Cool Sports Challenge – Always a Success!

RL Stevens students had a BALL at the Cool Sports Basketball Challenge in March. Coaches Mr. Rockey and Ms. Kladar couldn’t stop smiling the entire time! They were so proud of their team who had worked so hard during practice. RL students cheered on not only their team, but the other schools as well, leading to RL receiving the Sportsmanship Trophy for the day.

The students had an amazing time and are truly looking forward to the next event!

RL Stevens team gets ready to play!

The Golden Bell Visits Meadow View

CalSERVES recently received the Golden Bell Award, a national recognition of exemplary programs in 22 major categories, which are essential to support teaching and learning. Our award is for our efforts in nutrition promotion and physical activity.

The Golden Bell went on tour to our local programs, during a fitness week where students participate in a variety of sports and games, nutrition art activities, a mile run, wear pedometers, and engage in various nutritional discussions. Perfect timing!

On December 6th, the Golden Bell came to Meadow View Elementary. Students learned about our award, posed for a picture, and each got a chance to ring the large, golden, trophy bell. Students commented, “Wow, it’s heavy!” “Do we get to keep it?” “That is a loud award.” One fourth grade boy told me, “Congratulations on the award, Ms. Kim. That is really special.” What a fitting end to our fitness week!

 By Kimberly Copperberg, Site Supervisor at Meadow View Elementary

Off to a Great Start at Bellevue!

AmeriCorps Service Scholars make their formal introduction to all of the students in the After School Program.

The CalSERVES After School Program is up and running. Classroom leaders have been doing a fantastic job taking attendance, running physical activity centers, leading literacy and math lessons and supporting their students with their daily homework. After School students have also been working hard on maintaining good attendance, practicing and following our school wide Tribes agreements and school rules, and making sure they’re ready to learn everyday!

As a way to acknowledge the hard work that both Classroom Leaders and After School students have been displaying for the past several weeks, the Bellevue CalSERVES After School program has been having fun during their bi-weekly assemblies! During assemblies, students have the opportunity to participate in various re-lay races against other grades to earn extra physical activity time!

The students from third and fourth grade work together to be the first class to get their hula-hoop through every student and win the “Student Relay”. Their Classroom Leader, Ms. Goeppert, helps her students by cheering them on and helping them out when they get stuck!

And AmeriCorops Service Scholar, Mr. Valdovinos, helps third grade by being the first one to start off the race!

In addition, all Classroom Leaders and AmeriCorps Service Scholars compete against each other in unique and fun relay races to earn their class and grade level weekly physical activity incentives as well! The entire After School Program performs a cheer and towards the end, students (three girls and three boys from grades k-6) get recognized for demonstrating “Outstanding Behavior” during After School. Students who are recognized receive a “Star Student” chair cover that they place in their chair and they are also the first to receive snack everyday throughout an entire week. They also decide what physical activity their class will play and receive a special treat.

These are four of Bellevue’s “Outstanding After School Students” displaying their certificate of recognition.

There is no doubt that the students, Classroom Leaders, AmeriCorps Service Scholars, and Site-Supervisor at Bellevue, have a great time creating After School spirit and enjoy displaying their Bulldog pride.

Go Bulldogs!

by Yesenia Salas-Chavira, CalSERVES Site Supervisor at Bellevue

Having Fun with Fruits and Veggies

This month, Wright held its annual Nutrition Olympics. Every year, students participate in activities geared toward learning fun facts about fruits and vegetables. Normally, the mentors lead the students in activities similar to fitness centers, but this year, members at Wright Charter took it to another level. Decked in fruit and vegetable costumes, they headed out to lead centers like Cucumber Javelin and Carrot Hop. The students cheered in excitement when they saw their mentors in costumes, which got them more interested in the games they were playing. Some students even wanted to get in on the action and wear costumes too. By the end of the event, students were asking “Can we play Coconut Bowling every Wednesday??” It was another successful event for Wright Charter. 

2012 Cesar Chavez Health Fair

Tomorrow is our annual Cesar Chavez Health Fair. It will be amazing, so come on down and join us!

Meadow View Elementary School

2665 Dutton Meadow Ave, Santa Rosa, CA. 95407

Saturday, March 31, 2012 from 10am - 2pm

The day will be filled with entertainment, games and activities for the whole family, free food, and many services offered to the community free of charge. These services include:

• Free Dental Screenings for Children
• Blood Pressure Checks
• Blood Sugar Checks
• Cholesterol Screenings
• HIV Testing
• Personal Health Records
• Body Mass Index Screenings and Referrals
• Opportunities to ask Doctor's your Health Questions
• Over 5,000 pounds of free food donated by the Redwood Food Bank
• Free Healthy Snacks
• Free Hair Cuts 
• Over 60 organizations with information about services in the area
• Bike Rodeo for kids, including safety checks and helmets

A Passion for COOL Sports

 COOL Sports has always been one of my favorite aspects of the CalSERVES programs. As a mentor at Sheppard Elementary, I coached every Challenge during the school year. I enjoyed watching my students’ faces light up with joy when they arrived at the Challenge and saw all the other students in their COOL Sports shirts. When I became a Program Assistant, I took over the responsibilities of organizing the Challenges. Now in my third year as COOL Sports “Cruise Director”, I found myself wondering if I would still have the same passion for COOL Sports as I did as a mentor. My concern quickly vanished after our last Challenge.

It has been a few years since volleyball was the focus for a Challenge. As mentors reported struggles our students had with this sport, we changed the rules accordingly to give them a better chance at being successful. As we started the Challenge, I quickly learned that the rules were going to go straight out the window. The students had trouble serving the ball over the net and passing to each other. Standing there reffing the matches, I adjusted the rules as best as I could in the moment. I saw mentors who had spent weeks teaching their students the fundamentals of the game cheering to the top of their lungs when a student was able to hit the ball over the net.

Looking around the gym, I saw that every person in the gym had huge smiles on their faces. The students, mentors, Super T’s, and parents were so proud of the hard work that had gone into this Challenge, no matter how the students performed. I thought about the purpose for which COOL Sports was created: it is a chance for students to participate in new sports that they might not have access to and it doesn’t matter how great of an athlete they are. What matters is that they showed up and did their best.

As I swept the gymnasium floor after the Challenge had ended, I heard a student shout out to her mentor “Good night Ms. Hunt. Thanks for being the best coach ever!” Watching the mentors cheer when they saw their kids return a serve, score a point, or simply get the ball over the net reminded me why COOL Sports will always be a passion of mine. These events allow the kids to realize their potential and have the power to change lives, including my own.

by Taylor Ford, CalSERVES Supervising Teacher at Wright Charter
and COOL Sports Coordinator

COOL Sports Cheer and Dance

Students from Taylor Mountain gear up for Cheer

“Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (Do it!)
Friday, Saturday to Sunday (Do it!)
Get, get, get, get, get with us, you know what we say, say
Party every day, p-p-p-party every day

And I’m feelin’, woohoo, that tonight’s gonna be a good night
That tonight’s gonna be a good night, That tonight’s gonna be a good night
Woohoo!”

And what a good night (or day) it was! The six CalSERVES after school sites gathered for our first COOL Sports Challenge of the year at RL Stevens to perform their awesome Cheer and Dance routines on stage! 

RL Stevens students cheer on other teams

The room was filled with two mentors from each site, proud parents, teachers,  and RL’s principal. The students were excited with their nervous smiles as they waited for their turn on stage. It was nice seeing their mentors giving them pep talk to high fives to help excite and calm their nerves at the same time. Seeing our extraordinary Supervising Teachers Taylor Ford and Yesenia Salas-Chavira MC the event is always a bonus! This year, I had the privilege in being one of the judges along with
Katie McCormick, Lauren Serpa and Megan Randles. We got to choose each team to “Walked it out” with an award and two walked away with our first ever Sportsmanship trophies! 

Kickin' off the event

“I think sportsmanship is knowing that it is a game, that we are only as good as our opponents, and whether you win or lose, to always give 100%.” This was how our fifth grade student kicked off our event by reading this awesome quote by Sue Wick. … which led to the wild cheers and applause for each other throughout the entire event!

I love, love, love watching people dance (especially kids!) and I couldn’t sit still in my own seat. Who knew that lyrics like “Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle yeah! Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle yeah! Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle yeah” would make one want to move!

Our COOL Sports kids definitely rocked the house. Everybody had a good time and we almost
lost our minds…  they definitely “got the mooooooves... like jagger!”

Meadow View students wait for their turn

Congratulations to all! Here are the awards:
Hardest Cheer – Meadow View
Most Unique – Kawana
Most Encouraging – Bellevue
Loudest Cheer – Wright
Most Spirited – Taylor Mountain
Funniest – RL Stevens

Sportsmanship trophies awarded to:
Wright
Meadow View

All the COOL Sports Cheer participants

Want to see what you missed? Check out the talent of our kids at www.youtube.com/calserves. Don’t miss our next COOL Sports Challenge in February. See you there! “We just wanna see yaa!
Shake That!” …

by Sandra Lemus, CalSERVES Program Coordinator

Fun with Tennis

Last year, I was fortunate enough to have been in the right place at the right time to be introduced to Michelle Skipwith, the USTA Tennis Service Representative for Sonoma County. She was giving a presentation on bringing “QuickStart Tennis” into elementary schools to get young students more involved with the game of tennis. We placed an order for our school sites and for a very low cost we were able to supply our school sites with over 160 tennis racquets of various sizes for our students! We also received numerous types of tennis balls, tennis nets, and curriculum that will show our AmeriCorps members how to teach our students in tennis.

This Fall we had 3 tennis trainings, 3 hours each, for all of our school sites. At these trainings, mentors were taught the basic fundamentals of tennis and how to make it fun and interesting for kids. Now our AmeriCorps mentors have the tools and supplies to teach our students tennis and with this wonderful 75 degree December weather in Santa Rosa, we are fortunate enough to be able to continue playing tennis in the beautiful sunshine.

by Katie McCormick, CalSERVES Coordinator

Leadership Students are Monkeying Around

Kristen Mowers, Supervising Teacher, Taylor Mountain Elementary

The students who were selected to join the CalSERVES leadership program at Taylor Mountain were rewarded with a field trip to Expedition Island for their work. Students had to attend everyday, bring a great attitude, and help make plans for the year. They helped train their mentors (teaching them new games and providing opportunities to practice the youth development skills they were learning).

Students got to Zipline,

Trek across a suspension bridge,

Climb rick walls,

and be active the entire time we were there. The afternoon was full of smiles and laughter. Students helped each other and took on challenges that seemed overwhelming.

“I think a grew some muscles in there!” – Ruben, 6th grade

2011 Cesar Chavez Health Fair Report

Healthy Eating and Active Living

'This is a great event and I hope to be able to take part in it for many years to come!” 

Silvia Floriano, Health Fair Participant

The 2011 Cesar Chávez Day Health Fair at Roseland Elementary School drew over 3,300 attendees and 63 participating community organizations.

Health Fair Highlights

• Dental Screenings: St. Joseph’s Medical Center screened 104 children for tooth decay, finding 31 children who needed dental care and 6 of those children presenting urgent dental needs.
• Vaccines: Sonoma County Public Health provided Tdap (Whooping Cough) vaccines to 219 children, ages 10-18, as well as to 89 adults.
• Blood Pressure, Blood Glucose, and Cholesterol Screening: St. Joseph’s Medical Center provided blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol screenings to 59 individuals, issuing 50 referrals for follow up care.
• Asthma Screenings: Community Action Partnership provided 15 Asthma screenings.
• BMI Testing: Nursing students from Sonoma State University provided 17 Body Mass Index (BMI) screenings for families.
• Free Healthy Foods: The Redwood Empire Food Bank donated over 5,000 pounds of fresh produce and free healthy snacks were also served.
• Free Bike Helmets and Repairs: Safe Routes to School and AmeriCorps volunteers fitted 160 donated bicycle helmets, and NorCal Cycling repaired 125 bikes at the Health Fair.
• Free Hair Cuts: More than 80 hair cuts were provided by community volunteers.

 Active Living

• Kaiser Permanente’s Community Theater Troupe led the Kids Course, an interactive obstacle
• course for kids that helps make fitness fun.
• Boy Scouts of America provided a Rock wall that had the whole community up and climbing!
• Obstacle Course Playhouse and other fun games encouraged children to stay active and have fun.

Local Representatives in Attendance

• Efren Carrillo, Supervisor, County of Sonoma
• Ernesto Olivares, Mayor of Santa Rosa
• Susan Gorin, Santa Rosa City Council

 Entertainment

• Windsor Bloco provided dancing and drumming.
• Aztec Dance Troupe performed traditional dances.
• Face-painting, magic shows, and balloon animals delighted fair attendees.

AmeriCorps

121 AmeriCorps members from the CalSERVES program, West County Community Services, and the North Bay Conservation Corps came to support this event. AmeriCorps members led activities for children, served as support to the health care providers and as translators for families.

Sponsors, Donors and Volunteers
The Fair organizer is CalSERVES, an educational program based at the Napa County Office of Education. Primary sponsors of the 2011 Health Fair include First 5 Sonoma County, Kaiser Permanente, St. Joseph’s Health System, Redwood Credit Union, and Community Action Partnership. Additional Fair sponsors included Redwood Empire Food Bank, Safe Routes to School, NorCal Cycling, Santa Rosa Police Department, Roseland Elementary School, Radio Lazer, La Fondita Restaurant, and Clover Stornetta. Many businesses and agencies in the community came together to support the event, including 25 community organizations that donated goods and services worth over $6,000. Over 452 health providers, community volunteers, and AmeriCorps members provided 2,159 volunteer hours in support of the event.

Fitness Fun! – Yoga Lessons at Kawana Elementary School

Sally McLeod, AmeriCorps Mentor at Kawana Elementary
 

3rd Graders doing Yoga at Kawana Elementary

As a mentor and specialist at Kawana Elementary, it’s not always easy coming up with fun and innovative lesson plans. In my search for something fun and unique, I decided to take a look at previous specialist lesson plans from past years. In my search I came upon something truly inspiring; yoga for kids!

I thought yoga would be a great activity to do with the third grade! I would introduce an alternative way of exercising and keeping healthy, which a lot of the kids had never been exposed to. Some aspects that I included in my lesson were different breathing techniques, yoga postures, and other calming affects.

At the beginning of our week, I introduced the concept of yoga. I discussed what it is, its origin, and why it is useful. We then proceeded to go into our first breathing exercise. These breathing exercises were a great opener into our lesson. All of the students were asked to close their eyes and relax while given a calming visual to imagine themselves in. This really slowed up the pace and allowed students to instill a state of peace within themselves as well as a oneness with what they were imagining.

After our breathing exercises, we moved into the different yoga positions. While moving into different positions it was important for the students to understand what each position meant, so that they were able to embody all of the qualities themselves. Some poses students were asked to embody were warrior, tree, and mountain. Characteristics of these poses included strength, confidence, trust, as well as other great characteristics to promote good self-esteem and awareness.

At the end of our week, I was truly blown away at how much the students had taken from this lesson. I really felt that they were in tune and more aware of their surroundings and each other. Yoga seemed to have a real breakthrough upon these kids! They took the instructions I had given them whole heartedly and I couldn’t have asked for more!

CalSERVES is awarded a PE grant to support Healthy Behaviors Learning Centers

Julie McClure, CalSERVES Program Director

The Napa County Office of Education and partners have received funding from the U.S. Department of Education to run a comprehensive physical activity, health and nutrition program to directly serve 2,000 K–8th grade students in 20 elementary and middle schools.

The program will also expand the CalSERVES’ Healthy Behavior Learning Centers to support the implementation of comprehensive PE, health, and nutrition education in after school across California. This program will provide support to after school programs across the state in their efforts to provide high quality PE and nutrition programming to those most in need.

HBI provides each partner school with

• physical and nutrition education material and supplies
• funding for innovative physical education and nutrition instruction
• training for staff members
• equipment to support the curricula
• follow up coaching, feedback, and evaluation of progress

The Learning Centers will offer training, site visits, and follow up coaching to all California state-funded after school programs, impacting 300 additional staff each year and exposing them to best practices in physical and nutrition education particularly in the after school setting.

This program will fill the gap created by insufficient PE time during the school day, which in turn will help students make progress towards a healthier lives.

The first Healthy Behaviors training is on 1/20/2011 in Santa Rosa, CA is open to all after school staff in any state funded after school program in California. Registration is now open: 
www.sonomacan.org/trainings.php

Wright Walks!

Brent Watters, Mentor at Wright Charter School

With obesity rates steadily climbing through the United States, kids sitting out on P.E. activities is becoming more and more common. As the 6/7th grade mentor at Wright Charter School, I’ve encountered countless “I cant’s”, “I won’ts”, and of course, that blank stare they give you when you tell them to run a mile. But just when you think all hope is lost, in comes an engaging teacher with a new curriculum to throw on these couch surfers.

Mr. Tobes has started a new walking program at Wright. Students are being engaged to walk far distances to learn about their local area, culture, and more about their physical capabilities. Last week, I was invited to come along on the first walk for Wright, and I was ecstatic!

The 4-mile walk from Wright to RL Stevens Elementary School started with a bang. Kids were able to use water bottles donated to the school as well as countless snacks to keep them energized and motivated. We formed strict groups by classes and gave everyone an American Flag to symbolize the knowledge we will be receiving on this adventure, as well as a way to keep the kids in sight.

The troop was made up of 4th through 7th graders and not a single complaint was made the entire time. Even some of the older kids who clearly were hurting from the walk, bit their lip and kept on trucking through. We learned about flowers, geographical facts, and even where students lived just by taking this walk. An even better realization was when we got back and it had only taken us 3 and a half hours! That’s pretty good considering how fifteen minutes of strenuous activity is hard to get from these kids, let alone half a day's worth!

The best part was when we got back and saw all the tired faces of the kids we helped push along on this quest; we could see that they wanted more. Kids immediately started signing up for Mr. Tobes 8 mile walk in a few weeks and even went home saying “Gosh I had better start walking some more or I’m going to die on the big one!” If anything, just encouraging those kids to walk on their own time was reward enough from this experience.

The kids from Wright Elementary are very lucky to have such an interesting new program coming to them. Not only does it promote a healthy, active lifestyle, but it also gives them a huge sense of independence and accomplishment when they see they’ve walked to a place they thought they could only get to in the back of their parent's car. I know this mentor is excited for the next big walk, and I hope all of Wright Charter School will be too.

Nutrition Olympics!

Katie O'Looney, Supervising Teacher at Wright Charter School

During TV Turn Off Week, CalSERVES at Wright Charter School participated in the Nutrition Olympics for 2 afternoons. The kids had a great time participating in events such as: The Pepper Toss, Rasin' Picking, Apple Toss, Lettuce Dribble, Supermarket Slalom, Coconut Bowling and more!

Before each group started, the AmeriCorps members quizzed them on nutrition facts pertaining to each fruit or vegetable. The kids had a wonderful time and learned a lot about various fruits and vegetables.

Note: No fruits or vegetables were harmed in the making of this activity! Kids tossed and dribbled with fake versions of the produce.

Cheering for RL Stevens

Melissa Moore, Supervising Teacher at RL Stevens

Kylie, getting ready to perform

RL Stevens cheerleading girls had a truly wonderful time at the Cool Sports Challenge at Sheppard last month! They practiced for weeks before the big day and arrived to each practice with enthusiasm to learn new moves and perfect the one's they already knew. The girls performed a crowd favorite dance to Michael Jackson's song "Thriller", complete with white painted faces. They returned to RL Stevens that night with huge smiles and the "Most Spirited Dance" award!

The Bulldog Challenge

Katie Stone, AmeriCorps Promise Fellow at Bellevue Elementary

One of my favorite components of our after school program at Bellevue is our weekly Bulldog Challenge. Every Wednesday, our students are in after school for two extra hours. With part of this extra time, we have a program-wide physical challenge we call the Bulldog Challenge. Every class is divided into two teams, blue and white (our school colors). During recess, mentors help our students put either blue or white face paint on. When recess ends, we divide all of our students, 1st through 6th, into the two teams and announce the game(s) we then play for 45 minutes. We have had track and field center, crab soccer, basketball drills, and even Pumpkin Olympics after Halloween. 6th graders cheer on 1st graders. Students look forward to physical activity. Mentors get pumped up. The Bulldog Challenge brings everyone in after school closer together.