Falling Into Fun - 2019 Program News
Solar Youth’s Fall Programs are off to a fantastic start! We are proud to be offering after school programs four days a week, Monday through Thursdays for kids ages 5-13 at both Westville Manor and Eastview Terrace. Solar Youth also offers programming for teens through our Green Jobs Youth Development Program at Westville Manor and our Youth Educator Internship Program at both program sites. In all of our programs, participants are engaged in meaningful activities as Kids Explore! Kids Do! and Kids Teach! all season long.
Programs at Westville Manor are spending this season exploring the themes of “Native Nature.” The program kicked off the first two weeks exploring native critters. The specific focus was monarch butterflies; youth learned about the life cycles of butterflies and related the idea of life cycles to different phases in their own lives. They were able to get up close and personal with displays of butterflies borrowed from Yale Peabody Museum and afterwards, made paper mache chrysalis and filled them with notes to their future selves.
At our Eastview Terrace location, the Steward and Citycology groups are exploring the idea of Impact. They are looking at impact through the lens of impact on themselves, their community and the environment.
This week, Citycology (ages 5-8) explored the idea of reduce, reuse, recycle by competing in a recyclable sorting game, planting plants in bottle pots, and making their own paper.
The Stewards (ages 9-13) explored how they can decrease food and office waste by building their own vermicomposting bin. They learned about the habitat of worms and how they can turn waste (paper, food, etc) into food that they can feed the plants they will be growing later on this season. Initially, a few of them were hesitant to touch the wet leaf matter that was the base for the worms habitat and decide to try finding that they really enjoyed the texture and the smell. Additionally, during the process they learned about allowing everyone to help and how to show respect or each other and the worms they were working with.
Meanwhile, Green Jobs Interns (ages 14-18) have been busy exploring West Rock Nature Center while geocaching. Through communication and teamwork, plus some critical thinking and problem solving, they were able to discover two geocaches spread over a one mile radius. They also learned how GPS works and directional navigation in the forest. Participants had time to discuss some of the animal diversity in West Rock thanks to some timely visitors - white tailed deer, turkeys,and blue jays. They also stumbled upon a bat box which contained some sleepy occupants!
If you’re interested in enrolling a youth participant or hearing more about our fall program offerings, please call us at 203-387-4189.
