The Y Participates in World Book Night

On Wednesday April 23rd, Kids' Korner at Macdonough School hosted the fourth Family Night Event of the 2013/2014 school year: Kn-'OWL'-edge is Power Family Fun Night: A World Book Night Event with Sandbox Arts and A Hope for Raptors.

 Kids' Korner site director Chaelyn Lombardo put in an application for World Book Night which was approved and her request for the book Hoot by Carl Hiaasen was accepted!  She quickly began planning for an owl-themed literacy event. The event was held on April 23rd, following our after school program for the day. A group of our fifth grade participants assisted in setting up the room for the event beforehand. The first 25 families to arrive received the WBN copy of Hoot. The first 30 children who arrived were given a card-stock owl crown which boasted, “Look Whooo's Great!” Each family was provided with a KIP Passport and an ink owl stamp to keep. Over a pizza and salad dinner, Chaelyn and staff explained to the families that they were going to travel around the cafeteria, completing a variety of owl-themed centers and challenges. Families were instructed to independently explore the centers and stamp the corresponding space on their passport as they completed each activity. We urged families to return their completed passports for a chance to win some owl-themed prizes that we had purchased (mugs, water bottles, stuffed animals, books, etc.). Each center featured a correlating FUN FACT about owls and a detailed explanation of the center's activities, with explicit directions. 

Our WBN Kn-OWL-edge is Power Centers were as follows:

• World Book Night Welcome Center: Create a customized owl book mark for your new copy of Carl Hiaasen’s Hoot using provided bookmarks and colored pencils.
• “Owl” Do Some Math Center “Create an Owl” Dice Game: Each roll of the dice earns a owl body part. Head, Wing, Talon, etc. A complete owl wins.
  
• “Owl” Do Some Math Center 2-“Color an Owl” Dice Game: Each roll of the dice earns another crayon color for a color-by-number owl picture provided. A complete owl wins.
• Super Science Center 1-Owl Puke: Owl Pellet Dissection Station, with bone charts and explanation sheets. Explore sterile owl pellets and decipher the bones within.
  
• Super Science Center 2-Owl Eyes: Owl Eyes-Spy Books and Eye-Spy Game to test visual acuity in comparison to an owl’s eyesight.
  
• Super Science Center 3-Owl Friends: Meet a REAL Owl (A Hope for Raptors, a raptor rescue organization with 2 live owls to share: One Barn Owl. One Great Horned Owl).
  

 
 

• NEST-le Up in the Owl Book Nook: Choose from a variety of Owl-themed fiction and non-fiction picture books and completed a FAMILY MINI-REVIEW Book Report.
  
• “Owl” Make Some Music Center: Sing some Owl Finger-Puppet Plays and Songs with plastic owl finger puppets and take-home song sheets provided.
  
• Sandbox Arts Movable Mural Art Center: Paint the Movable Mural with Sandbox Arts (a local art co-op that brings a large movable canvas to paint our owl theme upon). Follow the Owl/Knowledge is Power theme.
  

• Owl Arts and Crafts Center: Great Horned Owl Toilet Paper Roll Craft. Create an owl using recycled toilet paper tubes, designer paper cuts and craft eyes.
• Origami Owl Center: Owl Origami. Fold a square piece of paper into an origami owl using the take-home directions provided.
• Barn Owl’s Dinner-A Literal Scavenger Hunt: Barn owls eat 12 mice a night. Spot the 12 mystery mice hidden around the room before the WBN Family Night is over.
• Owl Art Gallery: Famous Owl Art Pictures from around the world/history, set up behind the food station. Enjoy some artistic owl pictures.
• Owl Celebrity Search: Spot the 10 “famous” owls around the room from movies, television, books, and more (Woodsy, Hedwig, Jareth, Soren, and more).
• “Owl-ing” Photo Booth: Pose for the camera based on the Internet sensation of “owling.” Though we aren’t sure if these are legit owl poses...
   
  
  
  
  

  Our World Book Night event hosted 94 people, with 28 of our program’s families in attendance. It was our biggest Family Night Event turnout of the school year (of many years, actually). At the end of the night, every copy of Hoot was distributed. Each owl crown was atop a child’s head. Families were enthusiastically involved in the centers; thumbing through their free copies of Hoot, basking in the natural wonder of our live owl exhibit, painting an artistic owl rendering on the 8 foot mural, breaking apart owl pellets and marveling over the interesting discoveries within.  A fun time was had by owl!

YMCA Macdonough Preschool Students Receive SURFS Awards

Each month, members of the Macdonough School learning community gather at the SURFS Up Assembly. These assemblies allow students, teachers and community partners to sit back and reflect on the wonderful things that are happening in the classrooms of the school.

SURFS behavior is expected by all students at Macdonough. SURFS stands for:

S=Self-Responsibility

U=Understanding

R=Respect

F=Fairness

S=Safety

One of the very special parts of the day is the awarding of the SURFS winners for the month. Children who receive the award are called up on stage and presented a certificate by their teacher for their great behavior. The school recognizes that good behavior starts at home, so the families of the children are also invited on stage. I was so happy to see our very own YMCA preschool students Taliah Jackson and Darelle McFadden receive their very first SURFS awards today! We are so proud of their hard work and thank them for being such great representatives of the YMCA at Macdonough School. Keep up the great work!

 

A New Y Blog to Follow!

Want to see all the fun stuff that goes on at one of our after school sites? Check out the new blog started by our staff at Macdonough Kids' Korner. The staff have been hard at work planing and facilitating all sorts of fun activities and they want to show it off! Here's a sneak peek at some of the activities:

JoJo, Kashyss, Jenna and Kaley show off the bunnies they made for the Easter holiday!

The youngers were hard at work creating some colorful bunnies!

To visit the Kids' Korner at Macdonough School Blog, please click here. We hope you enjoy this new blog!

Crayons for Cancer

Caring and compassion are core values at the Middlesex YMCA. This week, Macdonough School Kids' Korner had the opportunity to exemplify these traits by supporting "Crayons for Cancer." (www.crayonsforcancer.org).

"Crayons for Cancer" seeks to ease the financial burdens of families whose children currently suffering from cancer by selling cute-shaped crayons. They take old crayon donations to melt down and create fun shape crayons that are sold or used to replenish hospital Treasure Chests.

At Kids' Korner, we noticed that the box of crayons on our art cart had been getting larger and larger and that many of those crayons were broken ones. Around the same time, we learned about "Crayons for Cancer 2nd Annual Benefit Concert" (June 12th, 2010) and decided it would be a perfect was to get involved.

The children started Tuesday afternoon by sorting out our "good" crayons from the "donation" crayons. They could not believe how many broken pieces were inside our crayon box. After they peeled away the paper from all the donation crayons, they were shocked to find that there were over 1,000 broken crayons to donate to this great cause.

The donation will be brought to to "Buried Under Comics" who will deliver our donation to the Crayons for Cancer Benefit Concert on June 12th in Manchester, CT from 11-3 pm.

To read about other ways Macdonough School Kids' Korner has supported families with cancer this school year, please visit the Macdonough School Blog at http://macdonoughschool.blogspot.com/2010/01/ribbon-project.html

Kids' Korner Visits Coffeehouse Recording Studio

Twelve Macdonough School Kids' Korner students participated in their second Kids’ Korner CD Production Club with Michael Arafeh of the Coffeehouse Recording Studio. The first project was an updated version of the school song, “Knowledge is Power.” This second CD, Holiday Songs, features four tracks and includes holiday classics such as “Jingle Bells,” “Deck the Halls,” and “Auld Lang Syne.” The final song on the track, “Auld Lang Syne” features several well-wishes from the students. There is also a special reading of Moore’s poem, “T’was the Night Before Christmas” where each child read lines from the story. While walking to and from the Main Street studio, the children wassailed and delighted several people with their holiday cheer. Each child who was involved with the project received two copies of the CD, one copy for themselves and a copy for gifting this holiday season. Also, CD sales to Macdonough Staff went quite well. Hopefully these joyous carols will delight for years to come.

Kids' Korner Honors Role Models

Yesterday, students of the YMCA Kids’ Korner Before and After School Programs at Macdonough School honored the adults that inspire them.

Each child created a special “You Are My Role Model” certificate which included a personalized message and/or picture. The students wrote very appreciative and moving messages to their adult role models that expressed the reasons why they find them important. Attached to the top corner of each certificate was a lapel-button that could be removed and worn by the recipient. The pins are simple black on white and say "I'm Someone's Role Model."

This project started as an assignment from Justin Carbonella of the Middletown Youth Services Bureau. Programs were asked to find a way to visually express some of the "40 Developmental Assets." Search Institute has identified 40 positive experiences and qualities that we all have the power to bring into the lives of children and youth. These "Developmental Assets" represent the relationships, opportunities and personal qualities that young people need to avoid risk behaviors and ultimately develop into healthy adults. Macdonough Kids' Korner chose to begin with asset “#14-Adult Role Models.” As the children started writing their heart-felt messages, it was clear that this project was an important learning experience.

The children have recognized over 30 adults, including their parents, family members and family friends, and several Macdonough School faculty and staff. The recipients’ responses have been overwhelmingly positive. One child’s mother announced that she was going to hang up her certificate at work. One teacher shared, “The role model note brought tears of joy to my eyes. It feels great to know I am appreciated.” Jeremy Hungerford, our school custodian said, “This is just so awesome!” Role Models are now sporting their “I’m Someone’s Role Model” pins on their shirts, and sweaters school-wide. Many others are taking notice of these well-earned accessories.

Other Developmental Assets our Kids’ Korner program will be working on in the upcoming months include #7-Community Values Youth, #33 Interpersonal Competence, and #40 Positive View of Personal Future. On the list of 40 Developmental Assets, “Adult Role Models” may be #14, but today in the North End, it is #1.