Fall 2019

Stacy Worden
Incredible Insects

Insects are amazing! Have you ever wondered why some insects can walk on water or how much an ant can carry? In this class we will explore many incredible adaptations of insects. Classes will include games, crafts, a nature walk, and mini experiments to find the answers to our questions about insects. Each class will begin with a song and a story followed by a class activity or craft and end with music and dancing.

Sarah Palm
Survival Skills

Do you have what it takes to survive in the Florida wilderness for 3 days? In survival skills you will learn the basic human needs and simple, lightweight, and inexpensive ways to provides those needs in the wild. Topics covered are: how to have a real survivor attitude, natural movement, simple ways to get physically strong, knots, temperature regulation, shelter building, making fire, finding safe water, signaling, hunting/fishing, foraging/poisonous plants, navigation, wildlife safety and dangerous wildlife, and hurricane prep.

Catherine Thomas
Discovering Acrylic Painting

Students will create a variety of paintings with acrylics on acrylic paper culminating into a full painting on canvas in the final classes. NO experience or specific skills are needed. The focus of this class will be to both introduce some basic techniques in acrylic painting, but most importantly, build student confidence and instill a sense of accomplishment and joy in painting. Students will paint specific paintings together—along with the instructor—as she provides step by step instruction. This eliminates fear and provides a foundation and positive experience as the students begin to develop a sense of familiarity with the medium and how to use it successfully. In the first class, the students will be shown a painting and invited to paint it on their own without instruction. This will not be any type of assessment, but instead, it will provide a visual basis for the students to see their own improvement over the course. By the end of the course, the students will recreate their original painting—with instruction—on canvas as their final project.

Nancy Pantano
Fun with Food

In this cooking class your child will discover and enjoy the fun that is to be had in the kitchen. While learning some basics of kitchen safety and food handling, we will create such delights as fortune cookies, fruit bouquets, dirt cake, cheese fondue and much more! When we love what we do, we do more of it, and we usually do it well. Let your child learn to love being in the kitchen and creating with food. It just might turn into a passion that lasts a lifetime!

STEMania
Space Academy

Come learn about all things space in our space series! We will be learning about stars & black holes, Newton's Laws, aerospace engineering, planetary colonization, go on a mission to Mars and more!

Maria del Carmen Arrieta
Spanish 1

This course allows students to perform the most basic functions of the language. The emphasis is placed on the development of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Nancy Pantano
Stories & Snacks

In this, specially designed for preschoolers, class, your child will enjoy a circle time, listening to a book, a story or a puppet show. Stories are all food based, such as The Magic Cooking Pot, The Runaway Pancake, Little Red Hen, and more. At the conclusion of our story children will gather to watch the snack being prepared, or help to prepare the snack. Then we will all enjoy our healthy snack together! Such components as eating healthy, learning about food groups and keeping hands clean will be introduced in this class.

STEMania
Adventures in Chemistry & Physics

Physics-Discover how gravity acts on objects with different masses in the universe. Design structures that are able to hold weight wth everyday objects and learn about civil engineering. Learn about different forms of engergy and how energy is used. Chemistry-Be a mad scientist! Create chemistry crafts and be a part of our mad science lab which includes experiments with dry ice and creating a fire extinguisher.

Sarah Palm
Herbal Medicine Lab

In this class we will practice the herbal skills we learned from Herbalism 101, and make a complete family herbal first aid kit. We will practice processing herbs and make: Cough Syrup, Antimicrobial/Anti-Inflammatory tincture, Dry Wound/Impetigo Powder, Skin Healing Salves, Herbal Tea. If you miss a class you will still receive the product we made that class.

Strech-n-Grow
Cardio Kids

A high energy dance and fitness class for kids, designed to offer continuous and engaging activities that incorporate endurance, strength, flexibility and motor skill development. We use energizing music that kids know and love along with fitness equipment and props to add variety and challenge to every class.

Noelle Knight
The Lorax Project

During this course, students will dive deep into the Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax. Using this story as a starting point, the students will explore concepts such as "environmentally responsible investing", "sustainable management of natural resources", "economic factors that influence management decisions", and "human dependence on trees". Through brainstorming, philosophical discussions, role playing, simulations, research, developing business plans, creating advertisements and public service announcements, and identifying green businesses, the students will cover a variety of subjects including language arts, economics, technology, math, ethics, art, nature, both critical and creative thinking, and even a little sociology and psychology.

Stretch-n-Grow
All-Star Gymnastics

Our All-Star Gymnasts learn basic tumbling skills through, progressions designed to build strength, flexibility, balance and coordination. It's a fun way for kids to build confidence and learn gymnastics fundamentals.

Stacy Worden
Games Around the World

In this class we will bring our passports and pretend to travel the world! We will find our destination on a map and imagine we are taking a train, plane, bus, boat, or car to a new country each week. When we arrive it is play time! We will learn how to play games from the country we visit. Some games may be new and others may be variations of games we know. There will be a combination of active movement games and board games. When possible we will create a version of the game to take home and share with our families.

Gabrielle Lennon Knowlton
Writing for Social Change

We will have in-depth discussions about issues we care about; talk about writers who wrote for social change (from Dr. Seuss to Bob Dylan), what they wrote (in many genres, and in music), and how their writings contributed to change. We will write our own pieces for social change in different genres. Lots of us hate writing because of experiences we've had with it in school. I teach it in a very un-academic way. We don't worry about punctuation, if it's "good," etc. (That's for revision. I do teach revision a little bit, and we do write in different genres, but the focus is writing from our hearts, guts, getting to our truths.) My class is a completely supportive, safe place for my students to explore their deep thoughts, feelings, and opinions via writing. To explore their souls.

Rick Knowlton
Scholastic Chess

The world's greatest game of strategy -- a ticket to intellectual development and game enjoyment with partners around the world. The fundamental rules, strategies, and tactics of chess will be taught to all comers. Students will learn about the world-wide community of chess, and about current chess news events, and chess events taking place in the local community, as well as online resources.

From beginning to advanced students, each person will be instructed according the their own knowledge and ability level. A continuation of the course that has been a bedrock of SCLP for several years: all are welcome.

Ellen Goldberg Tishman
Exploring Parts & Wholes: A STEAM Class

How often do we really stop and take a look at something, examine it closely and determine what it might be made of? This goes for electronics, toys, other manufactured items, things found in nature and even the foods we eat. If we take something apart we can better learn how putting things together can create a whole that is better than the sum of its parts. This is reverse engineering. . Even our eco systems are made from a variety of other systems and when one of those systems does not perform or is destroyed the results can be devastating. How can we understand the way something works if we don't examine its parts and likewise how can something work better if we were to take it apart and restructure it. In this class we will identify parts of and the function of natural and manufactured items; and learn to become keen observers and think about how we can restructure items for new purposes. Put on your investigative hats and use your hands-on skills in this STEAM class as we nurture our creative thinking skills, examine, draw, label and observe how things work so that someday we can all be active participants in the betterment of our society.

Zhani Glaab
Exploring Biology Through Art

In this program we will be exploring life on Earth through creative projects and engaging group games. Students will bring home treasures like handmad soap, seed paper for planting, and floral prints. Our studies will begin with the energy cycle and how solar raditaion sustains life through our oceans and photosynthesis. We wille explore both plant and animal anatomy, the delicate balance of global ecosystems, and the evolutionary, history of the species we see today. Students will be introduced to scientific classification and nomenclature in a fun, hands-on way, designing their own creatures with Greek and Latin names. We expect to spend about 2/3 of each class session on collaborative art, with the remaining time reserved for games like Evolutionary Game of Chance and Pollinator Game. The structure of each session is flexible to accomodate the energy of the group, and students may spend more time on their preferred subjects.

Julie Vaccaro
Yog-A-natomy

This class will introduce your little yogi to the ins and outs their body. Not only will they learn what makes them tick, they will gain insight on how to respect and care for their own bodies. We will learn about the different systems in our body and how yoga can help support them. Children will also learn about how to work through strong emotions using yoga poses and breathing techniques.

Noelle Knight
A Walk Through Florida History

This class is designed as an introduction to Florida history. Students will take a walk through time discovering and making connections with the people, places, and events that helped to shape Florida. Each week will focus on a different era beginning with Pre-Columbian Florida and working through to the 21st century. Projects may include Wampum Necklace, Seminole Indian Vest, Cracker Corn Husk Doll, 3D Citrus Diagram, and a Candy Train with games like Florida Physical Features Scavenger Hunt, Cardinal Directions Game, Explorers Trading Cards & Game, Solve a Murder Mystery, Stock Market Game, Travel Agent for a Day, and Hurrican BINGO. We may even have a special guest speaker from the DeSoto National Memorial. The class schedule will be somewhat flexible depending on scheduling with the Park Ranger, and the interest of the students.

Ellen Goldberg Tishman
Mosaic Your heART Out!

Mosaic is an ancient artform, but is still being practiced in even more creative ways today. In this class we will create mosaics using such materials as buttons, beads, tiles, bottle caps, cast-offs, old jewelry, rice, beans, sand, paper, foam, natural materials and even food. We will mosaic two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms such as boards, vases, bowls, picture frames, balls and other objects. This is a fun class where everyone is guaranteed to be successful!

Anglea Zuknick
Escape Room

Students will work as a team and use their critical thinking skills to solve puzzles, clues and codes in order to ‘escape’. Each week could have an element of math, science, history, current events or just fun imagination.