PS 239 After School Program

 PS 239 After-School Program:
(located @ 1715 Weirfield Street, between Cypress Avenue & Seneca Avenue, Ridgewood)

On September 23, 2005, the GRYC/PS 239 OST After-School Program began serving 70 children.  We are currently going into our 5^th year at PS 239 and are currently serving 100 + children.  Our program is a collaboration between the Out of School Time (OST) initiative and the Greater Ridgewood Youth Council.  It is available to the students of PS 239 in grades K-5. We operate Monday thru Friday, between 2:15pm-5:15pm, during the school calendar year.

Our goal is to create a safe, educational and fun filled atmosphere in which the children enjoy themselves while learning and tapping into their creative abilities.  This is an environment which supports the Department of Education performance and recreation requirements for school age children.  Snacks are provided by the USDA through School Food Services, NYC Department of Education.

After a long day in school, our children come down to our cafeteria for snacks and then it’s off to Homework Help with our staff of college students.  Our Homework Help program enhances the student’s school day experience.  We also emphasize community awareness by having our participants take field trips to local businesses to learn what goes on behind the scenes, and during the holidays we visit our local senior citizen center to perform a show and later a meal with them.  These are both experiences that neither the seniors nor the children will ever forget.  

*Both our educational and recreational activities are taught to build a community amongst our children to cultivate compassion and moral conviction, nurture leadership, teach academics and equip them with the skills to be lifelong learners.  One example of this is that for the past two years our program has taken students from third through fifth grade and formed a K-Kids Club, which is sponsored through the Glendale Kiwanis through whose guidance and example have helped us to develop future generations of leaders.  This program teaches elementary students leadership through service.

 To date the K-Kids at PS 239 have made beautiful handmade flowers and presented, them in vases, to all in the main office for Secretary’s Day, helped their school’s custodial staff by drawing posters and hanging them all over to remind everyone to keep our building clean, and have assisted in the actual upkeep of their classrooms and cafeteria.  A major service they have done was to remove graffiti from an entire block located directly across the street from their school which to this day has been graffiti free.  Currently the K-Kids have learned to crochet and are making many baby blankets for their teachers who are expecting by the school’s end.    

Below are listed some of our major: 

 Educational and Cultural activities:   Homework Help, Arts & Crafts, Drama, Dance and a Gameroom including chess, backgammon, checkers, and Mancala.

Recreational activities:   Team sports such as beginning Basketball, modified Soccer and Volleyball.  Competitive games of Wiffle Ball and Kick Ball where the grades challenge each other in preparation for the Tournament of Champions against our other after-school programs.  Our game room also competes in Connect Four, Nok Hockey and our latest addition Gong-Gi.