Wednesday, October 15, 2014

After School Programs offered at Central

I wanted to share an email I received from Shannon Durbin, who coordinates a lot of our after school programs.  Many of you may not realize all the programs currently being offered at Central.  If you have interest in volunteering to help with an after school program, or you have a child that is interested in participating, please contact the school.

Theater Program-  We just completed a puppet theater series and the group will be traveling to Dubuque this Sunday for Curious George at the Heritage Center.  We will start Acting for the Camera in November.  I am trying to get my former classmate and meteorologist, Justin Roberts, to visit with the group.

First Lego League- they have chosen the name Cyborg Narwhals and are doing great learning the new programming and EV3 robots that I was able to get with a 3M grant.  I also received a Rockwell Collins Grant to pay for our admission and challenge set.  Double checked on the whereabouts of that today, it was held up for a reason they weren't sure of but will be sending it today.  The kids are doing well with core values and are starting their project next Tuesday.  The youth wanted to learn about flight for their project so we are taking a field trip on Tuesday to the Elkader airport and talking to a couple of pilots.  If the weather is good (and I get insurance approved) the kids may have the option to ride in the plane. 

Hyperstream Club- I have four high school students in this group.  They are doing a service project this weekend with Harvest Fest.  They made the posters and newspaper ads as well.  If all works out they also will be doing a film making day on Monday with a professional film maker presenter.  Although this event will mostly be geared torward the Hyperstream group, we are going to do it as a day camp so anyone who wants to learn can come.  We thought of this idea kind of late, so if it doesn't work this time we will do it on another break.  The high school students are super busy so a full day immersion is best for their schedules.

I know we talked about this really briefly when I first met with you but for your records
Partnership with the ISU Extension and Outreach

4h Afterschool Clubs-
Open to everyone.  If the group meets regularly we register the group as a 4h club.  It costs $30 to the state to be a 4h member.  The Extension council pays $10 of it so the youth pay $20.  If the youth is already in a 4h club they don't have to re-enroll.  We provide insurance, screening and educated leadership, volunteers when available, training, researched based curriculum, and the youth are welcome to put their project (whether it be robotics or garden, etc) into the county fair, which also provides them free admission all week.  They can also participate on county council, 4h camp, and citizenship trips, etc.  They are also provided access to our materials (robotics kits, computers, etc) through the grants we get.  We are a nonprofit lead education agency.  4h Afterschool has its own website if you want more information of the possibilities we can do together.

Extension Programs-
Open to everyone.  These are approximately 6 hours of researched based education.  We provide this through day camps, summer camps, after school series (like theater).  These youth don't register in 4h.  Usually there is just a small fee to cover supplies and snack and additional insurance we take out when there are non-4h youth involved.  We provide screened leadership and free training to volunteers and research based curriculum for youth, but these youth are not eligible to participate in fair or other 4h experiences through this group, they must join a club to do so.

We partner with all area schools for use of space, additional supplies, and volunteers.
We are super happy to continually have Central as a partner in all of the above.

A special thank you for your willingness to pay MacKenzie to co-lead robotics.  She has a very positive attitude and is picking it all up pretty quickly.

We are also very happy to have Food and Fitness melding so well within the school.  I did not update you on their progress as I am sure you are already getting it from Mr. Arnold and Ms. Panther, but can if you would like more info.

Thank you,

Shannon Durbin
Program Coordinator

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