Fun at Home!

As one might guess from the title, Fun at Home Days are a highlight during the week!  On Tuesday afternoons, an artist, photographer, and cook come to St Mary’s and run programming with the participants!  Fun at Home are the days B-SAFE stays on site in the afternoon. Instead of going on a field trip, the fun comes to our site!

While we have academic rotations on site every morning, these activities are extra special.  Outside experts come to engage the students in new activities that build on the previous week’s lesson.  Each site has different Fun at Home Day activities and St. Mary’s activities include photography, visual art, and cooking.  In addition to exposing the participants to new and exciting activities, Fun at Home Days focus on the process instead if the product.  In Snapshots of Joy, our photography activity, the kids snap images with their own disposable camera.  They are not fretting about having a certain portfolio at the end, they are exploring their daily surroundings through the lens of a camera.

After our first Fun at Home Day, the staff and students alike could not stop talking about their new self portraits!  Our art specialists shared the abstract portrait work of Pablo Picasso and the students made their own with collage material.  Check it out in the picture below!  

By Maureen Burns, Site Director at St. Mary's

Maureen has worn a number of hats in her years working at SSYP and is very excited to be the Site Manager at St. Mary's this summer! She first came to SSYP to work in the after-school program and now spends the school year overseeing the partnerships SSYP holds with neighboring schools. In this role, Maureen most enjoys working in the Blackstone Innovation School Library. Outside of work, Maureen enjoys reading, painting, and running.