East Grand students focus on winter safety through puppets and play

Two Maine Youth Voices members, Ben Latvis and Sharlene Maynard, at East Grand School, along with the HealthWays coordinator, Louise Latvis, kept busy during the cold month of January. They partnered with the After-School Program students from first to sixth grade to develop and present puppet shows on safety. They met on Mondays and Wednesdays. One group worked on outdoor safety, discussing frostbite, hypothermia, and prevention. The second group worked on street safety, focusing on roadway hazards and driving concerns.
    Eight students, Jacob Gray, Matt Apgar, Philip Farley, Charlie McIntyre, Adria Doane, Tyler Frye, Matt Roy and Mallory Gilman practiced presenting plays. Five of the students, McIntyre, Doane, Frye, Roy and Gilman attended the Feb. 4 final presentation of the play about safety when hiking.
The HealthWays grant provided the popcorn as students scrambled to find a seat for the play. The bags rustled and the kids sat at the edge of their seats waiting for the play to begin. In the play, a father and his three children were taking a hike in the woods. The father hurts his ankle. The children use the map and compass to find their way back to the ranger’s station. They lead the ranger back to their father. The story ends with the father proud of his children when they save the day.
Kris Wittine led the cup stacking after-school group as they gave the second presentation. The students, Chelsea Winiarski, Kim Stodard, Lendin Stoddard, Brady McEwen, Matt Roy, Isaiah Oliver, Jeff Miller and Sam Plummer demonstrated some of the different stacking exercises. They spread their cups on the table, demonstrating the techniques they had learned moving the piles to groups and back to pyramids. The group next lined up the cups into stacks on the floor and raced to restack them in different ways. They demonstrated the 3-3-3 stack, the 3-6-3 stack and the ‘cycle’. It was a very exciting presentation, especially when they did relay races with other students cheering them on.
The students had a fun afternoon with popcorn, a play, and a demonstration to culminate the end of the January After-School Program.
Other programs during the month included hand crocheting by Dolly Gilman, rockets by Andrew Latvis, and TaeBo/Pilates by Jennifer Gilman and Stephanie Snyder. It was a very busy and active month during a cold and snowy January.