EAST BRUNSWICK – Students at Robert Frost Elementary School crawled on the floor and roared like a lion in a pretend jungle, puckered their lips and swam like a fish in an imaginary ocean, and hopped to pop invisible bubble wrap.
The group of about 20 third- through fifth-graders was participating in the Creative Movement class offered as part of Frost’s afterschool program through a recent partnership with the Mason Gross Extension Division at Rutgers University, bringing the arts to its After School Kids (ASK) program, according to a statement prepared by Mason Gross.
Mason Gross Extension Division provides arts education classes – from ballet and choir to visual arts and filmmaking – for the pre-college students.
There are 1,200 students in kindergarten through seventh grade enrolled in the ASK program, according to Stephen Decker, principal of Early Learning and Community Enrichment. Decker said the district strives for the program to be an extension of the children’s daily instruction.
“This is not a babysitting program; this is enrichment,” Decker said. “Hopefully, we’re exposing them to something that they may never have exposure to and that creates a better educational environment for them to grow.”
Students can use the two-and-a-half hours after school for homework instruction, to play sports or to take cooking classes, according to the statement. The partnership with the Mason Gross Extension Division allows the district to expand its program to include the arts.
“Our motto at East Brunswick is ‘Excellence in Academics, Athletics, and the Arts,’” Decker said. “My goal is to bring in the arts into our enrichment program so that we can expand our program.”
Creative Movement classes are offered at East Brunswick this fall, with plans to provide music and visual arts sessions in the spring.
“It’s a matter of building a community around the arts and we want to be part of that community,” said Chris Kenniff, director of Mason Gross Extension Division.
Decker worked with the district’s Out-of-School-Time Coordinator Karen Ector to coordinate the partnership and then launch and manage the program throughout nine schools. Both also happen to be musicians, who know the value of an art education.
“The arts are important because education isn’t in isolation; it’s the whole child,” Decker said.
The instructors for the Creative Movement classes at East Brunswick are candidates or alumni from the Master’s in Dance Education program at Mason Gross, Kenniff said. Those in the Master’s program study to become dance teachers in schools.