Most think of the Boys & Girls Club as a weekday hub of activities for kids, but what you don’t always notice or see all the outreach events our members and staff participate in over the weekends and holidays.
This Fourth of July, you will see our blue bus rolling in the Port Angeles parade full of members sharing their club pride. Most recently at the Olympic Medical Center employee picnic, our B&G teens ran a station for the kids and participants could make colorful sand filled key-chains.
Our club members love engaging with the community especially when they can bring the club experience to boys and girls that haven’t visited one of our facilities.
Morning Camp
“Charlotte’s Web” is a classic book most of us remember from our own childhoods. Last week we were able to bring Charlotte, Wilbur and Templeton to the kids attending morning camp.
The week began with an activity that opened discussion about good character traits found in one’s self and peers. Club members drew an 8-foot spider web and posted it on the wall. From there, each member reflected on traits of good friendship and things they’d like to be woven into their web. Each wrote on a sticky note and placed it on the web, which remained up all week as a display for each other and those kids that come in the afternoon what traits their fellow member’s value in a good person and great friend.
The members read “Charlotte’s Web” aloud as a group a little bit each day of the week and concluded with a showing of the movie.
Craft projects included constructing pig snouts out of egg cartons, a LEGO spider/character making contest and baking yummy treats like pink pig face sugar cookies and peanut butter and butterscotch haystacks.
The week wouldn’t be complete without our annual trip the Olympic Game Farm where the kids get up close with not just farm animals but wildlife from all over the world.
Summer Brain Gain
Each summer, low-income youth lose two to three months in reading achievement while their higher-income peers make slight gains. Most youth lose about two months of grade-level equivalency in math skills in the summer. Year after year, these losses accumulate.
According to a report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, by the end of third grade four out of every five low-income students fail to read proficiently, making them four times more likely to drop out of high school.
At the club we offer week-long learning modules for elementary age students. Summer Brain Gain is a free program offered at 1 p.m. daily, when the club is accessible to all children at no charge. Each module takes a project-based learning approach in which youth engage in a process of learning through discovery, creative expression, group work and a final project or production. The reading component presents a new book each week, along with supporting activities.
As a result, kids develop higher-order thinking skills while staying on track for the coming school year. This week kicked off with projects following the “Charlotte’s Web” theme.
