Summer Discovery

Math, reading, squash, rock climbing, basketball, swimming, kickball, Andy Warhol, carpet sliding, and Kennywood! Needless to say, Steel City Squash’s third annual Summer Discovery program was a blast.

Summer Discovery was a great success in large part due to our continued partnership with the University of Pittsburgh’s Pitt’s Kids, which supplements our academic and squash program with other fun activities for the kids. We were so excited to have 12 new students join us for Summer Discovery and hope that they will come back in the fall as our new 4th/5th grade class!

The academic portion of Summer Discovery focused on developing students’ reading and math abilities in preparation for the school year. Each grade completed one book throughout the 3 weeks as well as daily homework assignments that got them writing and reflecting about the text. This years books included The Number Devil, The Secret Life of Bees and All American Boys.

Each math session of the program started with students racing against the 5 minute countdown to fill in their multiplication table. Students struggled to complete the table within the allotted time at the beginning of the summer, but by the end some were finishing in under 2 minutes!

In squash, new students were introduced to the game through ball bouncing competitions, relay races, “Simon Says” using parts of the court, Squicket, and other games that provided a fun way to learn the basics. Practice for returning students focused on getting them playing as many points as possible through games like Up the River, 30 up, Offense/Defense and Round Robin tournaments. All students took the Beep Test and the Squash Skills test at the beginning and end of the program to gauge progress in fitness and squash ability.

Credit and many thanks must also be given to the 8 volunteers that we had over the course of the Summer Discovery program who were integral in helping to make it run so smoothly. Thank you volunteers!