Late morning on April 26th, 2017, a small colony of bees took up residence in a small Magnolia tree at Brehm Preparatory School. Luckily, we happen to know a number of local beekeepers and one of them had a new hive on hand and was able to come out to help us relocate them. This also gave us some time to talk with the students about the importance of bees and the role they play in local ecosystems.

By Deb Browne, MS, CCC-SLP The old adage “It’s the thought that counts” is a concise example of how thinking is a crucial part of social competency. In Speech-Language at Brehm, we use this time of year to help students apply the principle of perspective taking to...

By Jamie Niman Our first writing exercise utilized story maps to organize key information from a music video we watched in class (Aha - Take on Me).  Students were given time to write using the story map and beginning/ending prompts. We also used character cards (from...

By Kelly Vaughn This week in the Culinary elective, we continued our discussion of Lewis & Clark and the food they ate along their journey.  One of the foods we discussed were the vegetables they might find growing along the way. Since the local Southern Illinois...

By Jamie Niman Art students were given sketchbooks to travel and draw in during the summer program.  We introduced materials (H and B pencils, charcoal, blenders, kneaded erasers, art pens, paints, mixed media resources), discussed how to use them, and looked at...

By Marian Appiah-Kubi On Monday's session, campers got to read about and discuss the history of the djembe, the drum featured in this elective class; watch videos of drum circles in several countries, including Mali, Japan, and the U.S., that feature the djembe; and...

By Nathan Talley What a trip down the Cache River this year!  Before heading out on the water we went to the Visitor Center to learn about the history of the Cache and some of its residents.  The students got to learn about, and see, local snakes and ways to identify...

By Kelly Vaughn This week in Culinary, we learned about measurements.  In the first session, we learned about measuring spoons, dry measuring cups, a liquid measuring cup and what ingredients to use with them.  The students participated in a great discussion on what...

By Barbara Lawrence This week our explorers were introduced to several programs on their computers that can be used to create a visual journal: iMovie (movies), GarageBand (podcasts), Keynote (slide shows), iBook (booklets), and Storyboard That (comic books).  They...

By Anna Milano What could have been seen as a challenge by some turned out to be a fun and relaxing late morning on a warm sunny Southern Illinois day. Students got the chance to pick blueberries and blackberries - an easier foraging endeavor than Lewis and Clark...