We have launched the opening of our 5th grade lounge in the Cherry Tree ESE program. The 5th grade lounge is a special place reserved only for the 5th grade students to use. We have a cozy area with rugs and pillows that they can hang out in if they decide not to participate in the club activities for of the day.

We felt that our 5th graders were at a level of maturity to have a bit more freedom in our program. With less than one semester left before they start middle school, we decided that the lounge would be a great place for them to get the feeling of more freedom along with the increase of responsibility.

In the lounge they can hang out with friends, do homework, read, and play games. They are responsible for keeping the lounge clean and acting appropriately when in the lounge to ensure that they keep their lounge privileges. So far, it has been a success, and they seem to enjoy their own special place. They have also proven so far to assume great responsibility with the use of the lounge, which will be a great asset in the future for the students as they transition to the middle school with more freedom, and responsibility.

The new clubs here at Cherry Tree, have the kids going crazy. They love the new Game Show club, which is on Monday. We have taken ideas from popular game shows and turned them into child friendly activities. We have a blast with Fear Factor, Deal or No Deal, and The Amazing Race, which keep the kids engaged, and active with their peers.

Every week we have different game show themes which keep the kids excited about coming to ESE. We have already had the chance to run the Fear Factor club which turned out better than we had expected. The kids played a game that included diapers and baby food for the first half of the club, and then they had to find snakes around the room blind folded. The first half of the club is where the kids had to guess what kind of food the baby ate. The Facilitator put fresh baby food into a clean diaper, the children then walked to each diaper and smelled the contents inside of it, after they had a good idea of what it might be, and they made their guesses. The second half of the club they were broken up into teams of two. One child was blind folded while the other child gave them instructions on where to find the snakes. They enjoyed both of the activities, and we hope they are looking forward to some of the future game show activities that we will offer.