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LANCASTER — Joshua and Nancy Cory elementary schools each hosted weeklong winter intercession programs Monday through Friday through Lancaster School District’s Expanded Learning Opportunities Department.
The district had 225 students register at Nancy Cory and averaged about 120 students a day over the five-day program. Joshua had 176 registered students and averaged 90 a day.
Students received academic enrichment in the morning followed by hands-on activities in the afternoon. Activities included music, sports, art, yoga and a game truck at Joshua Elementary.
Students were grouped by grade level so youngsters could meet and make new friends with students from different schools. Each session lasted about 45 minutes. Students rotated to different classrooms to give them an opportunity to try different activities.
Volunteers from the nonprofit Antelope Valley Community Uplift Foundation guided the students through the activities.
Claudia Allen, a self-taught artist, taught students at Joshua Elementary how to paint on a canvas. In preparation for the students, she placed dollops of red, white, black and blue acrylic paint on a palette next to a small rectangular canvas. Each student had two paint brushes — one with a thick tip to paint large areas and one with a thin tip for details. They also had water and paper towels to clean the brushes.
“I’m having a lot of fun,” Allen said. “This is something I enjoy doing. I missed it. I’m happy that the kids are confident in their art skills.”
Allen held up her painting. The image depicted a smiling, winking steaming red mug of hot chocolate topped with marshmallows and a red and white straw on a blue table with a starry black sky.
“You guys think this is easy or hard?” Allen asked the children.
She got both responses from the nine students seated at a lunch table in the school cafeteria.
“For everyone who thinks it’s hard, it’s OK, because guess what?” she said. “I’m going to teach you step by step how to do it.”
Allen guided the students through each step. She made what appeared to be a challenging task simple for the boys and girls.
‘Everything in art is a shape,” she said. “So, what we’re going to do is the first part of the mug.”
The students used the end of a paintbrush to sketch their designs on the canvas before they used the paint.
Allen demonstrated the technique with a blank canvas, so she painted a second image as the children painted.
“Very good; you guys are doing a good job,” she said.
Second-grader Nylah Hall enjoyed the activities she did during the week.
“Like all of them,” she said when asked about her favorite.
Then she added, “The game truck.”
Student Santana Contreras also enjoyed the different activities.
“Sports,” he said when asked about his favorite activities. “We played basketball.”
Tyshonda Stewart, site lead/provider for AV Community Uplift Foundation, said the organization provides afterschool activities for the district during the regular school year from 2 to 6 p.m.
“I’ve always enjoyed working with kids,” she said. “It’s pretty fun.”
The winter intercession program was a way for students to get ready to return to school after being off for three weeks during the winter break.
“It kind of gives them that get ready for school but I’m still hanging out with my friends, making new friends because everyone’s not from this school,” she said. “I love it when they get to come together from other schools.”
Joshua Elementary interim Principal Santiago Meza said they had 99 students from kindergarten through eighth grade from different campuses participating in the program on Thursday.
“They all had breakfast in the cafeteria, then they get spread out by age groups, “he said.
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