Support the Jamaica Heritage Wall Plaque Campaign!

The N.I.C.E. fundraising campaign is almost complete to permanently recognize Jamaican immigrants with a bronze plaque on Norwalk’s Heritage Wall.

Give here to participate in this important project.

 Carver is especially proud that our CEO, Novelette Peterkin, will be named on the plaque as one of the six Jamaican American Honorary Members of the Jamaican Heritage Trust of Norwalk. Novelette came to America as a youth and has served the Norwalk community in her leadership role at Carver since 2004.

 The vast majority of Jamaican Americans are of black African-Caribbean descent, and many are of full or partial Indian Jamaican, Chinese Jamaican,  European, and Lebanese descent.

Jamaican Americans have always been an important part of the Carver community, especially since the 1950s and 60s. The George Washington Carver Community Center is within walking distance to Norwalk’s Heritage Wall, located at the I-95 exit ramp and West Avenue, across the street from Matthews Park. Heritage Park is the site of many parades and cultural festivals. This new plaque will be a source of great pride to many of Carver’s youth and families now and through the decades.

Mindful Eaters! Clean Juice staff teach Carver kids about the benefits of healthy foods

Abigail Estrada, the store manager, works with our summer campers on learning the benefits of healthy eating

We are thrilled to invite the staff of Clean Juice Darien to teach our campers at the Carver Community Center about the attributes of organic healthy foods. The local franchise opened in Darien this past April.

In addition to bringing samples for our campers to enjoy, the visiting Clean Juice staff talked with our 7 to 9-year-old girls about healthy eating and food balance. They brought worksheets of the food plate for the kids to draw along with a nutrition crossword and tips on how to identify the different food groups.

Clean Juice is the first and only national USDA-certified organic juice bar franchise and quick service restaurant. Clean Juice offers organic cold-pressed juices, smoothies, açaí bowls, salads, sandwiches, wraps, and other healthy foods in a warm and welcoming retail experience. In its short history, Clean Juice has amassed dozens of achievements and awards, most recently being at Top Franchise and Top Franchise for Women in 2022 by Franchise Business Review.

Flight of a Water Rocket and Launching Our Students' Imaginations!

Michael Richards, a Social Studies Teacher for Grade 6 at West Rocks Middle School, is Carver’s longtime Lead Program Coordinator for our after-school and summer programs there.

Here, Mr. Richards shares images of his rising 6th graders attending our Summer Transition Program enjoying a STEM project and “Science Wonders” delivered by Mad Science.

Students were given a STEM challenge. They worked in teams to create the tallest tower possible that could stand freely and support the weight of a book. Their only supplies were sheets of paper and masking tape.

The other pictures and video were from a visit by Mad Science and "Big Bang Brian". Students learned about exothermic reactions when he made "elephant toothpaste". They also learned about the build-up of pressure from the reaction of soda & Mentos. The final experiment showed air pressure when the air was pumped into a bottle of water, and the bottle was "launched" when the pressure was released; adding just a small amount of water to the bottle increases the action force. The water expels from the bottle before the air does.

Mad Science delivers children educational and entertaining science experiences by presenting concepts visually and interactively. Mad Science is a year-round Carver partner that teaches topics such as light, sound, electricity, magnetism, anatomy, optics, chemistry, space technology, and robotics. Children are given hands-on activities combined with discussion and demonstrations to meet specific learning objectives through a fun and challenging environment. The workshops correlate to the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards).

Teach, Inspire, Engage: Rising 6th Graders Create "Inside/Outside" Anchor Charts at Nathan Hale's Summer Transition Program

Certified Teacher Nicole Lane introduces anchor charts to her incoming students at the Summer Transition Program for rising 6th graders at Nathan Hale Middle School.

An anchor chart is a large, poster-sized visual with information on it that students learn and retain. They don’t need to be perfectly drawn out. Imperfections make these charts unique and memorable to our students.

Character Traits Anchor Charts are the best way to help our students analyze, compare, and contrast characters in the books they are reading in a meaningful way.

Once students understand the character traits concept, it’s time to dig deeper. Categorizing character traits by internal and external character traits is the next step. The final lessons on character traits have students digging even deeper. Instead of students just identifying the trait, they have to explain what happened that makes them think of that character trait. They have to explain their reasoning. This activity really takes students up the spectrum of higher-level thinking.

It's not all academics in the Nathan Hale Middle School Summer Transition Program. The students have FUN too!

Mr. Taylor teaches Health and Fitness. Mr. Taylor and Mrs. Thorne organize a game of Hungry Hungry Hippo. Bucketball with Miss Lane takes on new life.

In the energetic life-size version of the Hungry Hungry Hippos game, students slide on scooters to catch the most balls on the ground! The awesome part about this game? Students have to work together as a team to play. One person lays on their stomach on the scooter while their teammate is behind them, holding up their feet (like a wheelbarrow race, but the scooter is used instead of arms). The person behind pushes the other person’s legs into the middle of the circle so they can catch balls on the ground with a bucket. The person at the end with the most balls wins!

Bucketball is played with a large rubber ball and a bucket. The object of the game is to throw the ball into the bucket. The player who throws the ball into the bucket most times wins the game.

Reason, observation, and experience: Carver's rising 6th graders learn the scientific method and their way around the new school they'll attend in the fall

NPS certified teacher Richard Sullivan and his student scientists are working hard at Carver’s 6th Grade Summer Transition Program at Nathan Hale Middle School.

Using the scale to analyze and understand the scientific method, these student scientists prepare for middle school, meet their new teachers, and make new friends.

The six steps of the scientific method include: 1) asking a question about something you observe, 2) doing background research to learn what is already known about the topic, 3) constructing a hypothesis, 4) experimenting to test the hypothesis, 5) analyzing the data from the experiment and drawing conclusions, and 6) communicating the results to others.

The scientific method was not invented by any one person but is the outcome of centuries of debate about how best to find out how the natural world works. Those scientists include Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, John Hume, and John Stuart Mill.

Scientists continue to evolve and refine the scientific method as they explore new techniques and areas of science, and Carver campers know that they too can contribute to this celebrated tradition.

Rising 6th Graders Read a Novel About That One Teacher Who Changes Everything

Christy Counts, 8th Grade Language Arts and House Leader and Director, Lead Coordinator of our B.A.R.K. (Carver) Afterschool Program, and leader now of our 6th Grade Summer Transition Program at Nathan Hale Middle School, shares this story among many of her students’ memorable summer experiences.

This week they are discussing Ms. Bixby’s Last Day. Determined to give their hospitalized teacher a worthy "last day," three sixth-grade boys skip school and persevere on an impossible quest, deepening their friendship and discovering inner courage they didn’t know they had.

Ms. Bixby was one of the “Good Ones”—the kind of teacher you pay attention to and who pays attention to you. She meant something special to the three narrators in this moving story. Topher, Steve, and Brand.

Ms. Bixby is the teacher who acknowledges the darkness and teaches her students to sing in it. She does this by paying deep attention to the world, gracefully praising courage, cherishing the lovely, and looking carefully: “We all have moments when we think nobody really sees us. When we feel like we have to act out or be somebody else just to get noticed. But somebody notices, Topher. Somebody sees.”

This is not the stuff of mere sentiment; it is the hope all Carver kids hold and will hold all their lives: that somebody will see them. And we do.

Applications for CT’s Child Tax Rebate close July 31. What you need to know and how to apply.

The deadline is drawing near for Connecticut families looking to take part in the state’s one-time Child Tax Rebate program.

Applications for the program close July 31 and are available online through the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services. Qualifying families can receive up to $750 on taxes paid in 2021 and filed in 2022. That’s $250-per-child, up to three children in a household.

Only Connecticut residents with children qualify for the rebate and must meet income eligibility requirements. Single or separately-filing parents must have a reported income of $100,000 or less in 2021. For those filing as head of household, income caps at $160,000 and $200,000 for married couples or qualifying widows and widowers.

The rebate also counts for guardians who claim a child as a dependent.

The rebate also includes an income “phase out” for those above the threshold. For every $1,000 above the cap, qualifying parents will receive 10 percent less than the standard credit. For single parents, than means those making up to $110,000 can still receive something.

More information is available in English and Spanish on the Department of Revenue's website.

Carver campers pick blueberries at Silverman's Farm

Plucking sweet blueberries at Siverman’s Farm yields much more than a container of juicy fruit. Time at the farm also provides a pleasurable place to have fun and make new discoveries.

Silverman’s Farm in Easton turns 102 years old this year. Silverman’s Farm was founded by Ben Silverman. Born in New York City in 1898, much like Carver’s namesake, George Washington Carver, Ben loved plants and gardening. At the age of 18, he moved to Connecticut and began working on cow farms for $1.00 per day. When WWI broke out, Ben worked at a munitions factory in Bridgeport. He was able to save enough to purchase his first parcel of land on Sport Hill Road in Easton.

During the ’70s and ’80s, Silverman’s evolved into a Pick Your Own fruit farm featuring a widespread orchard, scenic tractor rides, and petting farm with many types of barnyard animals and fowl. The farm today offers children such as Carver’s summer campers a place of wonder and fun.

In golf as in life, Carver campers learn that it is the follow through that makes the difference!