Students at Clover Park School District’s DiscoverWorks program spent their summer exploring their community, crafting puppets, learning dances, and taking drama classes. While their mornings were spent building math and reading skills to prepare for next year, their afternoons were filled with arts and crafts, science experiments, games, and weekly field trips.
Clover Park’s enrichment partners included Tacoma Arts Live and the YMCA. Students also welcomed visits from the Reptile Man and Science on Wheels from the Pacific Science Center. Aliayah, a rising fifth grader, built stick puppets and finger puppets. She also made rockets, airplanes, and parachutes, and she learned dances from Mexico and hip hop. Rising fourth grader Brayann covered a balloon in paper and glue, let it dry for two days, and watched its shape hold after the teacher popped the balloon.
Noah, a rising fifth grader, named an arts and crafts project as his favorite. Students could build any creature they wanted. “I made a mink,” Noah said. “I had tin foil on the inside, and for the outside I got paper. I found this soft paper I could put on it, so it felt like fur.”
For some students, those activities were a chance to try something new.
“Students might not know that they really like art, puppetry, acting, or dance,” said Moira McDonald, a fourth-grade teacher. “Going forward, that might be something they can have access to later.”
Brianna Cacace Wilson, a sixth-grade teacher and administrative intern, agreed. “Some of our students maybe don’t have an opportunity to take a dance class, and that’s there,” she said. “They get to take home their crafts and share those with their families.”
Staff planned the afternoons to connect with the mornings and build on what students practiced earlier in the day. “It’s not random. It’s structurally planned,” said Angie Ellenbecker, supervisor of Compensatory Programs.
Clover Park students also took weekly field trips to explore their community. Field trips to places like the bowling alley and mini golf course gave students opportunities to spend time together beyond campus.
Ellenbecker talked with students after the bowling trip. Some had never been inside a bowling alley before. “They’d seen it on TV, but they’d never actually gotten to go bowling,” she said. “Now they have that firsthand knowledge they can bring with them.”
Ellenbecker said she would encourage other districts to invite community partners into their programs. “Those are the memories the kids are going to hold on to,” she said. “Those are the things they’re going to say, ‘I remember when.’”