Art is an important piece of the educational pie. Our children are creative and love to express themselves.  Kaleidoscope provides our students numerous opportunities to engage in art. We believe that there is more to our students than math and reading scores. Art is an expression of emotions, perspectives, and creative thinking. Why not encourage it! Our students demonstrate excellent forms of expression. The creation of beautiful color drawings, self-portraits and illustrated books are all art works of our students.

Arts education is associated with every aspect of our daily activities. The entertainment we watch, the books we read, and even the way we express our feelings. Art is all around us. It can be defined in many ways. Research shows that “academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity” are all linked with art education.
We, as a community, desire the success for our children and demand it from our schools. Academically, art increases academic improvement in math, reading, critical thinking, and verbal skills. “A 2005 report by the Rand Corporation about the visual arts (1) argues that the intrinsic pleasures and stimulation of the art experience do more than sweeten an individual’s life — according to the report, they “can connect people more deeply to the world and open them to new ways of seeing,” creating the foundation to forge social bonds and community cohesion” (Smith 2013).

Kaleidoscope is a major supporter of arts education. We understand the positive impact our art activities have on our students. Our students love to color cartoons as they eat their snack. They love to create wonderful masks to reflect their interests. They love to imagine they are super heroes with special super powers. Art enables our students to share their full story and reveal the dreams and desires in their heart. It provides an outlet to share their perspective on various subjects. Our staff is honored to listen to their wonderful stories.

Summer Kids 2013 Is Filling Up Fast!

Gettin’ thirsty for summer?!?  We sure are, but this weather is making us crazy!  Will the snow ever go?  We know it will. It always does, but it seems to be taking its own sweet time. Speaking of time, get your child registered for our Summer Kids 2013 program today! We are filling up fast and there are only 20 spots left!  Register Online Today!

Summer Kids is our eight week summer program which will run from June 17 though August 8, 2013. Summer Kids is open Monday-Thursday from 8:30am-4:30pm. Summer Kids is open to students going into 1st grade through students going into 8th grade. Students receive instruction in academic skills, art, and the Children’s Garden. We provide recreational activities and go on a weekly field trip. We serve breakfast, lunch, and a small snack to all students in Summer Kids.  Visit our Summer Kids page to learn more about the program.

A few weeks ago at Kaleidoscope, we held a “Respect Week” for the students. We talked about what respect means to them, did team-building group activities, practiced being respectful, and learned how words make a difference. The dictionary defines respect as “thinking and acting in a way that shows others you care about their feelings and their well-being”. In the second through fourth grade class, we talked about what that definition means and made a poster of what respect looks like: who we respect and what we respect. The students came with many words to fill this poster.

As adults and educators, I think we sometimes forget that students are not going to act the way you want or behave how you expect unless you express these views to them. We assume they already know what respect means and who or what they should respect. When talking with students, they had many things to say about respect and they were all different. As a class we agreed on what we wanted respect to look like in our classroom and throughout Kaleidoscope. We all wanted to be treated with kindness, be listened to, and to use language to build up one another rather than put each other down. With having something we all can agree on and having it be expressed, I expect these things from each of the students. Our classroom has changed for the better. We continue to work on respect everyday because one lesson is never enough. As adults and educators, we need to be the role models for children to look up to for showing what respect means. We can talk about respect every day, but by showing them what respect looks like and how everyone should be treated, they gain so much more.

Summer Kids 2013 Registration is OPEN!

Set up the lemonade stand! Registration for Summer Kids 2013 is OPEN!
Register Online Today!

Summer Kids is our eight week summer program which will run from June 17 though August 8, 2013. Summer Kids is open Monday-Thursday from 8:30am-4:30pm. Summer Kids is open to students going into 1st grade through students going into 8th grade. Students receive instruction in academic skills, art, and the Children’s Garden. We provide recreational activities and go on a weekly field trip. We serve breakfast, lunch, and a small snack to all students in Summer Kids. The Children’s Garden is in partnership with the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. It provides students with an opportunity to experience hands on science, nutrition, and health while learning about gardening through planting, maintaining, and harvesting herbs, vegetables, and flowers. At the end of the summer the students harvest the produce and share it with their family. Visit our Summer Kids page to learn more about the program.

On one of our walls as you enter our space there is a board full of pictures taken over the 42 year history of Kaleidoscope.  Every day there is one that jumps out at me, a picture of a young girl laughing on a sidewalk outside.  She was in first grade when the picture was taken.  Today, she is in high school and I know her as a hard worker in our youth employment programs.  It’s hard to believe she’s been with the program for so long, and has grown up so much.  Her younger sister, who is in first grade this year, is in our after-school program right now.  We love being a source of long-term stability for our families.

One of the most rewarding aspects of our profession is the opportunity to watch our students grow up.  In just two years, I have seen young middle school students become confident and capable high school students.  Matt, our teacher of ten years, has seen students grow from elementary students to high school employees, and high school employees become year-round teachers.

Like our students, Kaleidoscope continues to grow and develop.  Today we are full of students, and have a waiting list of families eager to send their students to us.  We are completing the final phase of the Charities Review Council assessment, which provides donors an assurance that we employ the best management and financial practices.  We have staff and volunteers who have been with the program for years, delivering high quality content every day.

Likewise, our program is continuing to grow and develop.  We are focusing more and more on our “Growing to College” curriculum, which teaches all students from Kindergarten up that they can and should pursue education beyond high school.  We are improving and expanding our youth employment programs to give more youth their first job experience.  We are also planning on expanding our high-school programming to build a lasting relationship with students in the years leading to college and career.

I invite you to join us on this journey as our students grow into capable adult leaders.  There are so many ways to get involved with everything that is happening here.  From donating a scholarship to our summer program, to volunteering to come in and speak about your career, the possibilities for influencing a child’s life are endless.  We can’t do our work without the generous support we’ve received from everyone over the years.

Thank you for taking the time to read through our newsletter.  It’s filled with work from our students, opportunities to get involved, and news from our program.  I hope that you will be inspired, and will join us as we continue to grow with our students.

“That’s Why I Love Kaleidoscope!”

Student Testimonials by Kaleidoscope Students

Kaleidoscope is a safe, fun place I come to every day after school to improve my grades at school. All of the volunteers are very nice and make big differences in my life and grades. The teachers are smart and help us when we ask. This is the best after school place I’ve been in my life.  I’m glad my mom decided to put me here.

Kaleidoscope has made enormous changes in my grades. The volunteers are very helpful. They’ve taught me new multiplication strategies and taught me how to divide. If it wasn’t for Kaleidoscope I probably wouldn’t be on a tenth grade reading level right now at ten years old. The volunteers help with that too.

We do a lot of cool stuff here at Kaleidoscope. Every day at 4:25 Jennifer’s class goes to the gym to play basketball and soccer. We also go on field trips that are always awesome. Sometimes we go to the Swedish Institute. I am one of the three students that got to meet the King and Queen of Sweden! We even have been to Grand Slam to celebrate our leadership retreat.

If you ask kids at my school if they like their teachers they’ll say things like, “He’s mean!” and “She’s too strict!” But if you ask kids at Kaleidoscope if they like their teachers you’ll hear things like, “Matt’s funny,” and “Paige is cool!” That’s because they are! They know how to deal with situations and resolve problems. That’s why I love Kaleidoscope!” –Alex

“Kaleidoscope has really changed me because I used to be the person that no one liked because I would always get into fights and be bad.  I’m going to tell you a story that changed me in Kaleidoscope.  I was in the gym and I got really mad because I lost the game and I hit the person who beat me.  I got into a lot of trouble, but the lady who talked to me changed me.  Kaleidoscope staff don’t talk the way your parents do when they are mad.  They talk in a way that calms you down and makes you want to stop what you did and never do it again.” –Abdimalik

Summer Kids 2013

Summertime, summertime, sum sum summertime! Registration for Summer Kids 2013 will begin on April 1. You can Register Online to start the process too!!! We can’t wait to see all of our returning Here are some important details about summer:

Summer Kids is our eight week summer program which will run from June 17 though August 8, 2013. Summer Kids is open Monday-Thursday from 8:30am-4:30pm. Summer Kids is open to students going into 1st grade through students going into 8th grade. Students receive instruction in academic skills, art, and the Children’s Garden. We provide recreational activities and go on a weekly field trip. We serve breakfast, lunch, and a small snack to all students in Summer Kids. The Children’s Garden is in partnership with the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. It provides students with an opportunity to experience hands on science, nutrition, and health while learning about gardening through planting, maintaining, and harvesting herbs, vegetables, and flowers. At the end of the summer the students harvest the produce and share it with their family. Visit our Summer Kids page to learn more about the program.

I have the pleasure of working with the oldest class at Kaleidoscope. I have been working with Kaleidoscope for many years now and I am very proud of the progress my class has made throughout this school year. We started this year with a very full class but not much extra one-on-one help with the students. We also had a new problem of some of our classmates not being able to speak English fluently.  Despite these hurdles, I am glad and honored to say that my class has overcome the majority of our struggles and is now able to move forward with more educational practices as well as enjoying the fun of our classroom setting.

For the past few months we have put a major focus on teambuilding and leadership qualities. We are the oldest class and have the responsibility of being role models and leaders to the younger students at Kaleidoscope. My personal goal for all of my students is for them to not follow the crowd, but instead stand out and be leaders. It pleases me to share that all of my students have learned and adopted these qualities and are practicing these skills daily at Kaleidoscope! Not only is it teaching our students life long skills that will help them as they mature, it also helps Kaleidoscope run much more smoothly.

We have been able to practice these qualities in a number of ways in our lesson plans. We have been doing weekly debates that focus on topics that the students enjoy. These debates have been going very well. Lesson plans have also included “Etiquette Week” that was followed by an actual dinner where all of the students were required to use proper etiquette and manners while eating. Recently we played a group math game called Thief that engaged all of the students and encouraged them to work and play together. Amazingly the game was so successful that the students requested not to play on the computers and instead continue with our group math game…which has NEVER happened before in our classroom! Our latest project was group presentations for Black History Month. The students were given a choice of topic: The Black Panthers, The Underground Railroad, or African American Athletes. Once they were given the topic, it was entirely up to them how they found the information and how they presented it. The final outcome and presentations went over very well.

Our next goal as a class is to focus more on leadership and start to doing more educational activities that will help them be successful in high school, college, and beyond. Sticking with that theme, when the groups presented their Black History Projects, we had a session on how to present to a class. I taught a lesson on group speaking, not reading directly from your work, and engaging your audience while speaking. We are now moving on to the importance of furthering your education, how to write resumes and interview effectively, and high school/college prep. I am looking forward to getting all of my students college ready, successfully graduating, and becoming responsible adults!

Summer Kids 2013

It is hard to believe that it’s happening already, but Kaleidoscope is completely in the midst of summer planning.  We’re excited about the improvements we’ve made to our summer schedule, and we are incredibly anxious to see almost 100 students here every day.

Once again, Kaleidoscope is pleased to invite students aged 12 and up to apply for the Growing for Good Urban Garden Youth Employment program.  This program, which runs from late May to August, gives students an excellent opportunity to have their first work experience.

Kaleidoscope will be hiring 24 youth this year to work in our programs.  Students will work in the garden, sell vegetables and garden products, and create new products to market.

I’m very excited for the program this year because we are making some excellent changes.  Among the changes:

• A brand new orientation for students from all sites held at the Arboretum.
• Increased evaluation to provide the youth feedback to improve their performance.
• New work skills including photography, writing for marketing, and graphic design.
• Increased alignment between work groups in terms of expectations and growth.

If you or anyone you know might be interested in working for Kaleidoscope this summer, please go to our website and check out our Youth Employment page.  It has all of the information that you will need.  Make sure to ask anyone interested to subscribe to our email newsletter as well – every update will be posted in our newsletter.   Applications are due by March 22, 2013.  We look forward to seeing you here this summer!

Summer Kids 2013

“Mommy, I did a great job reading today.” Our students are always excited to share their accomplishments. Students are filled with joy when they receive a sticker on their homework, become an All-star of the week, or receive words of encouragement. My experience at Kaleidoscope has taught me to encourage students often and recognize their academic achievements.

In the Fall of 2012, we began a new program called Family Connections. The Family Connections program at Kaleidoscope is intended to appreciate and support our amazing students. The vital partnership between parents and Kaleidoscope staff will help each child improve socially and academically. As a team we wish to assist our students in their educational environments and at home. We can’t succeed in this without our parents!

“According to decades of scientific research—including a study from the Department of Education that reviews 30 years of research—parental involvement in the classroom is a key factor in improving students’ academic performance. Returning to the classroom and showing up to school translates into your child’s overall success” (Capretto 2010).

The way the Family Connections (FC) program works is that parents and FC volunteers become involved in our student’s yearly progress. While at Kaleidoscope, we assist them in their reading, vocabulary, math skills and behavioral matters. Since this program is a team effort, we would like our parents to come participate in Kaleidoscope activities. Parents are welcomed to come read with students, teach a class for an hour, or share their talents with us all. Volunteering in the classroom just three hours a year does make an impact. Our students would love to see their parents in their learning environment. They would love to show you off too! We are excited about this program and are pleased with the many parents and volunteers that have joined.

Family Connectors are Kaleidoscope volunteers that are the link between parents and classroom teachers. Volunteers are committed to meet with every child’s parent twice a year. We are very excited about this program and we are a looking forward to a great year!

I encourage every parent to praise their child often and recognize their wonderful efforts!

Phillips West 16^th Annual Winter Social!

Program News

from the desk of Luke Paquin, Program Coordinator

January seemed to fly by in no time flat! Can you believe that it is already February? After saying, “Goodbye” to the wonderful St. Olaf volunteers, the America Reads program from the University of Minnesota started up in full swing. Kaleidoscope welcomes back some old faces from last semester, as well as greets new literacy mentors that have just started with us! We are so grateful for the service they provide. It blows my mind that we have an opportunity to partner with such a great organization that aims to promote literacy and positive reading habits with today’s youth.

We have another great partnership that will be starting up in the spring semester in addition to America Reads. Starting in February, nursing students from St. Catherine’s University in St. Paul will be coming into Kaleidoscope to provide health education for our students. They will be promoting healthy tools and suggestions for better nutrition, cold/flu care, and dental hygiene (to name a few)! They will be working with all of our classrooms to promote better health with some fun activities thrown in. We are so excited for them to begin!

Kaleidoscope has also “hired” two new students from Jennifer’s class to assist with our book project. These two fine students work every Tuesday and Thursday to organize our library and systematically level our books to the A-Z Guided Reading system. This system has drastically changed our program for the better. No longer do our students choose books that are below or above their reading comprehension skills. Alongside our wonderful long-standing volunteers, Joyce, Romelle, and Cindy, their work has made reading for our students more streamlined and efficient! Thanks to you all!

Our volunteer schedule is also starting to fill up with familiar faces reappearing after winter break and new faces eager to start. We have students volunteer from a variety of different colleges and universities around the metro area. So, a big shout-out goes out to St. Catherine’s University, the University of Minnesota, Augsburg College, St. Thomas University, Century College, and Northwestern University. These institutions have produced dedicated service-learning students that are actively engaged in their community. Thank you for the long-standing partnerships with these schools that have allowed Kaleidoscope students and staff to benefit from these astounding students! We hope that they too will learn and grow alongside our students this semester.

• Feb 5 – Families Together is CANCELLED! Sorry! We encourage you to attend the Phillips West Winter Social below!
• Feb 7 – Phillips West Winter Social from 5pm-8pm
• Feb 18 – Closed!

For more details on these events and other activities you can check our Events Calendar.

Warmest Regards,
The Kaleidoscope Staff

Our students *love* learning…sometimes. In the work we do, because we are an *after school* program, it can be a challenge to keep students engaged and interested in learning after a full day of school. Yes, we give them appropriate breaks from learning, as we all need a break from work, but when it comes down to the actual academic lessons, creativity is a must in after school programming.

I believe that it is easy for us to get stuck in ruts, doing the same things over and over again. It’s easy to get focused only on the details of what the students need to know, and not pay appropriate attention to the broader landscape of how students learn. I felt like I had been stuck in one of these ruts, and was struggling to find creativity in my lesson plans. However, after talking with some of the other staff at Kaleidoscope and bouncing ideas around, I was inspired to shift things quite a bit in my lesson plans.

“The City”, as I have dubbed it for the time being, is a concept I have heard about over the years and have wanted to try in my classroom. I don’t know if it has been done in a K-1 setting, but it sounded enticing. Essentially, I would like to give the students practical ways to learn math, reading, and writing but with a more overarching approach. Each student in the classroom will choose a job they want to do – firefighters, musicians, business owners, doctors, etc. They will set up their business, rent space in the classroom, create documents that talk about their business, and then do actual business. Can you imagine students running their own clothing store business? It will be a dream come true for them! Even as I have introduced “The City” to my students, they have been buzzing with excitement! How encouraging is that!

Instead of giving them some flash cards or worksheets to practice addition, I want them to sell “products,” keep track of what they sold, and add up their sales at the end of the day. Instead of giving them a writing assignment to write about winter break, I want them to create advertisements and posters for their “business”. …and all this for some cold, hard (plastic), cash (coins!). Yes, instead of having the students make hundreds and hundreds of dollars, plastic coins will be our money of choice since K-1 students are learning about adding coins in school. Makes perfect “cents”, don’t you think?

“The City” is not something that I will necessarily complete. It is something that will be an ongoing creative process. I feel like there will always be new elements I can add to improve “The City”. But for me, that is the part of the creative process that I will always enjoy.

Program News

After a relaxing winter holiday, the students returned to Kaleidoscope with more excitement than I was anticipating. Even though they had been absent for close to two weeks, we have seen the best “5 Be’s” behavior yet! I have been so impressed with the respect and readiness of our students. You should be, too!

Over the winter break, Jennifer’s class went on a “Leadership Retreat”. They discussed what leadership meant to them and what it means to be a leader as well. They went to Base Camp at Fort Snelling where they participated in a ropes course and team-building activities, as well as, had some trampoline and arcade fun at Grand Slam Sports. It was a fun-filled weekend for everyone involved. Check out some of the photos of the retreat on our Facebook page!

In past years we typically haven’t had any volunteers for the first 2-3 weeks in January, but this year has been different. I have been so thankful for the handful of volunteers who have been coming in to volunteer with us during their January break. It is so great to see these volunteers dedicate their time to be here with the students, instead of doing other things. So, a heartfelt “thank you” goes out to you January “the few, the proud” volunteers!

Students from St. Olaf College in Northfield are partnering with us once again during January to volunteer with us. These seven students from St. Olaf are spending two weeks of their January term course to volunteer in a school and after-school programs in Minneapolis. We are thankful for their work and excited for them to be with us for the next two weeks!  Matt, our K-1 Teacher, is a St. Olaf alum so he looks forward to their visit every January (Um Ya Ya!).

• Jan 18 – Closed!
• Jan 21 – Closed!
• Feb 5 – Families Together
• Feb 7 – Phillips West Winter Social
• Feb 18 – Closed!

For more details on these events and other activities you can check our Events Calendar.

Warmest Regards,
The Kaleidoscope Staff

A couple of weeks ago, Matt wrote an excellent article about an easy technique for helping students take ownership of their positive self-talk. It was a thought provoking article, and it resonated deeply with me.

I wanted to take a moment to add on to his article for this newsletter. Positive reinforcement is absolutely vital to a child’s well-being, and can be a powerful tool for anyone working with children.

One important technique that I wanted to add was this: It’s more important to praise the process than it is to praise the product. I know that I’m certainly guilty of praising a product – it’s very natural to do.

“That looks great!”
“Good job, you got the right answer!”

These are comments you hear all the time. They praise the student for the product they produce, whether it be a piece of artwork or the right answer to a problem.

Praising the process is much less natural, but much more effective.

“I see that you’re working very hard on that problem, good job.”
“Great job working through all of your homework.”

Notice how the emphasis is on the process. Children are incredibly astute, and they pick up on an adult’s values very quickly. If we praise a right answer or a beautiful piece of art, students begin to internalize the value of being right. They strive only for the right answer, and become frustrated, upset, and give up easily when their efforts result in failure.

By praising the process, we promote resiliency. We teach students that continuing to work at a problem, to keep coming at it from different angles, is what is most important. By doing this, we promote problem solving and diligence.

Praising the process is difficult and seems counter-intuitive at times. We want students to get the right answer, and it can be hard as an adult to watch a student struggle through problems. But by helping with, and praising the process, we can create greater change in a student’s life.

I’ll close with an excellent example of the results of an academic survey which tested this. Students in Japan are often praised on process, while those in the U.S. are often praised on product. A researcher went into two third grade classrooms, one in Japan, one in the U.S. He gave each of the classrooms a test full of impossible items. In the U.S. the students gave up after an average of 5 minutes, In Japan they called the test after over an hour had elapsed. Not one student had given up.

Special Website Announcement

We just completed the development of our Partners page.  It has been a long time coming, but we are excited to highlight our vital partners and donors.  The long term success and expansion of Kaleidoscope over the years could not have been accomplished without you.  We are so grateful for you.

We also just redesigned and expanded our Kids’ Page.  We wanted to create an exciting and engaging place that our students would want to go to even when they were at home or the library or with friends.  Bookmark the page so they can use it at home!  We’ve checked out all of the websites to make sure they are safe and appropriate for our students.  The new Kids’ Page now includes the areas of Student Work, Stump the Staff, Staff Fun Facts, and a whole host of websites for safe and engaging learning and fun.  It was great listening to all of the students giggling at the funny staff pictures on the new Kids’ Page, too.  I would describe it all for you, but wouldn’t it simply be much more fun to go there and experience it yourself?

Program News

The 2012 portion of the school year seemed to fly by at lightspeed. We can’t believe that we are almost into the new year! There have been many highlights of this year that we’d like to share with you:

Our volunteers have donated over 1,100 hours of their time this semester alone (and, this week isn’t even over yet)! Thank you to all the volunteers who have taken time out of their busy lives to be a mentor, friend, and tutor for our students.

Every week, the staff picks an All-Star, a student that exemplifies our 5 Be’s and is a friend to all at Kaleidoscope. Our staff loves the look on the students’ faces as we announce the All-Star of the week. The look of surprise and their eyes lighting up is a highlight of every week.

The majority of our books have been re-labeled to reflect the reading level system of Minneapolis Public Schools. Now, the students can come into Kaleidoscope and read books that they know are at or above their reading comprehension level, which can only help them improve on their literacy skills.

The students have had a variety of projects that have stretched their minds and creativity. Paige’s class learned more about the Presidential election and even had their own voting booths on November 6th. Matt’s class learned that they are all special the way they are. They read “You are Special” by Max Lucado and did a beautiful craft project to remind them every day how special they are. And, Jennifer’s class has been learning more about debating. Her students are working on crafting sound arguments surrounding topics that interest them, like Cheetos versus Takis or Drake versus Lil’ Wayne.

As you can clearly see, Kaleidoscope programming is at its best when students, volunteers and staff are working together; integrating fun and learning into one! Thank you to everyone who has made this year a success! See you all in 2013!

• Dec 24-Jan 1 – Closed!
• Jan 18 – Closed!
• Jan 21 – Closed!
• Feb 5 – Families Together

For more details on these events and other activities you can check our Events Calendar.

Warmest Regards,
The Kaleidoscope Staff

In the work we do here at Kaleidoscope we encounter a wide variety of students. Some are very positive and some can be very negative. Many times the negativity is related to a very low self-esteem, which can cause the student to feel frustrated, angry, sad, or worthless. This can be a challenge for a teacher, especially when the teacher is trying to manage a whole room of students because the teacher has to then turn their attention to that one student to help the student work through the problem.

I went to a training a couple years ago that talked about children and self-esteem. One of the things they mentioned at the training was something very simple, but something very impactful for the student. Students are surrounded by praise. “Excellent job on your homework!” “Your artwork looks beautiful.” “You are a great basketball player.” Now, these are good, positive messages that the students need to hear, but the issue is that the messages are all coming externally, from someone else. This can eventually turn into a performance mentality where the student is always trying to perform to get the praise. However, the backlash from this is that if the student doesn’t get the praise they usually get then they don’t feel good about their self, which makes them feel less valued, which lowers their self-esteem. What is one new tool you can use to combat this?

Ownership. Give the student ownership of their praise. What is the process to make this happen? When they do something that you notice or when they show you something they have done, instead of giving them the usual praise, you say, “How does that make you feel?” When I have used this phrase in my class, I have gotten responses like, “I feel good about it.”, “Happy.”, and “I’m proud of myself.” Now that is what I call turning the tables. Ownership. They own the praise. They’ve given their self their own praise. This in turn gets internalized as a sense of value and worth, which builds their own positive self-esteem. Does the self-esteem change after simply a few uses? No. But, over time, I’ve seen some subtle and even dramatic changes in students’ self-esteem. It is actually the most rewarding part of my job. Seeing a student’s inner life transforming into a healthy, positive inner life is truly amazing. Seeing their face light up, seeing their bright smile, seeing the pride in their eyes…there is simply nothing that brings more joy to my work than this.

We all cross paths with children and youth daily, whether they are in our family, at school, in the neighborhood, at events, or at places of worship. The next time you encounter them you have an opportunity to positively change their inner life. So instead of being quick to praise them simply ask the question, “How does that make you feel?” and watch their face light up from the inside.

Program News

Can you believe that it is already December? Wow, this semester has really flown by! Every aspect of our programming is running smoothly. We have a highly dedicated and consistent volunteer force, which makes the day at Kaleidoscope go by swimmingly. There are still those small glitches in the system from time to time, but programming has never been better!

The teachers, students, and volunteers have all found the right balance. Everyone at Kaleidoscope knows exactly what is expected of them when they walk through the doors. Sometimes, it is so quiet and calm in the common room space that when volunteers show up for their shift, they ask if there are a lot of students absent. Quite funny, right? But, it is calm because there are so many hard working volunteers and teachers that make the day engaging and fun for the students here. We at Kaleidoscope are eternally grateful to the volunteers, who have donated over 915 hours since the beginning of the school year! Isn’t that incredible?

New to Kaleidoscope is our “Rockin’ Bee-havior” bucket. For the students around Kaleidoscope who show their best “5 Be’s” behavior throughout the day, they get the chance to put their name in our “Rockin’ Bee-havior” bucket. Each month, a drawing is held, and the winner is able to choose the teacher and activity for the next week’s Free Choice Time. It is another fun way to encourage the students to follow the “5 Be’s” here at Kaleidoscope.

Stay tuned for more fun updates on our Facebook and Twitter pages. We have some fun activities coming up this month! Tonight is our monthly Families Together, complete with a Talent Show put on by our wonderful students. Later this month, there will also be a fun “End of the Semester” party that will be put on by employees of Target Corporation.

Have a wonderful December! Hopefully we will get some beautiful snow soon!

• Dec 4 – Families Together
• Dec 24-Jan 1 – Closed!

For more details on these events and other activities you can check our Events Calendar.

Warmest Regards,
The Kaleidoscope Staff