Green Street Blog

Our Discovery AfterSchool Instructors share stories from their classes in this guest blog series Discovery AfterSchool Stories. For more information on our AfterSchool Program, please visit – http://wesleyan.edu/greenstreet/youth/afterschool.html. Spring registration is open!

By: Emily Furnival

After a semester of being astronomers, designing spaceships, learning about planets, and looking for extraterrestrial (alien) life, Science Club ended the year with a project a little closer to home. We built two chairs out of nothing but newspaper and tape!

First, we had to learn about the shapes that would allow us to build stable chairs. We tested different ways of folding paper by seeing how many books each shape could hold up. We found out that the best shapes were circular columns and, surprisingly, triangles, because the weight was distributed better in those two shapes. We learned that “trusses,” triangles stuck together to make rectangles, could hold up many books.

And then we were off! Two teams made chairs, each using rolled up newspapers as “columns.” One engineering team focused on columns, while the other focused on triangles.

While making the chairs, the engineers often stopped to test their structures, first with books and then with bodies. They learned how to reinforce weak points and evenly distribute weight. It took two classes, but both chairs were finished, able to hold even the teaching artist and assistant! The chairs were then decorated, and will be available for viewing (and possibly even sitting!) during Solstice.

For more science fun, check out the Science of Food Class this spring for Grades 3-5 on Thursdays. There’s also our Art and Science Classes which will focus on rivers this spring.

Our Discovery AfterSchool Instructors share stories from their classes in this guest blog series Discovery AfterSchool Stories. For more information on our AfterSchool Program, please visit – http://wesleyan.edu/greenstreet/youth/afterschool.html. Spring registration is open!

By: Anna Flurry

Taught by Ben Goldberg and Anna Flurry, teaching assistant, Clare Zad

How many 8-year-olds do you know who are published authors? We created this class to encourage kids to love writing by helping them bring their stories into print.

From left to right: Rayan, Mr. Ben, Lily, Ms. Clare, and Amelia working together on their stories

We started off the semester by introducing the basic elements of a story (plot, character, conflict, theme, and setting), using Little Red Riding Hood as a test case. The kids acted out the story and then told us what the elements of the story were.

From left to right: Amelia as the Hunter, Lily as the Grandma, Genesis as Red Riding Hood, and Rayan as the Wolf

After the students learned about these basic elements, we spent the next couple class periods brainstorming and having the kids plan out their stories. Then they got to work writing their masterpieces.

Lily writing about the adventures of Ann, the mouse-sized girl

Finally, it was time to edit the stories, come up with titles, and put together the artwork. We formatted the books and had them published for the students to take home after showing all their friends and family at the Student Showcase.

Amelia and Rayan put the finishing touches on their stories

If you think the Make Your Own Book Class sounded cool, you might be interested in checking out our new Story Art Class on Mondays for Grades 1-3 or the Poetry Players class on Fridays for Grades 3-5 this spring.

Our Discovery AfterSchool Instructors share stories from their classes in this guest blog series Discovery AfterSchool Stories. For more information on our AfterSchool Program, please visit – http://wesleyan.edu/greenstreet/youth/afterschool.html. Spring registration is open!

by Kamilah O’Connor

This semester at Green Street, I taught a class called “Beginning Step Dance” for 3-5th graders. My interest in teaching this class stemmed from my desire to share what I had learned from being on the step team at Wesleyan with the kids at Green Street. On the first day of class, I learned that none of the kids knew what step dance was so I spent part of the class explaining it to them using key words such as rhythm, synchronization, and beat. Each class I taught the kids one step, a combination of different stomps and claps to a specific rhythm, and reviewed the step from the previous class.

A highlight from the semester was the day I challenged the kids to work in groups and create their own step. This turned out to be a great experience because the kids were excited to explore their creativity and share with the rest of the class. I was impressed with the variety of steps that emerged from the groups as some kids reworked rhythms they had heard before while others made up something completely original.

Over the course of the semester the kids would come up to me and show me different steps that they practiced outside of class at home which revealed to me they were learning and understanding what I was trying to teach them. I really enjoyed teaching this class!

If Step Dance Class sounds fun, we have lots of dance classes this spring. Hip Hop, Ballet, African Dance, and Tap!

Our Discovery AfterSchool Instructors share stories from their classes in this guest blog series Discovery AfterSchool Stories. For more information on our AfterSchool Program, please visit – http://wesleyan.edu/greenstreet/youth/afterschool.html. Spring registration is open!

By: Lindsay Behrens

Art & Science students had a great time creating Dale Chihuly glass sculpture-inspired hanging art!

Nothing breakable here. Just some recycled water bottles we painted, cut, and hung to create a beautiful visual color-play…reminiscent of Chihuly’s intricate glass work.

This spring Art and Science Class will be on Mondays for Grades 3-5 and Tuesdays for Grades 1-3. This time, we’ll have an exploring the river theme!

Our Discovery AfterSchool Instructors share stories from their classes in this guest blog series Discovery AfterSchool Stories. For more information on our AfterSchool Program, please visit – http://www.wesleyan.edu/greenstreet/youth/afterschoolclasses_Spring2016.html Spring registration is open!

By: Peter Van Siclen

In the Green Street African Drumming class we worked on a variety of songs including: Gahu – a social song from Ghana, Fanga – a welcome song from Liberia, and KuKu – a fishing song from Guinea. We played a variety of drums, bells and rattles and played challenging polyrhythms. We learned to create a variety of sounds with a djembe drum, and had a fantastic time performing our music at the Winter Solstice student showcase event.

This spring African Drumming class will be on Mondays for Grades 3-5 with Mr. Peter.

Join us on Saturday, December 12, 2015 from 10:00-2:00pm for the first annual Green Street Holiday Trunk Show!

We have assembled a group of talented artists to participate in this fantastic event. We will have various items up for sale from one of kind art pieces, handmade scarves, jewelry, and much much more.

All items will be sold at prices BELOW $50.00!

A percentage of all items sold will be donated back to Green Street to benefit our AfterSchool program.

Green Street and the Middletown Public Schools are hosting a Family Math Night on Tuesday, September 29th at 6:30pm.

The event is designed to help parents better understand the how and why schools are teaching math differently than we learned as children. Middletown’s K-5 Math Curriculum Coach, Julie Sheppard, will present an overview of the information parents of Kindergarten to Fifth Graders should know, lead an interactive activity where parents will try out some math problems on their own, and provide a set of resources for parents to support math learning at home.

To help support math education for all, we’ll be providing resources for the non-technology saavy and also Spanish translations of all materials.

Join us at 51 Green Street next Tuesday from 6:30-8:00pm.

This event has been cancelled due to the expected inclement weather on Friday, Oct 2nd. 

Green Street will be showing the film “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes” at the Green Street Teaching and Learning Center.

The film discusses how culture and music collide through hip hop touching on issues of masculinity, misogyny, and homophobia. A brief conversation will take place after the film with middle school teacher and hip hop enthusiast, Buster Nelson. We can ask ourselves if hip hop has to be such a man’s game or if we can think about lyrics and image differently moving forward.

With so much interest in hip hop lyrics and slam poetry amongst Middletown teens and college students, we wanted to expose them to a bit of the history and larger cultural issues buried in the music we hear on the radio.

The film does contain explicit language and adult content. Parental discretion is advised. 

This event is co-sponsored by Green Street and the North End Action Team.

Visit FroyoWorld on Main Street in Middletown on Friday, October 9th between 5:00-8:00pm to help support Green Street! 20% of all sales will be donated to Green Street to support our youth programs.

Our Discovery AfterSchool Program serves primarily children in Grades 1-5 from all corners of Middletown, many from our neighborhood here in the North End. We also have a unique middle school class offering on Fridays called Wesleyan Bound where students are exposed to a college campus. They get to participate in workshops with student leaders, talk to professors, tour galleries and laboratories, and more.

Registration for spring classes will open in January. Stay tuned for more information or call us (860-685-7871) to be put on a notification list and we’ll let you know when registration is open.