LEAP Into Coding

This week, millions of students around the world celebrate Computer Science Week by joining the Hour of Code Initiative (http://code.org/). LEAP, Lincoln’s after­school program, has joined the movement: LEAPers have designed games, shapes, and coded a path for Elsa from Frozen. The LEAP community would like to invite Lincoln students in grades K­5 to participle in this exciting initiative. Beginning today, December 12, and continuing through next Friday (not including Wednesday), LEAP will open its doors and computers to any interested Lincoln student who would like to try coding and enjoy LEAP for an afternoon of fun. Don’t know how to code? Not a problem! LEAP mentors from grades two through five will be there to walk new students through the process. at leap0615@gmail.com.  For more information go to the LEAP website: http://lincolnleap.com or call 781-­259­-0615.  Name of student: Space is limited to 10 non­ LEAPers per day, so email LEAP to secure your child’s spot.

When signing your child up for this one­time LEAP opportunity , please provide the following information:

Grade and teacher:

Desired date:

Home address:

Emergency phone number:

Allergies:

Name of parent who will pick up:

Hello Leap Families,

It is so nice to finally be writing to everyone without a bill attached at the end. I would like to let you in on something we have been working on for the last few months: The week of December 8‐14 is designated as Computer Science Education Week. In order to celebrate this, we are attempting to have every child at LEAP (and any others interested) participate in an Hour of Code (http://code.org). This is an international attempt to have all children program for one hour during this week. As of this writing, over 55 million children have already learned to program in one fashion or another. Code.org is a website that provides tutorials for programming in several different languages (Scratch, Python, Java) and involves Angry Birds, Plants Vs. Zombies and Frozen characters to keep children interested. We introduced these tutorials to children in October and it has been difficult to tear some of them away from it.

This effort comes with certain challenges. The biggest is that we want this to be available to all ages. To fix this we have recruited a dozen LEAP students to act as mentors during this week. We have kids ranging from 2nd grade through 5th that have already run through the tutorials and are primed to help anyone with questions, give clues to the next challenge, or even just read directions for the younger ones. We are in a great position to do this because of the courses we offered that taught Scratch programming (scratch.mit.edu) in the past year. For many that took the classes, these tutorials are a walk in the park. What is most exciting about this, is what it should do to LEAP as a whole. The younger children should experience help from the older ones, hopefully building trust within LEAP in a positive, reinforcing environment. Furthermore, this will empower the mentors, create a little more family atmosphere here and maybe even encourage us to all get along. But shhh, don’t tell them that, as far as they all know they’re just playing games right?

Chris Burns

An Evening of A Capella

Please join us for An Evening of A Capella to benefit LEAP!

When: Friday, December 5, 2014 from 7 to 10 pm

Where: Bemis Hall

Enjoy performances by:

Lincoln Sudbury Accent

Harvard VoiceLab

Harvard Callbacks

Delicious food will be provided by AKA Bistro. There will also be a cash bar.

Doors will open at 7pm. The Pre­concert and intermission activities include raffles and a silent auction. The performances will begin at 7:30pm.

Tickets for this event are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. Tickets are available at LEAP (Hartwell Pod C) and the Whistle Stop.

LEAP will provide childcare at the LEAP Pod C for $10. Please sign up by 12/1/14 to ensure a spot.

All proceeds from this event will benefit LEAP to help support educational and exciting programming for the kids who attend this wonderful afterschool program!

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Katie Hawkins at 781‐259‐0615 or leap0615@gmail.com

On Wednesday, November 12, 2014, Drumlin Farm will come to LEAP.  The Teacher Naturalist has sent me a blurb about herself, as well as about the program she will teach.  We are all so excited and feel lucky to have such a cool program coming to visit us!

I will be teaching a Native New England: Connecting People, Land and Wildlife program to two groups of children from 2:00-3:00 (grades K-2) and 3:00-4:00 (grades 2-3).  I have been working at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm for over 5 years as a Teacher Naturalist. My work includes teaching a variety of programs at Drumlin Farm as well as doing outreach to schools, libraries, and local festivals. I love working with all the animals, especially the birds of prey such as the hawks and owls. In the Native New England program I will be presenting at LEAP, I will be introducing the children to ways in which Native Americans lived and interacted with nature. The children will explore Native American artifacts, hear a Native American story, play a Native American game, and meet a couple of wild animal ambassadors from Drumlin Farm.

Sincerely,

Wendy Ernst
Teacher Naturalist
Drumlin Farm/Mass Audubon

LEAP WILL BE HAVING A HALLOWEEN PARTY THIS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29th!

Please send your child in with a costume, as we will be having a costume parade along with fun Halloween-themed activities!

**At 5pm we will head over to the Recreation Department’s “Trunk or Treat” for some trunk-or-treating, we will return to LEAP by 6pm…

*Please note: “Trunk or Treat “ will be held in the Codman parking lot. If you would like to be part of this fun… PLEASE COME JOIN US!

We would like to welcome two new staff members to our LEAP community! Matthew Harberstroh comes to us from Medford, Ma. Matt has his Masters degree in Art from Stanford University. Matt has been working over at Lincoln Public School as a Special Education Tutor, he has much experience teaching art and creating wonderful sculptures and is an expert at Print Making. Matt will be at LEAP Tuesdays,Wednesdays and Thursdays. Carl Lormeus comes to us from Waltham, Ma. He has a lot of experience working with kids at the Boys and Girls Club, Coaching Basketball. He has also been working as a special education teacher at the Guild School in Watertown.
Please welcome them both.
We are super excited to have these two join our wonderful Team!

LEAP Color War
On Wednesday, the kids will break into four different colored teams, where they will compete. The competition will be full of fun and excitement. Some of the games that they will be playing are: 4 way Steal the bacon, 4 way dodgeball and 4 way capture the flag.

Hour of Code
The hour of code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anyone can learn the basics.
It helps nurture problem solving skills, logic and creativity. By starting early, kids will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path.

We will make sure that all our kids get a chance to be a part of this ground breaking development opportunity.
Kids Fun Night!
Friday Kids Fun Night October 17, 2014, from 6pm-9pm. We will eat pizza, make ice cream sundaes and watch “How to Train a Dragon part 2”!
The cost of this event will be $20 per child if you RSVP before Friday; cost will be $25 dollars the day of.

We are entering our 3rd week of school and LEAP is off to a wonderful start. The kids have been getting to know each other through many different activities such as hiking to Pierce Park, working on various art projects, and engaging in sports and games.

Apple Picking
On Wednesday, we will be embarking on our first field trip of the year. We will be heading to Honey Pot Hill Orchard for a hayride and some apple picking. We will be departing LEAP at 1:30 and will return by 4:30. Please let us know if your child will be attending this excursion.

Curriculum Night Drop-In
Thursday from 7-9pm, LEAP will be open for parents to drop off their children during the curriculum night. Its 10 dollars per kid. Please let us know by Wednesday if your child will be in attendance so we can ensure that we are staffed appropriately.
Pizza Wednesday
If your child wants to sign up for Pizza, remember its one dollar a slice.

I hope you all are enjoying your summer.

Please remember to renew your registration forms for the upcoming school year, these forms should be filled out before the first day of school.

See you in a few weeks!

Katie

Hello LEAP Families,

It is with great pleasure that we introduce to you the tuition rates for the 2014-2015 school year! Why are we excited? Well, tuition rates have been reduced. That’s right—they’re going to be lower next year. For those curious, the last time similar rates were offered to LEAP families was 2009.

In a day and age when everything seems to be getting more expensive, how are we able to come to you with lower rates? It goes without saying that we’re going to preserve and even look to improve our service levels. We’re able to offer a savings next year because enrollment at LEAP this year has been particularly strong, and also because we’ve improved our operations and are working more efficiently. In short, the program is financially strong and, because we’re a non-profit organization, we want to pass the savings on to you.

In the coming year, we will continue to provide new enrichment offerings like the Scratch Programming and Lego Robotics classes, which we started this year. We have already begun exploring adding more guest speakers. Most importantly, we continue to provide excellent, experienced staff at a lower-than-required ratio of staff to children. In short, we plan on continuing the momentum we have gained over this past year.

LEAP staff and the Board of Directors have been working hard on a careful analysis of the organization’s finances before bringing you the new rate structure. As a result, we’re a little later than normal in finalizing these rates and know we haven’t left much time for you to register for the new school year before the conclusion of the current year. As a result, we have extended the early sign-up discount by a couple of weeks.

Registration for next year may be returned to LEAP by Friday, July 11th at an early bird special of $50 per child. Families signing up after this date will be charged a $100 registration fee per child. For those interested in registering early, please send registration documents and a check to LEAP, PO Box 298, Lincoln, MA 01773.

Thanks to everyone who made this great year possible. Hopefully this has helped to start all of your summers right!

Katie, Chris and the LEAP Board of Directors