West Haven Public Schools launched an after-school enrichment program this year for second, third, and fourth graders in the district.
The program began this October for second graders and spanned over seven weeks with roughly two weeks at each elementary school. In total, 89 second graders signed up for the program from the district’s six elementary schools: Forest, Seth Haley, Edith Mackrille, Alma Pagels, Savin Rock, and Washington. The unit for second graders focused on dinosaurs, in which the students read a book about them, did a research project on them, and wrote a persuasive essay to their parents about why they should have a dinosaur.
Elisa Rice, a fifth-grade teacher at Carrigan Intermediate School, oversees the program.
“I am very pleased with the success of the second-grade enrichment program,” said Rice. “The students really seemed to enjoy it, and I am looking forward to our third and fourth-grade programs. I believe that the word is spreading about how great a program it is since we have even more students signed up for the third grade than we did for the second.”
The third-grade enrichment program, which has 104 students signed up, began on Jan. 3, while the fourth-grade program is scheduled to begin on April 18. Both grades will focus on push-pull forces using Legos. Every two students will share a Lego kit and each student will write about their project in their journal.
Buses are provided for the after-school enrichment program as well as snacks. The program is an hour long.
