Great America/ Raging Waters by Diana C.

It has been a great summer working with the students. We have had a lot of fun. One of their favorite moments this year was going to Raging Waters and Great America. The 7th graders had fun slipping and sliding while the 8th graders were screaming their heads off. Both grades enjoyed the field trips, as well as the TAs.I hope to do this again next year.

An average day at Crystal Springs by Cynthia B

Monday, July 12, marked the beginning of our 4th week of Peninsula Bridge here at Crystal Springs. The energy is great, and the students are excited for their upcoming field trips and their performances at Celebration.
The day began with our weekly Morning Meeting. Jose began the meeting with announcements concerning the week’s events and plans for celebration. Our Word of the Day was “Narcissist” which means “one who loves or admires themselves excessively” and was acted out in a humorous skit by Halsey, Arda, and Dani. In addition, we had a class competition where the 7th and 8th grade students faced off to see which class could come up with the most words using all the letters in the words “Peninsula” and “Bridge”. The 8th grade won with 25 points to the 7th grade’s 22 at the end of a heated competition, full of creative words.
In English, with Ms. Amar, both classes are preparing to finish their novels (7th grade- So B. It, 8th grade- Of Mice and Men). The 7th grade will be working on a “Response to Literature” in the form of a “Body Biography” where they create a life-size drawing of a chosen character and use quotes from the book to connect to various parts of the body (such as the heart, the arms, the mind, etc). The 8th grade continued their “Power Struggle” essays where they explore the various power relations between the characters in the book.
The electives are going great, and all of the T.A.s are beginning to wrap up their classes. In my elective, Mythology, the students are working on a paper in which they research a god or goddesses who is not widely known in the world of Mythology. These gods/goddesses can be considered “minor deities” and the point of the paper is to expose the students to the wide world of Mythology and familiarize them with deities other Zeus or Hades. Their papers are due on Wednesday, and beginning Thursday and into Friday, they will present their god/goddess to the class. This gives the students a chance to show what they have learned and provides a fun opportunity to teach the class.
Overall, Monday ended well, and we look forward to a great 4th week as we prepare for the end of the program.

Bridge Ball

Bridge ball, bridge ball, bridge ball. There are so many things to say about this wonderful sport. Oh I am sorry, I never explained what bridge ball is. Bridge ball is dodge ball, except it is cranked up to a whole new level. It is more intense, more exhilarating, and just plain old more fun. The rules are the same as dodge ball, hit the person they are out and catch the ball and a teammate can come back into the game, but for some reason playing it at bridge just makes the game so much different. Maybe its just the way bridge ball brings out the passion and smiles in these kids or the way the game brings out the competitive spirit that drives these kids to new heights. I don’t know, but what ever it is, it is great and amazes me every time we play. Like at the end of Thursday for example when we ended the day on a game of bridge ball it was so heart warming and moving to see these kids having the times of there lives just through the basic game of dodge ball. It makes working at Peninsula Bridge worth it just in those 15 minutes at the end of the day to see how much fun the kids are really having here at Peninsula Bridge.

Celebration Dances!!!

Over here at the Crystal site, we are getting ready for celebration! Each grade picked a song or multiple songs to dance to for the big night (Friday, July 23). The 7th graders decided on two songs, and we are working on the first one this week. I am a 7th grade advisor so I worked with five 7th graders to make a dance for 30 seconds of the song. They were slow to start, but once I showed them a few moves, they started contributing more and more. The boys, who I thought wouldn’t want to dance, began to give ideas and come up with their own choreography. It was nice to see the kids helping each other. I watched as a girl, who noticed the boy next to her was confused, turned to him and patiently explained how to do the move.

Finally, all of the 7th graders came together yesterday to see what their peers had created. All of the dances were pretty different, yet they fit together nicely. After we ran through the dance a few times, Jose came in and taught them a special routine with stepping. At first it just sounded like a bunch of 7th graders stomping around – complete chaos. Then, as time went on and Jose broke down the moves, the kids sounded more in sync. By the end of the period, the crazy stomping was replaced with a sweet sounding rhythm. We ended on a high note, full of energy, which will hopefully carry us through the next week and into celebration!

- Katie

Building Bridges at Peninsula Bridge by Diana C.

On career day students got to go to DPR Construction to learn the development of buidings. Now, DPR Construction has come to Peninsula Bridge at Crystal Springs to teach 8th graders how to build bridges. Students have learned about different bridges such as the beam bridge, truss bridge, cantilever bridge, arch bridge, suspension bridge, and the cable-stayed bridge. 8th graders are planning to design different bridges and are going to construct a bridge out of popsicle sticks. In a few days, the students will test each bridge to determine which is the strongest.

Crystal Springs Uplands - Dani O., "Just Dance!!"

For those who do not know me, my name is Dani and this is my first year teaching in the Peninsula Bridge Summer Program. For the last four weeks, I have been teaching dance to five young ladies who, even after going through long hours of english and math, are still able to survive my class. We are beginning to wrap up in our fourth week and the students are doing great.

After running through a basic warm-up of walking, running (jazz style), and chassés/galloping , we have been able to learn dances from 'Nsync to Shakira to Foreign Films and Off-Broadway Musicals, such as The Triplets of Belleville and The Will Rogers Follies. Out of these various dances, the dance the girls enjoyed the most was the dance to "Waka waka (It's time for Africa)" by Shakira, also known as the World Cup theme song. During Crystal Springs first ever Open House, the girls did this performance in front of their parents and both groups enjoyed it.

By the end of this week, we will have a dance to perform at graduation that everyone will enjoy just as much as Open House.

Hello from the Crystal Site! Last night we had the first ever Open House. Parents came at 6 pm and experienced what their kids experience every day. The parents started by seeing what our morning meetings are like. Some parents and kids participated in a heated game of musical chairs (we always have a class competition during morning meeting). The kids just couldn’t defeat the parents – a proud father walked away with a Jamba Juice card.

After morning meeting, the parents went to 15 minute classes. I was definitely nervous about how the parents would react to my elective (Science). Earlier that day, the kids in my class had done an experiment with Alka-Seltzer tablets and water. They filled film canisters with different amounts of water and then dropped different amounts of tablets into the canisters. They turned the canisters upside down, and anxiously waited for them to pop up. I decided to do the same hands-on experiment with the parents, letting the kids choose how much water and how many tablets they wanted to use to get the canister to go the highest. They discussed with their parents why they chose what they chose. It was exciting to see the kids pass on what they have learned to their parents and to see the enthusiasm they had. I’m assuming that many of the parents believed that the canisters would only go a few feet in the air, because when we went outside and the first student set it up, parents gasped in awe as the canister flew up higher than the roof of the gym. The kids enthusiastically helped me explain to their parents how the Alka-Seltzer and water reaction created lots of pressure to make the caps pop off and why certain canisters went higher than others.

I loved seeing all of the parents so excited! At the end of the night, one of the parents came up to me and described how she loved how fun and hands-on the classes and electives are. Another parent gushed about how energetic and enthusiastic his son was every day when he went home. All in all, I think the night was a great success! Hopefully this night becomes a Peninsula Bridge tradition!

-Katie

A Great Day at Stanford

My name is Halsey and I’m one of the TA’s at Crystal’s Peninsula Bridge. I can’t believe we’re already halfway through the program! It’s been an exciting few weeks. On Tuesday we took the students to Stanford and UC Berkeley for University Day. They spent the day touring the campus and learning the history of the schools, and basically learning what it’s like to be a student at Stanford and Berkeley. Since I’m much more familiar with Stanford’s campus, and I’m a 7th grade advisor, I organized the Stanford trip. First, I took the seventh graders on a tour of the campus. We started by the track and walked over to the Oval, the Main Quad, and Memorial Church. It was a long walk, but the students were favorably impressed by the mosaics at MemChu. An organist was playing in the church when we walked in, which really added to the atmosphere.

We took the kids up to the observation platform of Hoover Tower, which is the tallest building on Stanford campus. The students were able to see the huge, recently completed Stanford Stadium, the Oval, and the front of MemChu from the top of the tower, so it was a great way to take in just how big Stanford’s campus really is.

Next, we walked to Tressider to eat lunch, and after lunch, the students started a scavenger hunt. The evening before, I wrote clues, put them in sandwich bags, and taped them in various parts of the campus. We broke up into advisories started to look for our next clues. I also included a sheet of trivia for the students to fill out. If they listened to what I was telling them during the tour, they would be able to fill out at least half of it. For the other half, they were allowed to ask people on campus. I was really proud of my advisory group when they finished the scavenger hunt first and then filled out the entire trivia sheet. It took them a while on some of the questions, such as “How did Tressider get its name?” and “What is the only just freshman-sophomore dorm on campus?”, but one of my advisees, Fernando, was unstoppable, and wouldn’t stop asking people until he found the right answer. Unfortunately, one of the groups did get lost a few times, but I suppose it became a valuable lesson in map-reading skills.

Finally, at around 2 pm we started to head back to the vans. Our feet were tired (Stanford’s campus is huge, and unfortunately we weren’t able to bike), but it was a fun and exciting trip to one of the world’s top universities.

Crystal Springs/ First Career by Diana C.

It has been great being with students at Peninsula Bridge Program. We get to visit other companies such as EA Sports to learn about careers that are available. Our tourist, Rony Chammas, got to teach us about the development of games and how they sell their games to stores such as Walmart. In addition, how they have made commercials that are designed two years before in order to sell all of the games. Students had the most fun playing games designed by EA Sports.

Crystal Springs 6th Annual Heritage Festival by Dani O.

On July 2nd in the year 2010, Crystal Springs Uplands School had their annual heritage festival. The Heritage Festival was created by one of our very own TA'S and Bridge Alumni's, Jose G. six years ago. The students brought in food from their national backgrounds and there was A LOT of food. There was lumpia, fried plantain, chicken mole, rice and beans, papusas and many more. PLUS DESSERT!! We had to take three white, long tables to hold all of the food. Everyone enjoyed it, including staff that did not teach at Peninsula Brige. All in All, there was a great outcome and I hope we have the same result next year.

My first week

My first week at Peninsula Bridge has been good so far. All the teachers and TA's are nice as well. Peninsula Bridge seems like a super fun program to go to over the summer. It definitely makes the summer lively! Most of the people here are so nice and friendly, it feels like home! There are fun activities, not to mention good food! I'm sad that there is only 4 weeks left, but i cant wait to come back next summer!

P.S. GO STANFORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :):):):):):):)

Welcome!

Welcome to our Blog! We here at CSUS Peninsula Bridge are having a great start to the summer. We hope you enjoy our future blogs.