A younger student demographic can be found across the San Juan College campus during the summer as Kids Kollege classes begin for those ages 4 to 15.
Those children are part of a summer enrichment program that brings a range of classes from STEM to cooking that make learning diverse and engaging during a time where students may experience what is called the summer slide.
Classes return each year depending on demand with Pokémon Masters and Japanese Cooking remaining on the schedule due to popularity.
Storybook Cooking is a class that brought children into a kitchen setting to bake sugar cookies drawing inspiration from the book, “Bad boys get cookie!” by Margie Pelatini.
Children created a recipe book that they followed together on Wednesday as they measured and mixed cookie dough.
“They’re learning real life skills like how to cook for themselves, how to clean up after themselves,” said Stacy Maxwell, Kids Kollege Coordinator.
Confidence and independence are also skills being utilized in the cooking class with children having the capabilities to make mistakes in a controlled environment, Maxwell said.
Further down the hallway at Kids Kollege, a group of children were participating in the Innovators and Inventors class where they built a safe launch capsule for eggs to be dropped in.
Kaison Dryden, third grade teacher at Ladera Elementary School, was instructing the egg drop experiment that day to the children who used paper, bubble wrap, string and a cup to protect their egg.
Dryden said in a previous experiment children used different materials, like more bubble wrap and cotton balls. In that egg drop, more than half the eggs broke.
The idea to conduct an egg drop came from how mail packages are handled and protected, he said.
At Kids Kollege, students are more engaged and that might be due to the creative freedom and hands on approach to learning, Dryden said.
“It makes them have to problem solve a little bit more – when they have to think about what they’re doing strategically it helps them grow and helps them understand more,” Dryden said about the difference he sees in a classroom setting and Kids Kollege. “They don’t absorb it as much.”
Across campus at the Child and Family Development Center, a group of four to five year old children danced to a song as they transitioned to a table top activity with bugs.
In the class Bugged Out, children explored different bugs in the week through crafts and movement.
Kimber Crismon, instructor, has been with the Kids Kollege program for over 10 years and said it has been all about including play in the curriculum for the younger kids.
Over the years Crismon said she has seen much more engagement from the kids in her class. Compassion and empathy are also skills that Crismon said she has noticed in the classroom.
“One thing we strive to do with Kids Kollege is make a fun environment where the kids are actually learning,” said Jacinta Esquibel, Director of Continuing Education. “We’re still able to keep their minds engaged throughout the summer because often times they go on their summer break and may lose some of the knowledge they gained in the year prior.”