Photo: Jorge Royan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Elementary added a new piece to its school day in early 2019: Spark Clubs, a program that lets third, fourth and fifth graders join a club that meets during school several times a semester.
There were 13 clubs to pick from in the first round, covering photography, cooking, art, exercise, dance and more. School counselor Sarah Kakacek described them as a way for students to find and build their interests at school, which is where the name comes from.
The dance club, for example, met at the Clarion Fitness Center, where C-G-D High School dance coach Nikki Conlon helped the kids put together a routine of their own.
The clubs fit with the school’s use of Leader in Me, a program built on Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits that aims to develop students as whole people rather than only as test takers.
Jill Ostrander writes for Clarion News Online.