ARLINGTON — With the new school year well underway, the Arlington School District celebrated the accomplishments of its Summer School for English Language Learners, which ran from Aug. 15-26 at Presidents Elementary to help students ready themselves for this school year.

“This was an opportunity for students to increase their English speaking, writing and math skills, as well as to have an enjoyable school experience,” said Andrea Conley, spokesperson for the Arlington School District. “Three certified teachers and three para-educators served 57 kindergarten through 10th-grade students, and the district provided transportation for the students who were invited to attend.”

Conley explained that kindergarten and first-grade students not only had daily practice reading sight words and books at their current reading level, but also wrote about current topics and shared their writing with classmates. For science, they studied the life cycle of butterflies and were able to hatch butterflies in the classroom before releasing them into nature. To develop math skills, they studied the calendar, as well as graphs and number facts.

Second- through fourth-graders participated in an in-depth study of China and Japan, studying the culture, dress, food, symbols, art and vocabularies of the two countries.

“They wrote facts about their learning on scrolls,” Conley said. “They also had an opportunity to use chopsticks.”

Fifth- though eighth-graders studied short stories for theme and meaning. They also wrote poetry about themselves using metaphors and similes, and created pictures which were constructed on a grid form.

Ninth- and 10th-graders worked on their scholarly papers, along with reading comprehension and paragraph writing. Through conversation, reading and writing, they strengthened their English language skills.

“The culminating activity on Friday (Aug. 26) brought everyone together, teaching each other about their summer school experience and celebrating with ice cream floats,” Conley said.