Creating lava lamps highlight dinosaur week

Xander Sniffen will remember his Summer Enrichment class experience for his teacher and theme week activities that featured dinosaurs and lava lamps in the final week.

“I’m enjoying the class because I had my teacher from last year,” said the rising fourth grader of his third grade and Summer Enrichment teacher Martina Marchese. “We had a lot of fun. I learned a few new dinosaurs. I learned the long neck one is the brachiosaurus.”

Marchese said she had the books and materials to make dinosaurs the theme for the final week, adding the topic is something the students enjoy.

“We were doing dinosaurs this week, and we started talking about volcanoes, how they erupt and how some are active currently,” said Marchese. “They seemed really interested in that. I thought how we could make that happen in the classroom without being too messy, although we had a volcano explode in the classroom. I thought lava lamps would be fun.

“I hope they had some cool hands-on experience.”

In a plastic bottle, students mixed oil, water and food coloring. The students added broken pieces of Alka-Seltzer tablets to make bubbles come to the top of the bottle.

“I liked seeing it bubble,” said rising third grader Joseph Hunter.

Rising third grader Natalie Plaza added, “I had fun. The best part is putting the food coloring in there.”

The theme weeks and activities were a part of the program that had students continuing to work on their reading, writing and math skills.

“I hope they were sticking to some routines so September doesn’t come as such a shock when we go back,” said Marchese.

Marchese said she enjoyed working with the students in the four-week Summer Enrichment program and will learn soon if Hunter and Plaza will be her students in the upcoming school year. Sniffen, who had Marchese as his third grade teacher, will start fourth grade in Eugene Brooks Intermediate School.

“He was incredible,” Marchese said. “I’m going to miss him. He’s extremely intelligent and really thrives in these topics. He’s just a really good kid.”