Bruin Point’s Rising Raptors program is a hit with kids

    After school programs have been around in many places for awhile, but in the past few  years the Rising Raptors after school program has been exposing kids to new ideas, concepts and people.
    At Bruin Point the program currently has 19 students in it consisting one kindergartner, six first graders, one second grader, six third graders, three fourth graders and two fifth graders. The students attend after their parents fill out an application for them to join and then they are accepted into the daily goings on after school until 5:15 p.m.
    “Some kids attend because they come from a single parent family and that parent works so we have the child until the parent is off work,” said K’Lyn Hepworth the coordinator for the Bruin Point program. “For some kids coming to the after school activities gives them a little boost in their reading or math understanding because we give them help, and also works toward helping them reach grade level in reading. The program is also set up to give exposure about things to students that they might not get other places.”
    The program emanated from a grant the school district received to help break the intergenerational poverty cycle. An application goes home with every student. The program is limited to what can be handled by the people who staff it.
    Hepworth said that each day she and the other two aides to the program help students with their homework as well as do a fun activity each afternoon.
    With the added hours of being in the building it is a long day for kids so a snack is provided. They also have a cooking club two days a week for the group. The kids prepare what the whole group is going to eat for those days in the faculty room and then they bring it down to the entire group.     
    “Then we eat family style where we practice table manners,” said Hepworth. “It may seem odd but one of the highlights has been to watch some of the kindergarten and first grade students make their own sandwiches. It’s fun when they make their own food and you see them spread stuff on the bread.”
    The program also has older and younger sewing clubs as well.
    “The first half of this year our fourth and fifth graders were learning to use sewing machines,” she explained. “One of the projects was a Christmas sock with contrasting fabric and the other was in October when they sewed a trick or treat bag.”
    “The little sewing club (for small kids) does stitching with yarn with the big plastic needles so that “no one can get hurt.” Presently they are making beanies.
    Some of this might seem a bit much but with proper and the close supervision those running the program are able to provide, no one has sewed their fingers together and when preparing food there has only been a couple of small burns when kids were cooking pancakes or grilled cheese sandwiches.
Other activities
    “We have a group called Write Brained and in that activity they are writing a pre illustrated book,” Hepworth explained. “The kids make the story up from pictures that are already on the pages.”
    This exercise helps kids to think of different words for things as well as more explicit words that they can use to describe something. Other exercises for the kids also spring from what is in the book. On one page a boy is riding a turtle, so for the kids to understand what this might be like the instructor got out balance boards and put them on balls and had them sit on the boards. They also had the students put their feet in a bucket of cold water so they could see what the experience was like for the character in the book.
Ground hog pancakes
    For Ground Hog Day the kids made pancakes, with a big one for the face and littler ones for the cheeks. They then used marshmallows for the rest. When finished the creations looked like ground hog faces. Included with making the pancake faces was not only making the delectable eats, but also the biology of ground hogs and how Ground Hog Day came to be.
    In another activity the students also had to find a rock on the playground they could use as a “pet spider”and then they had to weave and create a web that would support their spider.
    The group also works with the Crayons to College and Careers program and instructors use that to explain and help students understand the 26 characteristics and traits that successful people need to be successful in the 21st century.
    “We talk about attitude, behavior, communications, determination, effort, ability and goals,” said Hepworth. “We also talk about skills that they need to internalize to make them good, productive citizens.”
    Hepworth said they have also implemented the “Why Try” program that helps kids with determination.
    The program brings in guest speakers. They had Carbon School District Superintendent Lance Hatch one afternoon and he told them about his life and what kind of an education it takes to do what he is doing. They also had a cosmetologist come and show kids the tools they use and how they do hair.  
    All the elementary schools  in the district have a similar program. One of the things Bruin Point participated in with other schools and with USU Eastern is a holiday meeting where each child got a book. Athletes from the university attended and then the kids teamed up with them and read the books together. It is a chance for the Raptors to be exposed to other people, and to learn about education beyond what they are seeing in their own school. The Rising Raptor students from the district also came to the fan appreciation night at the university to sing the National Anthem.
    Bruin Point also does an affiliated three week program for kids during the summer just before school starts. Also, right after school is out they have a summer program for a few weeks with instructors who use the Aspire program to help kids with their reading skills.
    “We teach kids that sometimes things in life might knock you down, but there’s ways to get around those things and still succeed. It’s often just the little successes, the little things that they do that makes this program so good. Things like being able to get across the monkey bars all the way for the first time or learning to tie their shoes themselves, becomes exciting,” concluded Hepworth.