March 18, 2015 6-8pm, dinner provided

You are invited to an evening of STEM family fun!

What do engineers do? They solve problems!  Join us for an evening of problem solving as we transform LEAPers into little engineers who come up  with innovative ideas to a variety of design challenges. We will review the engineering design process  (no prior knowledge is necessary!) and use everyday materials to solve problems in books as well as  other simple challenges. Bring your creativity and curiosity, everything else will be provided. The evening will be facilitated by Mia Dubosarsky Katz.

In addition to being Noa’s mom, Mia is a long‐ time science and STEM educator. She develops and facilitates STEM workshops for educators at  Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and in schools around the country.

Application_2014_2015-1

Dear Parents,

We are lucky to have been invited to the West End House Boys and Girls Club in Allston, Ma, this Wednesday, February 25, 2015.  Grades 3rd-8th are invited to participate in all their club has to offer, including: Swimming, Rec activities and Art Projects.  We will leave LEAP at 1:30pm to arrive in Allston by 2pm.  We will depart the club by 4pm to be back at LEAP by 4:30.

There are 20 spaces available, please let us know if your child would like to attend.

Application/waiver is attached.

Saturday is the Winter Carnival, LEAP will be sponsoring a magic show with Abracadabra Productions!
Check him out at:   http://www.abracadabraprod.com …We hope to see you there! 11am-12 in the B pod.

One Stop Fun and Nashoba Tubing were a BLAST!

LEAP Parents, thank you for your wonderful donations towards our staff holiday party! We will be heading out for a nice dinner and some yankee swap fun, thanks to all of you!

In the next couple of weeks LEAP teacher’s will be handing out your child’s progress report. If you would like to schedule a time to discuss further, please let us know.

LEAP KIDS FUN DAY!

Tuesday, January 20

Grades k-7, 8am-4pm

COME JOIN YOUR FRIENDS FOR a fabulous fun day, playing games,                    creating art and watching a cool movie!

$50 per CHILD/this includes pizza and snacks

(non-leapers are more than welcome!)

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