WEST AMWELL: Students have fun ‘After the Bell’

By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
   WEST AMWELL — “Alien guts!”
   The boys and girls in the after-school class at West Amwell Elementary School shouted out what they had made.
   With huge smiles on their faces, they squished the pastel blue, green and, occasionally peach, globs through their fingers, held them up to their cheeks or offered them for a slimy feel.
   There was fun going on in teacher John Craft’s classroom, but there was also plenty of learning.
   When he asked the students what they had made, they shouted, “Alien guts!”
   Others yelled, “Flubber!”
   But when pressed, they all knew the scientific name, and they belted it out with equal enthusiasm: “a polymer!”
   Fifth-grader Robert Tomenchok III explained the experiment from the previous week when they combined baking soda and vinegar to fuel a toy car.
   ”We shaked it up, and it made the car go,” he said.
   The baking soda and vinegar combination creates carbon dioxide, which propelled the car, Mr. Craft explained.
   Mr. Craft, a special education teacher at South Hunterdon Regional High School, is teaching science at the elementary school six Mondays through Dec. 1 in the After the Bell program sponsored by West Amwell’s PTO.
   In addition to science, the program also offers classes in jewelry making, candy making, new games and team building, cooking, living history and sports.
   Students from South Hunterdon help out in each class, earning community service hours.
   Because 107 students are participating, it wasn’t possible for everyone to be assigned their first choice.
   Fourth-grader Jack Fitzgerald wanted to join the science class, but he ended up in the living history classroom, according to his dad, Michael Fitzgerald.
   ”He really enjoys it,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “He’s learning a lot.”
   South Hunterdon instructional aide Cindy Zidzik teaches Jack’s class, called, “A Step Back in Time.” She helps the children learn about youngsters’ activities during the 1800s.
   She demonstrated an item that was particularly popular with the class. Like its name, the whammy diddle created a “whammy” of a sound.
   In olden times, children had to first carve the slim whammy diddle from a stick, then they had to notch it. To make a propeller that was attached to one end spin, they had to rub the notches just the right way with another stick, Ms. Zidzik explained.
   She also showed off toys recycled from a village blacksmith’s castoffs. There was a horseshoe puzzle made of metal rings and chains. Children had to unhook the metal ring from the chain.
   Has anyone in the classroom ever done it?
   ”Oh yeah,” Ms. Zidzik said.
   With a smile and a quick flick of her wrists, she solved the puzzle.
   Parents pay only $10 for the six-week program. The PTO funds the rest of the cost.