Photos by Sharilyn Wells/Paraglide Students of Mattie Sturgies' Summer Enrichment class clap for Crystal Schoenhut, after she played her violin for them at Dever Elementary School, July 15. Students kindergarten to fourth grade participated in Kaleidoscope, which explores famous musicians, authors and composers with many hands-on learning to excite children about learning.

The thought of going to school while everyone else is swimming and having fun doesn’t sound too interesting to a school age child. However, Fort Bragg Schools came up with the ultimate learning experience to enhance and strengthen students’ reading, language and math skills.

The Summer Enrichment program was held from June 21 through Friday at Devers Elementary, Gordon Elementary and Irwin Intermediate schools. Students, kindergarten to fourth grade participated in Kaleidoscope, which explores famous musicians, authors and composers with many hands-on learning and creative activities to excite children about learning. While students in fifth grade to eighth used American Dreams, which focuses on plights and successes of Americans to reach the ultimate goal, the “American Dream.”

According to Irwin teacher, Adrian Autury who was one of the teachers who taught the American Dreams program, the students studied various people who immigrated to the United States and succeeded in life. The students also made posters about successful immigrants and presented them to fellow classmates, they participated in group work and challenge themselves in various study skills.

“(American Dreams’ goal was) to inspire them to dream big and not to set limits for themselves,” Autury said. “Basically, to teach them to believe in themselves.”

Both programs enhance and strengthen learning skills through active, exploratory and engaging strategies. The children also got to compete with other children all over the world in various math skills using the Vmath Live online program. The students on Fort Bragg literally got the chance to compete to be the fastest to solve math problems against children in Indonesia, England, France, South Africa and many other countries by using the math program.

Wesley Condiff, a student involved with American Dreams, said that it was fun to learn about the famous people and to plan for what he wanted to do in the future. The program also taught him to pay attention in class and to better prepare him for the upcoming school year.

“This helped (Wesley) better pay attention in school and know that it’s not just about the fun; there is a purpose to the learning,” said Amy Condiff, Wesley’s mother.

Each school celebrated and shared its learning experience the past four weeks with parents, siblings and others, Friday. Crystal Schoenhut, mother of Jerimiah, entertained students with her violin skills at Devers. The mayor of Fayetteville, Tony Chavonne, made a guest appearance at Irwin to share his story of achieving his own “American Dream” with the students.

When asked what his ultimate dream for Fayetteville would be, he said that he wanted the city to be a place for young people to want to stay and live in or to come back to.

“I hope that the future mayor, governor, president, colonel, or general is this room today,” Chavonne said.

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