Connecting learning with fun and exercise

"What was the temperature yesterday in Cheney?" preschool teacher Patti Hendrickson asked the dozen or so students flitting about the Betz Elementary media center on Wednesday, Jan. 14.

Hendrickson received no immediate answer from the students engaged in drawing pictures and other project activities. After a second try, a young girl raised her hand and said "31."

"Thirty-one, and thank you for raising your hand," Hendrickson acknowledged. "And what was the temperature in Manaus?"

That's Manaus, Brazil, and eventually Hendrickson received an answer of "79" from one of the students enrolled in the Trailblazers after school program. Learning about the climates of two vastly different cities - Manaus is a city of 2 million people in the north-central Amazon rainforest - is part of a project the students are undertaking where they select a rainforest animal, learn about it and do a school presentation later this year.

"It's sort of like a science fair," Jeani Struss, the Cheney School District's Trailblazer program coordinator, explained.

The program is not new to the district, having been run the past three years at Sunset Elementary School in Airway Heights. It is made possible by a five-year federal 21st Century Grant, which the district received for a second time last September for $250,000 - an increase of $140,000 making the expansion to Betz possible.

Trailblazers runs from 3 – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and is staffed by six volunteers. The staff is a combination of full-time and substitute teachers in the district along with Eastern Washington University students provided through Cheney's Parks and Recreation Department.

Betz Principal Carol Lewis said she likes the program's connections between academics and health and wellness. Besides the learning component, students receive a healthy snack and get at least 30 minutes of recreation.

"It's not just a place to do homework," Lewis said. "It's showing kids that learning and physical activity can really be fun."

Teachers and staff at the respective schools select students for Trailblazers based on several criteria, including determining those who might benefit from the "academic boost" the program provides.

Betz has 51 students enrolled in its program, with the maximum number capped at 60. Students in kindergarten through fifth-grade are eligible, and Struss said it's open to students from parochial or religious schools and those who are home schooled.

Betz site coordinator Kellisa Owens said students are split up into 4-5 groups, with some going to the media center, some to the computer lab and others to the gym. In the gym, EWU students Julia Glassman and Nathan Huff were busy last Wednesday helping a group of kindergarten through first-grade students play "Pac-man tag."

Struss said gym activities are designed to focus on sportsmanship and teamwork, provide wellness instruction and teach some basic physical skills along with a bit of strategy.

"The best thing about this is I know they're not going home and watching video games," she added. "They're getting at least 30 minutes of activity each day."

In the computer lab, district substitute Johnella Agee said she has students work on various activities such as researching their project, and even has them learning to write a bit of computer code.

"It goes with the whole STEM program, so there are math activities for them to do," she said.

Other activities take place as well, such as "Friday Fun Day." On these days, Struss invites people from outside resources, such as Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, a local karate school and a Spokane Falls Community College culinary arts student, to expose the students to things they might not normally learn about.

Back in the media center where Hendrickson and fellow pre-school teacher Kim Johnson were working with students on their projects, fifth-grader Gerry London quickly ticked off six facts about the rain forest animal he had selected for his project - the black jaguar.

"It's carnivorous, found in South and Central America, weighs between 70 and 300 pounds, nocturnal and lives in the jungle," he said. "And it is very dangerous."

Trailblazers is more than just an after school program, however, and Lewis said they would use results from standard test scores taken later this year to measure their success. Anecdotally, Lewis thinks the program is already working.

"The motivation and excitement from the students is there," she said. "Nobody says it's boring."

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].