Weekly Media Roundup: February 5, 2020

Hancock Students Create Films One Picture At a Time, The Daily Star (New York)

The Hancock Central School afterschool program in Hancock, New York, recently teamed up with Box of Light, an artist residency program, to teach students about media production. Students in kindergarten through ninth grade learned about storytelling, photography, sculpting, technology and more as they wrote, directed and filmed stop-motion animation films. The results ranged from stories about a missing horse to one about a backflipping clown. “It’s fun, but the hardest part is planning what happens in the movie,” seven-year-old Karynn Appley told the Daily Star.

After School Program in Marion County Teaches Kids About Black History Month, 12 WBOY (West Virginia)

At the Rising Stars afterschool program in Fairmont, West Virginia, students can participate in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) projects as well as access tutoring, meals and more.  The program recently hosted a screening of a film about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad in honor of Black History Month. In addition to watching and discussing the film, students put their artistic talents to work creating posters of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “[Dr. King] wanted everyone to just get along, regardless of the color of our skin, and to be equal. I think we still have a long way to go, but I think we have made some progress,” AmeriCorps member Susan Cook told 12 WBOY.

Cookies for Change Builds Brighter Future for Homeless Kids, ABC 15 (Arizona)

Seventh- and eighth-grade students experiencing homelessness meet daily after school to bake and sell desserts through the Cookies for Change afterschool program in Phoenix, Arizona. The program aims to develop students’ confidence, teach such skills as entrepreneurship, and provide a safe place for students to learn and form relationships with mentors.  “The goal is to protect these kids and keep them aware, happy, [and] healthy, and start being seen and seeing what opportunities are out there,” volunteer Lisha Dunlap told ABC 15. “When they walk in the door, they feel accepted and loved. They're not a statistic or circumstance.”

Nashoba Extended Learning Students Donate Onesies to Hospital, Telegram.com (Massachusetts)

This winter, more than 300 students in the Nashoba Regional School District Extended Learning Program (ELP) in Massachusetts decorated more than 200 onesies to donate to infants born at a nearby maternity ward. At the end of the project, fourth- and fifth-grade students took a field trip to the ward and learned more about the health care professions. “We are grateful that our students had this opportunity to learn about the important role our healthcare providers play in bringing babies into the world,” Coordinator Reina Rago told Telegram.com. “Providing students enrichment activities like this allows them to explore different interests and feel part of a larger community.”