Enrichment Clusters
From October to December and during April and May, Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment offers Enrichment Clusters on Wednesday afternoons. Small multi-age (K-5) groups of up to15 students who share a common interest come together to explore a specific topic.
ALL teachers in the building offer a cluster topic that will be of interest to students either because they have a passion for the topic or because they don't know much about the topic and would like to learn more. Students get a menu of cluster offerings and indicate three that they would find interesting. They are placed in one of their three choices with an effort made to balance the groupings by gender and grade level.
Once the teacher introduces the topic, it becomes the students' collective responsibility to identify what exactly it is that they would like to learn about and the teacher's responsibility to help them figure out how they will learn it.
At the end of the eight weeks of clusters, each group puts together a presentation to share what they have learned during our Cluster EXPO! Parents and community members are welcome to come to the EXPO. The date for the EXPO will be announced in school newsletters and on the marquee in front of the building.
Cluster topics and projects in the past have included:
The Wonderful World of Magic - As the photo above displays, students in this cluster learned a variety of magic tricks and then donned their magic capes and hats to perform for a group of elderly neighbors living at a nearby assisted living facility.
The Wacky Web- The technology wiz kids from the school learned about how to develop web pages using Manila - a web page editing tool. In teams of two, students created a web page for their classroom (see "Knight" by clicking on the Classrooms link at the left) and will continue to add to the Montclair website on a regular basis. Watch for the upcoming Student Stars Showcase.
Saucy Salsa - A brave group of boys and girls who were inspired by the movie Mad Hot Ballroom, put their fears aside and learned how to salsa dance. They contacted a local dance choreographer and invited her to help them come up with a dance. In just a brief few weeks, they had mastered their moves and danced before an audience of 1,000 people at the annual Denver Public Schools Foundation dinner in May 2006.
Sew Me a Story - This cluster learned about the history of quilting and decided to create a quilt that shared a day in the life of a student at Montclair. The quilt has been used at special events to showcase some of the special things that take place at our school.
Fuzzy Friends - Students in this cluster learned about the responsibilities of caring for animals. Their cluster culminated with a visit to the Denver Dumb Friends League to present them with a calendar of helpful hints for new pet owners.
Ribbons of the Osage - A small group of students came together to learn about the history and heritage of the Osage Indians from one of our very own teachers and her family.
3-2-1 Blast Off! - In this cluster the students contacted an engineer from a local firm and requested his help in learning about the design and mechanics of rockets. Together they created different kinds of rockets with everything from pop bottles to alka-seltzer and then kicked off our end of the year Cluster Expo with a rocket launch. The crowd roared!
Germology - What are germs, do they make you sick and where do they hide? these are some of the questions students investigated in the Germology Cluster. By working with a retired pathologist and school volunteer, as well as a local doctor, the students took a variety of swabs from around the school and then grew germs in petri dishes. Their cultivated germs resulted in a schoolwide health campaign.
You can also see a complete a list of cluster choices from Fall 2008.