Summer Learning & Fun, Week 6: Arts and Crafts!

By Victoria Wiebe, VISTA Summer Associate

Week six of our Summer Learning & Fun program had the theme of Arts and Crafts.

Practicing science is such hard work.

But we eventually got it!

While we have been doing lots of fun art projects throughout previous weeks, this was a chance to really dig into our creativity.

The trick is to make the colors match just right.

We had many different activities, such as dancing (on our movement day), reading and learning about poetry, and performing short plays for one-another (our students liked performing so much that they acted out their skits twice!).

Get your Zumba on!

There is nothing like a good book.

We are going to give Leo a run for his money!

On Wednesday, we had craft stations where the students could move about freely, painting tennis balls, making ping-pong ball monsters, picture frames, or designs with beads.

Is it okay if we glue all of the things?

We also had our loudest activity yet: making drums.

1…2…3… ROCK OUT!

This was extremely loud, but the kids loved it, as they were able to create their own designs and make as much noise as they wanted.

Feel the rhythm.

It was overall a really fun week. We ended on Friday with the movie Inside Out, which many of the students had a lot of fun watching.

Summer Learning & Fun, Week 5: Superheros!

 

 

By Tracy Niday, VISTA Summer Associate

Week five of our summer program was superheroes.  It was definitely a hit.

Heroes gather and unite!

 

 Throughout the week, each child designed their own superhero  by making a unique costume of a mask, a shield, cuffs and of course a cape.

 

Rocking those blue capes!

 

We also learned about everyday heroes from Officer Stegman from the Lincoln Police department.  He talked about stranger danger and showed us the equipment he uses to keep himself and the community safe, including his police explorer!

 

Officer Stegman showing us the ropes of crime fighting.

 

 We capped the week off with a Superhero Quest where three teams had to race to complete seven different superhero challenges. Some of these challenges were the laser beam maze, the superhero speed challenge and the kryptonite carry.

 

LASER MAZE

Speed Challenge

 

Don’t drop the Kryptonite!!!

 We all had a blast this week!

 

Summer Learning & Fun, Week 2: The Animal Kingdom

By VISTA Summer Associate Lesa Johnson

For the second week of Summer Learning & Fun, we focused on animals and wildlife, according to their environments.  On Monday we learned about fish and ocean life.  Tuesday was for animals and plants on land, and Wednesday was reserved for birds, bugs, and bats!  On Thursday we received a visit from Nancy, who tends to animals in the Lincoln Children’s Zoo.  Nancy brought some friends for us to meet.  We were introduced to a tamarack, an alligator, a chinchilla, and flying squirrels named Wilbur and Orville.  Each of us was even allowed to have one of the flying squirrels glide from our shoulders or hands, straight into the air, and then into Nancy’s pocket! We capped off our week by watching Zootopia for Friday Movie Day.  What a fun time we had learning about animals and wildlife this week!

Calvin the Alligator

Sometimes animals are not what we expect. Ick!

The softest animal in the world: the Chinchilla.

Animal story time!

Wilbur (brother of Orville) the amazing flying squirrel jumps from shoulder to pocket.

Clay figurines made by our wonderful students

(This summer, the Center for People in Need is embarking on its first Summer Learning & Fun program. The goal is to reduce learning loss in refugee and immigrant children during the summer months, and allow their parents to take English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at the Center. Our VISTA Summer Associates provide educational and fun activities for 2 hours twice a day, every weekday for 10 weeks.)

Summer Learning & Fun, Week 1: Space, the Final Fun-tier

Week 1; By VISTA Summer Associate Nich Anderson

This first week of the Summer Learning & Fun has been quite the adventure.  We began our excursion by going into space, exploring the planets, stars, and galaxies.

Our students became astronauts, going through training camp and eventually building a rocket to reach (near) space.  While we learned and discovered a lot, it didn’t keep us from having fun, including musical planets and some space yoga.

These lucky students found a planet during Musical Planets.

We’ve been impressed by how well our first week went, and even more amazed by the kids in a personal way.  Our students are so immensely diverse, from reading chapter books in English to not understanding a word, from being outgoing and talkative to quiet and shy, from athletic and energetic to artistic and relaxed.

A rocket ready for launch!

The countdown! 10… 9…8…

 

…7…6…5…

 

4…3…2…1…

…Blast (splash?) off!

But each child, in our experience, has already begun to show their true colors, showing us their newfound excitement for learning, their commitment to helping one another be successful, and to creating relationships with us as their teachers.

Movie day

A rocket with eyes to the skies!

Every child a star!

 

Check back next week to see what exciting things are in store for our Summer Learners.

(This summer, the Center for People in Need is embarking on its first Summer Learning & Fun program. The goal is to reduce learning loss in refugee and immigrant children during the summer months, and allow their parents to take English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at the Center. Our VISTA Summer Associates provide educational and fun activities for 2 hours twice a day, every weekday for 10 weeks.)

 

Toyland for Kids 2015

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Educate out of Poverty

As the school year begins, we should think about our children’s education and its relationship to poverty. Though the poverty rate is decreasing, there were net-more poor Americans in 2013 than the previous year. Stopgap measures such as SNAP (food stamps) and Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) address an immediate need: food and money. But education- the element that often means the difference between ‘high’ and ‘low’ skill labor- is a long term strategy that works.

We calculate poverty in order to measure it and know if our policies to eliminate it are working. Poverty is defined by a national ‘poverty guideline‘, which is based on the capacity for a person to eat enough calories in a day to avoid starvation. It makes sense to address that calculation directly: find a way to make food affordable and you have successfully altered a person’s poverty status. However, we know this is not the entire picture.

In this way of thinking, education is subordinate to food. Eat first, learn later. Instead, they are mutually reinforcing and should be viewed in parity. Poverty as a both a lack of education and capital makes the traditional food-based calculation incomplete, and any successes based on that calculation misleading.

A recent Educational Testing Service (ETS) study suggests that other measures of poverty- supplemental poverty measure (SPM) and income-to-poverty ratio, among others- indicate poverty is more nuanced and far reaching than traditionally thought. Comparing economically advanced countries, only Romania has more children in poverty than the United States. But there is hope.

Education means knowledge. The traditional liberal arts model of education spreads knowledge across several disciplines (math, humanities, science, economics, etc.) in order to make a rounded, informed citizen. The vocational model focuses on a specific discipline or trade. Either model, in varying degree, creates human capital- or the marketable value of human labor. This means better paying, more secure, and safer jobs.

Immigrant and poor communities especially benefit from quality education. The ETS report indicates access to quality education for minority students is waning, segregation based on ethnicity/class is increasing, and funding of ‘non-essential’ public school programs is decreasing. As a result, the gap between the poor and non-poor is widening and the cycle of alienation continues. However, efforts to foster quality education can act as a means of overcoming the generational cycle of poverty.

Education and poverty share a complex relationship. Though some form of education is necessary to overcome poverty, it’s often poverty that prevents access to quality education. This why it is crucial that the programs, policies, and services geared toward education are made affordable.

The Center for People in Need understands the value of education. Our Access to Computer Technology (ACT) provides qualifying students with 45 free credit hours at Southeast Community College and laptop that they can keep upon successful completion. Computer courses give guidance in basic applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel. With remarkable success, our English as a Second Language (ESL) courses address the literacy of immigrants and refugees in Lincoln. Our Tackling Recidivism and Developing Employability (TRADE) program provides skill and vocational education for those recently released from prison and has seen a steady increase in graduation and employment rate since its inception. All of these are to acknowledge that being educated is the foundation on which poverty is eliminated.

Knowledge is it’s own reward, of course. To know more about the world makes for informed decision making and is the bedrock of functioning democracy. But one must not forget the pull of markets and the damage incurred by exclusion from them. Knowledge is power, and that power is expressed economically.

Wrapping Up our 2015 ‘Tools For Education’

Kellie Trout and her children Zariah (left) and Kylin at Tools For Education, July 27 at the Center for People in Need.

As Tools For Education comes to a close, one can think about his/her own experience in school. The nostalgia many feel for youth sometimes obscures the hardship of growing up. With any luck, we felt welcome and accepted. It’s difficult enough experiencing certain emotions for the first time, let alone to be at a material disadvantage. Children express themselves without reservation, and the appearance and belongings of another child can be the most available point of comment. A backpack is one of the most obvious and taken-for-granted-items in school. They’re so ubiquitous that to be without one is to be almost bare before one’s classmates. In providing backpacks and school materials to these children, we hope there is one less barrier to the fulfilling, formative experience we’re all owed.

County Commissioner Bill Avery helping to sort supplies at Tools For Education July 27 at the Center for People in Need

School should not be a place of defensiveness or shame. It is a place of growth and intellectual development. At the Center for People in Need, we hope that, having provided some measure of material comfort to children as they go back to school this fall, they can use their school’s resources without reservation, interact with their peers to develop a confident intelligence, and create a welcoming environment for others. We understand that we cannot protect our children from every harm; but we can certainly refuse to deny them opportunities.

County Comissioner Larry Hudkins helps sort backpacks with AmeriCorps volunteers for Tools For Education, July 27 at the Center for People in Need

Thank you to everyone that volunteered and donated for this event, to the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners for their time and energy, to the agencies that enlivened and informed our clients, and to the clients themselves, who we graciously hope to serve in their times of need. It is because of all of your selflessness that Lincoln becomes a more unified community for all.