Spring Break and Summer Camps!

Spring Break Camp: Spring break is underway and Arts and Athletics is hosting outdoor adventure camp with drop-off and pick-up at PS 9. Camp days run from Monday to Friday, April 22 to 26 and on Monday and Tuesday, April 29 and 30. Camp hours are 9 am to 5pm. Regular afterschool programming resumes on Wednesday, May 1st.

Arts and Athletics will conduct camps over the summer from Monday, July 1 to Friday, August 16. (There is no camp on Thursday or Friday, July 4th and 5th. )

Summer Camp(s): This summer we will reprise our ever-popular outdoor camp where regular afterschool personnel guide children on adventures, field-trips, hikes, sports, and art projects around Central Park. The other camp options focus on performing arts, including music theater with Jeff Edmond and Ed Horan at PS 9, in which children will collaborate to produce a new show each week to perform on Fridays for their friends and family. And, new this year, we are continuing our support of the PS 9 instrumental music program by offering band camp! Instruction will be available for our aspiring musicians in trumpet, clarinet, saxophone, piano, guitar, drums/percussion, and violin. The program will also introduce children to music history and theory, helping them to grow in their playing in fun and interesting ways.

For more information on our amazing music faculty and the learning opportunities available for your children, visit our music page here.

For more information click here or call Ryan Zavala at 917-975-8811 to reserve a spot.

The Perfect Afterschool Class

I’ve used the phrase “the perfect afterschool class” over years to refer to offerings that challenge students to use and develop skills they learned during the school day, but do so without piling on more work. When they take a cooking class, for example, they read recipes, engage in procedural thinking, work out fractions in scaling the amounts of various ingredients up or down, and gauge how adventurous they feel about tasting a new food for the first time. In each of these ways, they are applying things they know in a real-world situation.

But in cooking class, they shouldn’t feel they are being tested or graded or judged. They should just feel smart and competent and emboldened and like they understand a little better why the adults include stuff like fractions in their daytime studies.

In reality there isn’t any such thing as a perfect afterschool class and even the simplest offerings can be great in their own way. Kickball doesn’t utilize a lot of academic skill, but taking part, being present with classmates, cheering them on, taking turns…those are important skills to develop as well.

And sometimes what is most valuable is the children basking in the feeling (whether they recognize this or not) that they are doing something that they want to do. They are spending time with friends and teachers who have all each independently chosen to be there. It’s easy to forget how programmed children’s lives can be. (Maybe because we as adults have accepted that as our lot!) Choosing and deciding are skills, too, and they are developed with practice.

So perhaps the perfect afterschool class is any one of a dozen that children can choose from. Maybe children choosing a class is what makes it perfect.

Making Online Learning Work for You

The necessity of work in front of a computer screen has certainly taken its toll this year. And we’ve learned that not every subject can be taught effectively over the internet. Nevertheless, Arts and Athletics and other educators have identified a number of classes that work well online and we’ve developed ways to make the most of these resources.

Coding is a natural and we’re exciting that Ms. Sora is offering a couple section of coding using a couple of different platforms, Kodable and Code Monkey. (You can learn more about our technology offerings here.

Outdoors/Indoors–Central to our afterschool programming these last months has been our outdoor adventure program, where children exercise and explore and learning about nature. We currently offer sections in English, Spanish, and French, and we’ve discovered that for children still learning the languages (i.e. they don’t speak French at home with their parents) we are able to augment the outdoor experience with an online class in which reinforces vocabulary and phrases and concepts that were covered in our outdoor class. And we are offering this language support for children who are signed up for outdoor adventures and no additional cost!

Other classes that work well online are chess, musical theater, and writing. The ideal afterschool class is one that uses a child’s academic skills without seeming to pile on more work. When a student can experience the sense of agency that comes with using the skills they’ve learned in school, that reinforces the benefits of their classroom experience, and promotes a love of learning.

We hope that we’ll soon be able to resume classes in our schools, but we will continue to look for ways to use online learning to support our offerings and create a better learning experience.

COVID Policies and Procedures

Arts and Athletics has cultivated a cautious but optimistic stance toward the coronavirus pandemic and we have developed routines that incorporate insights and best practices from the latest public health guidance. Naturally, it is a work in progress, but as we expand our programming and gradually resume activities in our cooperating schools, we will continue to adhere to the policies and procedure that keep our children and our staff members safe.

To read more about our COVID response, click here.

It’s a Positive Sign!

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve collaborated with our friends at the Level Group design firm to develop signage for our winter offerings. You’ll see the results posted at each of our schools, red/pink and blue/green banners that say: YES! Winter Enrollment is Now Open.

It’s such a simple message, but during these colder months we feel that it’s important to affirm that good things are happening amidst all the disruption and uncertainty.

Join us this winter if you can. We have regular outdoor and online afterschool (winter cycle goes through Friday, February 12th) and we have camps on the days that school is not in session. And keep us in mind for spring activities as well. We will begin registration for spring cycle by the end of January. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to offer some of our spring classes back in the school buildings.

But whether it’s with our crew or on your own or with friends…make sure that you’re getting outside and enjoying the fresh air. We want you to be happy and healthy too!!!