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Join the club: Florence students pursue new interests

Our Town Florence-Aurora-Spread Eagle

By MARGUERITE LANTHIER 5 min read

FLORENCE, Wis. -- Florence County Elementary students in fourth, fifth and sixth grades have an opportunity to explore different interests in the school's new clubs program.

Vanessa Schimmelpfenning, the school's principal/director of pupil service, had the idea for the clubs several years ago.

"I was talking with the guidance counselor that used to be here and we had talked about this concept of clubs and having students engaged in a club format, but we didn't think about what that would totally look like. And then, over COVID (break), I just kind of had the brainchild -- 'Oh, we can fit it in here and we can do this and we'll do this' to make it work so the students can have their interests," she said.

This past summer, teachers chose interest areas they thought the students would enjoy. The teachers then described their clubs on the first day of school.

Students made lists of the clubs they wanted to take part in, and rated them from 1 to 10. Schimmelpfenning took the lists and tried to get the kids in their most interested areas. Everyone got their first-choice area at least once.

"At the end of this year, we'll survey students to see what student interests are, so next year we can kind of adapt it more," she said.

She introduced the clubs to improve engagements for students and create more interest in school.

"The hope of doing clubs was to raise student engagement because they can see their teachers in a different way and their peers in a different way," she said.

The school has 10 different clubs, with each meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 30 minutes right after lunch. Each club has 15 sessions, then students get a new club every quarter. Since the clubs are based only on their interests, different ages mix together.

The clubs are limited to no more than nine.

"That's where we cut off the size, so they wouldn't be so big that the teachers couldn't do hands-on things with them, but they weren't too small," she said.

Each club has a name and logo. Schimmelpfenning helped create names and logos for those that didn't have one.

Northwoods Newsies, run by Rebecca Wilcox, produces a newsletter and reports on different things.

In Bobcat Builders with Kent Walstrom, they build with K'nex sets and have K'nex challenges.

Loralee Springer oversees the art-based club Creative Cats.

Kind acts are the focus of Kindness Crusaders, run by Kimberly Cook.

Logic Legion is a math-based games club operated by Stephanie Tomczak.

Jennifer Baciak teaches kids to sew in the Sewing Sock Creatures club.

Food is the focus of Florence Foodies, run by Chelsey Holsworth.

Brianne Knox directs the First Act Drama Club.

Elyse Nygard oversees the Sign Linguists, which teaches sign language.

Mystery Microscope is a science-based club run by Vanessa McLain.

"It's really inclusive of all kids. It's not like if you have too much homework you can't go to club -- everyone is going to clubs whether you have a disability or not or, if you do really well in school or you don't, everyone is getting involved and we're building the community that way," Schimmelpfenning said.

"They can use academic skills, and apply those in different areas. Some clubs are more theme-based, or they can get a new hobby," she said. "It plays toward interests they might not see. You might not normally talk about sewing in the classroom, but there's a lot of skills in sewing."

The Foodies Club is the most popular. "When we first did it, everyone wanted to be in the food club, so we took everyone that wanted to be in the food club as their first choice and we pretty much filled it for all four quarters."

Holsworth said she had an interest in food so chose to set up the food club. Student Kyler Lukach said he enjoys the cooking part of the club.

"That was a really exciting one," Schimmelpfenning said. "They make little snacks. She picks recipes they can do at home with their families. They cook one day and the next day they talk about texture and appearance and about the food, so it's a little bit beyond just making things."

In Mystery Microscope, kids try to identify what they're looking at on the microscope slides they share.

"It's cool," said Brendan Graham, who was looking at a slide with Promice Setner.

"I've taught microscopes for over 20 years, so I thought this would be something kids would be interested in," McLain said. "Students in the past have always loved the microscopes. It's like opening a whole new world. It's amazing how much they have learned."

"The really nice thing is, as this has evolved, you see it kind of branch out," Schimmelpfenning said.

For example the newspaper club has been reporting on other clubs. The food club occasionally shares the food they make. The sign language club plans to sign a song on Veterans Day and they hope to do something similar in other quarters. The kindness club does "shout outs." Drama club is creating a little play they'll perform at the end of the quarter for the other clubs.

"I've had this brainchild for a long time. My first year of being principal I was flying by the seat of my pants. Last year I was finally ready to implement it, but it wasn't the time, but I feel like we're bringing it in at a really nice time," Schimmelpfenning said.

"The kids seem really excited about it," she added. "It's really nice because it's building this kind of community that the students have now."

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