By Danielle Baer, Communications & Grants Manager

Yesterday, Amanda and I drove east ward to the town of Toppenish in the beautiful Yakima Valley where we visited a Feed Your Brain site at Safe Haven, an afterschool and summer program run by the Northwest Community Action Center.   It’s always a wonderful experience getting out to Feed Your Brain sites and seeing firsthand the amazing work happening in small towns and rural communities across our state.  Safe Haven is no exception.

Adrian, the site director, is kept extremely busy with a packed program of kids from elementary to high school aged.  His enthusiasm and passion for working with young people is infectious and you can see that the youth feel it too and enjoy spending time with him.  The program runs all day for 8 weeks Monday-Friday. 

We arrived during free-time and got to see some of the youth getting their groove on with a dance game.  As Adrian said, the youth don’t want to feel like they’re in school during the summer, so it’s important to mix up structured activities with unstructured free-time.  After the dance-off, the youth divided into their pre-set teams that they have been working in all summer and which they came up with a team name and designed a flag.   Each team of about 6-8 kids of mixed ages with the older youth providing mentorship to the younger ones, had a half hour to create a commercial to present in front of the whole group making the case for why others should join their team.

Amanda and I were honored to be anointed judges of this serious competition and were very impressed with the scripts and skills of each team.  In the end, we selected Team Young Ones as the winners because of their targeted appeal for more girls to join their team which fit our profile perfectly!

Here are some photos from the commercial presentations.

How do you create a successful summer program for middle schoolers?

Kate Bainbridge, staff at Whitman Community Learning Center, shares her plans with us from the North End HUB Program at Whitman Middle School. All photos are from the program.

Program Description:

Wednesday and Friday Afternoons: Field trips. The average field trip is from noon-3:00pm. The students take tours around Seattle, to a park or beach or we go to swim at Pop Mounger Pool. Fridays will consist of larger field trips outside of Seattle.

• Students and Parents must sign the behavior and attendance contract.
• Students are permitted only two unexcused absences during the duration of the program (morning program) before disciplinary action is taken.

• To provide a fun, safe, and inclusive summer program.
  
  • Assessment – asking the students how they are feeling everyday and checking in at least once a week with the students.
• To gain exposure of the CLC program to parents.
  
  • Assessment – before and after the summer program, the parents will have an opportunity to ask questions and see the different opportunities for their children and within their schools through a family information night and also a showcase of classes in the program.
• To have at least 50% non-WASL passing students.
  
  • Assessment – by specifically targeting students to the program we can gage whether we have 50% as they are targeted and registered.
• To have at least an 80% attendance rate.
  
  • Assessment – through the use of the Parks database we can see how many days the students have missed and attended.
• To bridge the learning gap between July and Sept.
  
  • Assessment – before, during and after the program we will gage how the program has academically affected the students by using an assessment called MAPS.

Click here to watch a slideshow of youth from around Washington enjoying the summer!

A high quality summer program should include a good dose of laughter, silliness and learning.

We wanted to have some fun, too, so we put together this slideshow. These photos were taken all over Washington and found on Flickr. A few were taken in the spring, but were too amusing not to include them!

This photo on Flickr by Jellywatson.

By Rachel Schuerman, Teacher at Deer Park Elementary School's Summer Program

The Feed Your Brain Grant has been such a wonderful thing for the children at the Deer Park Elementary. The grant has provided them the opportunity to come to school for four weeks after school was completed on June 15. Each week has been a “theme” and the children have just loved all the fun books, journaling, activities, and yummy snacks we have been making.

The first week our theme was Pirates. Students made pizza mummies, fruit sword kabobs, and jello monsters. The next week our theme was Independence Day. Students learned the history behind this holiday though literacy projects and art activities. We make revolutionary berries and red, white, and blue quesadillas for snack. We also discussed the importance of the bald eagle. During the third week our theme was camping. Students made a silly insect and worked on sight words using outdoor animal cards. In addition, students enjoyed a build your own campfire for snack and also banana dogs and a fun go fishing snack. I found some of these great recipe ideas from the Family Fun website. I highly recommend it! There are also great art project ideas to go along with thematic units.

This is our final week of school and our theme is jungle fun. We have been reading about all kinds of animals that live in the jungle and we made critter cards that included important facts and our sight words on each card. We then went outside and wrote all our sight words on the sidewalks in the courtyard with chalk. We have made bagel critters and banana pops for snack. The class is having a great time, and they love the themes we have each week. Our attendance has been very consistent and the home reading logs are coming back signed each day! Yipee! I have attached some photo of all the fun learning and yummy eating that is taking place. Enjoy!

Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat wrote a timely article in Sunday’s paper on the value of summer vacation for his kids, questioning the push among some Congressional and education leaders to expand learning time and add more hours to the school day.  We agree with his views that more of the same schooling is not what young people need to thrive and nurture a passion for learning.  However, as he notes throughout the article, creating those lasting summer vacation memories is not a reality for many young people who do not have the financial resources to afford summer camp, family vacations or other fun activities that do keep them learning and ready for school in the fall.

At SOWA, we have been actively involved in increasing access to summer learning opportunities for low-income youth and providing training and resources to help programs  craft enriching curricula that engages youth and provides them with different learning opportunities than during the school year.  All youth deserve the opportunity to create lasting, fun summer memories and many programs across our state and country are making that happen in innovative ways.  The issue that comes up time and again is funding.  As the article notes, Seattle Public Schools cut all summer programs this year.   With tight budgets, summer is often the last funded and first cut.  

The National Summer Learning Coalition recently formed to work on increasing funding and improving policy at the federal level to support summer programs, specifically within reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.  Along with increasing funding, we support the National Summer Learning Association’s New Vision for Summer School which provides recommendations around blending enrichment and academics to make learning fun, experiential and different than what happens during the school year.  SOWA recently completed a Summer Learning Policy Brief highlighting research showing the benefits and importance of summer learning in leveling the playing field for all youth, providing an overview of what is happening in Washington State during the summer and including recommendations around improving quality and increasing access to summer learning programs.

While summer should be a time for kids to have fun, enjoy the outdoors and have new experiences, many kids in our state are stuck at home and not provided such opportunities. While expanded learning time continues to gain momentum, we want to help shape what that time looks like and make it more enrichment-based, experiential and hands-on learning.   We need to address our education crisis and its disproportionate impact on low-income youth and youth of color.  But that doesn’t mean more of the same, but rather looking at innovative approaches to learning that work and help kids academically while providing life experiences they may not otherwise have.  Summer is an ideal time to do that and build on great programs already in place. 

On August 6th, P.e.a.c.h. Community Farm will host a morning of farm education for youth grades 4 - 12. Kids will meet the goats and chickens then help in field with planting, weeding, and harvesting. The day will be service oriented because p.e.a.c.h. needs volunteers to help bring nutritious produce to low-income Spokane families.
 
Limited to 50 participants so reserve a spot for your family or group by emailing bryan@peachlocal.com
Cost: Free
Time: 9am - noon, Saturday August 6th.
Place: 10 minutes outside Spokane at P.e.a.c.h. Community Farm, 10425 S. Andrus Rd. Cheney WA 99004.

Today is the first day of our virtual summer learning celebration where we'll be posting blog entries, videos and photos showcasing amazing summer programs across Washington State.  There's still plenty of time to participate, so please, contact me if you'd like to share about your summer program.  All participants in our virtual celebration will be entered to win a gift card.  You can learn more about how to participate on our Summer Learning Day webpage.

Check out this video from a summer program last year at Children's Home Society of Walla Walla at the farm labor homes with our own Louie Praseuth teaching the youth some dance moves.

PTE Movement Session @ Walla Walla Feed Your Brain Site from School's Out Washington on Vimeo.

By Danielle Baer, SOWA Communications & Grants Manager

Today is Summer Learning Day! Communities across the country will be celebrating the importance of summer programs in keeping kids engaged, healthy and learning during the summer months.  View the National Summer Learning Association’s interactive map for a listing of events happening across the country and to register your event.  It’s not too late, Summer Learning Day can be celebrated anytime during the summer. 

At School’s Out, we’re celebrating virtually throughout the month of July with blog posts, videos and photos showcasing the amazing summer programs happening across Washington State.  Everyone who contributes to our virtual celebration will be entered to win a gift card so please contact me if you’re interested in learning more.

While we kick-off summer today, I had the opportunity last week to visit our nation’s capitol and attend a briefing in the capitol building marking the launch of the National Summer Learning Coalition.  Convened by the National Summer Learning Association, the coalition is comprised of over 50 organizations from across the country who share a common concern around summer learning loss and the lack of federal support for summer programs. 
As a coalition, we will work to influence federal policy, most importantly the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, to include stronger language to explicitly support summer learning as a key strategy in education reform efforts.  We also are advocating for maintaining level funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Center program in the FY 2012 budget currently under negotiation.   These funds are used for afterschool and summer programming and are a key source of funding for communities across our state.

Meeting other folks from around the country doing similar work is always exciting.  While Washington State was one of the furthest parts of the country represented, we also had folks from Portland, Oakland, Wyoming, Colorado, Chicago and all across the East Coast.   Our own Senator Murray co-hosted the summer learning briefing and I had the honor of attending her constituent breakfast along with other Washingtonians and thanking her in person for her ongoing support for afterschool and summer programs.  I also had the chance to meet with staff from Senator Cantwell and newly elected Congresswoman Herrera Beutler’s office from Southwest Washington. 

Being in DC was an important reminder of how critical it is for our Congressional delegation to hear about the value and benefits of afterschool and summer programs in our communities.  A new report by the RAND Corporation showing that summer learning loss is cumulative, disproportionately affects low-income students and contributes to the achievement gap provides further evidence to support our case that investing in summer learning will result in positive returns.

With the summer season upon us and Congress breaking for recess soon in August, it’s a great time to invite your Senators and Representative to visit your summer program and see firsthand the impact your programs are making for youth during the summer months.  Here are some tips for inviting legislators to your district for a visit and please contact me with any questions or for assistance with setting up an appointment.