Here's a peek into the programming at the South Dallas Cultural Center. Kids of all ages are experiencing programs focused on the visual, media, literary and performing arts. This program is supported by Thriving Minds.

So much great programming happens at this facility under the leadership of Vicki Meeks. If you haven't had the chance to visit go soon! In fact, visit the 3rd Thursday of the month from 7-9 pm for an Evening of Spoken Word Open Mic hosted by Michael Guinn, Fort Worth National Poetry Slam champion.

Oak Cliff Cultural Center's Camp Celebration

Hi, I’m Callie Williams and I have the privilege of interning in the marketing department here at Big Thought. I grew up here in Dallas and am currently a junior at the University of Texas at Austin majoring in marketing. My days here at Big Thought have been filled sitting in on meetings, drafting press releases, and making name badges, just to name a few things. I am learning so much about the working world!

To kick off Fourth of July weekend, last Friday, I got to take a break from making copies to attend a special performance done by students who had been in Big Thought summer camp all of June. On July 1, the Oak Cliff Cultural Center hosted an end-of-camp performance and celebration event for the families of the middle school students who had been participating in a four-week Thriving Minds summer camp program. From the yarn “God’s Eyes” in the front window, to the paper cutouts that served as the backdrop for their stage, the center was covered with artwork the students had made during the camp.

The students put together a theater performance based on biographical stories they had written. They had musical instruments, costumes and masks they had crafted to go along with each scene. They also highlighted the history and culture of Oak Cliff by acting out famous individuals who grew up in area.

During the creative writing portion of the program, the students learned about different types of poetry, and a few shared what they had written. I had been out earlier in the week as they were preparing for their final performance, and they all had so much enthusiasm about displaying all they had learned for their families.

The event closed with, what the kids said was their favorite activity of the whole program--guitar playing. Prior to the program, the majority of the students had never picked up a guitar, and I was amazed by how much they had learned! They split into three different group based on age and ability. The most advanced group played Guns ‘N Roses’ Sweet Child of Mine and one of the talented students sang along.

Afterwards they had a reception filled with hugs and congratulations from proud family members. It was easy to see from all the smiles that the kids and parents were so proud of all the students had learned in such a short time! 

Photo Friday - Summer Camp at the Bath House

Today's photos come from the Thriving Minds summer camp at the Bath House Cultural Center.                                                                                                                          
Over the last four weeks, 25 8- to 11-year-olds learned about visual arts, theater, puppetry, mime and melodrama and created an original show with eight unique scenes: 

• The History of White Rock Lake:  Told Through Mime
• Pet Shop Problems:  A Melodrama
• Bad Bank business:  A Melodrama
• Lunch at the Sunset Inn:  Stage Combat
• Who's On First:  Abbott and Costello
• Ice Cream Incident:  A Melodrama
• Hand Jive:  A Fifties Party and Puppets
• I Got a Feeling:  A Dance Extravaganza 

In addition to studying visual and performing arts, students pitched in to spruce up the area around the Bath House.  As you may remember, last year summer camp students auctioned off their original artwork to raise money to help keep White Rock Lake clean as part of their SLANT 45 project.  They raised more than $800, and this year students used those funds to renovate the outdoor amphitheater.                                             
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A big thank you to the instructors - Kineta Massey, Bonita Harthan, Julius Longshaw and Kent Williams - and our friends at the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs for making this camp happen!