Friday afternoons at Cerra Vista School will be bustling with activity for the next few weeks as the school’s third- through sixth-grade students participate in enrichment clubs from 1 to 2 p.m.
The students have a choice of 14 activities. Some of the most popular ones provide chances to get out of the classroom and onto the playground.
Christi Stoner had a group of mostly girls in her jump rope club.
On one side of the playground near the classroom buildings, the students lined up in groups of two to three. Some had one jump rope while others had two to play double Dutch. Stoner said in the years she has been offering the club she has had some students sign up three times in a row. The enrichment clubs run for six-week sessions twice a year.
“From the first to the sixth session, it’s amazing to see how they improve,” she said.
Dee Montalbo, a parent and a volunteer, said the students look forward to the activities.
“The kids get a chance to be active,” she said. “They offer art as well, but they have a lot that are physical.”
All of the clubs are run by parent or community volunteers and the students get to pick topics of interest. Principal Pam Little said each student gets one of his or her top three choices, with priority going to sixth-graders since the third-graders will have additional chances to participate.
Some of the other physical activities included kickboxing, boot camp, dance and basketball. But students also could choose such clubs as art, PowerPoint, nutrition fun factor, card games, voice and theater, Japanese, Spanish or homework club.
Little said she wanted to bring the enrichment club idea to campus after attending a conference where she heard about the importance of offering all kids a chance to show their talents.
“It is important to give all children a chance to show they are gifted in other ways,” she said. “The beauty is that our enrichment and art encourages them to show their individuality. They see everyone is a little different.”
Little said the program depends largely on parents since they volunteer and also offer money for some of the supplies needed to run the program through the Parent-Teacher Organization.
“We started with just the fourth and fifth grades,” she said.
They added in sixth-grade students when the grade was moved down from middle schools and this year they decided to offer it to third-grade students as well. While the students do get to choose what they want to do, she said not all the classes have third-graders. The PowerPoint program, from which the students will learn to create a professional presentation, was limited to upper grade levels.
In the voice and theater club, students were preparing for a May 25 performance that will show off their acting skills.
Little said some of the clubs return each year while others get mixed up a bit. There was a theater club last year that focused on Shakespeare.
This year’s program is run by someone else and is focused on putting on the show at the end of the enrichment session.
She said last year’s strategy club, which includes card games, had a low sign-up for the first semester it was offered. But after the kids who were in the program talked it up to other students, it has a lot more students signed up this year.
“It’s all about the children selecting what interests them,” Little said.
At least 360 students are participating in the clubs this semester and Little said the costs is low for each six-week session. She estimated they spend $150 to $300 for materials. Some are one-time costs, such as jump ropes and card games, which can be used over again for a few years.
She acknowledged the importance of the Parent-Teacher Organization in supporting the club. She said Dee Slykas, one of the parents, took over coordinating the program because the parent who helped start the programs a few years ago is moving out of town.
“Other parents also helped to coordinate it,” Little said. “It took a lot of people working together to make it work. It takes parents, teachers and staff. They have been huge in bringing people in.”
The club for dance, taught by an instructor from West Coast Dance FX, was another popular group. Students lined up in the multipurpose room as they followed the instructor’s movements to the song “Airplane.”
“It’s a carrot for the kids,” Little said. “They have to behave well in the clubs to stay in it. They know they can’t fool around if they want to stay in it.”
