Students from the E. Neal Roberts CAPS-ASI Program attended a Dodger game in July. They won a drawing out of a pool of students with perfect attendance and excellent behavior.
A quick look at what we do.
A trailer made by the Media Club at the CAPS-ASI Program at E. Neal Roberts Elementary School.
Cultivating Creativity
One of our many collaborative partners is the San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD). With them, we operate Creative Before and After School Programs for Success (CAPS) at three of our After School Impact (ASI) school sites. These programs, as the name implies, are heavy on creativity.
Before I go on, I would like to briefly state what creativity is not. It is not merely choosing to color a horse purple and the sky magenta. It is not reciting the same poem hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children have memorized since the days of Plato.
No, creativity is the formation of original ideas by use of ones imagination. Creativity is what produced the first sheet of paper and the first wax crayon. Creativity is what caused someone to attempt to dye wool a different color than just “sheep.” Creativity is what the great men and women of out past have used to push us forward as a people.
This is the type of creativity that we seek to cultivate in our after school programs. Through young inventors clubs, poetry and creative writing workshops, and STEM based problem solving, we stretch the minds of the students to think beyond worksheets and standardized tests. By doing so, they will be better equipped tackle the demands placed upon them both in and out of school.
In order to cultivate creativity at home, here are a few things you can do:
- Seek to make the ordinary strange and the strange ordinary
- Embrace failure and learn from mistakes
- Be open to different ideas, no matter how out of the box they might be
- Expose your children, and yourself, to great works of art in any medium (painting, music, dance, etc.)
- HAVE FUN!
Andrew Smith
Marketing & Social Media
Students from the CAPS-ASI Program at Lankershim Elementary enjoy an end of the month CAPS Mall. Ms. Kristie helps her Kindergarten-First Grade class erupt their volcanoes while other students watch.
The day ended with pizza and a raffle for prizes.
Students at E. Neal Roberts Elementary enjoy their time in the CAPS-ASI Program. They had a crafts club making lanyards. They also had a space exploration club where they learned about the NASA space program and built Mars Rovers out of marshmallows.
Pictured is the staff at E. Neal Roberts (L-R): Mr. Matt, Mr. Reggie, Ms. Candice, and Ms. Jessica
