Friday’s heat was stifling, but nevertheless, teacher Val Smart and her group of first and second graders made their way into the fenced garden on the south side of Willard Elementary School, 1250 Ashland Ave.
“Today we’re supporting our milkweed,” she told her Gardening Club youngsters, encouraging them to take pieces of twine and tie the stalks of milkweed to the outside of the fence. “They get kind of top heavy.”
A small ruler showed much the milkweed has grown since the start of summer.
Roughly two feet, with a riot of vibrant leaves.
“Hopefully we have a lot of pollinators coming this way,” Smart said. A nearby sign said the garden is a monarch butterfly waystation, a pollinator habitat and a wildlife habitat.
Welcome to River Forest School District 90 summer school, where learning that began during the 2024-25 school year continues, with plenty of enrichment activities.
Back inside school, where it was about 15 degrees cooler, a group of third and fourth graders in Jill Kruger’s Make and Bake class were hard at work making dirt pudding in the faculty lounge.
Not real dirt from the garden, of course. Two students spent time smashing Oreos in quart plastic bags while two others were hard at work stirring pudding mix. Kruger offered help as needed, such as measuring how much milk went into the bowl, but it was clear this was the kids’ gig. After a while, the group rotated to different tasks.
“You’re going to be in charge of your own cups,” Kruger said, handing out clear-plastic cups to students, who then filled them with pudding. The next step is to let them cool in the refrigerator before adding the crushed Oreos and gummi worms.
Don’t forget, it’s dirt pudding, and what would dirt be without worms?
During summer school, which runs from June 12 to July 11, the students in Make and Bake also made pizza and granola bars, along with crayons, and Play-Doh.
Summer school runs on weekday mornings at Willard for elementary school students and at Roosevelt Middle School for the older students.
The latter are offered opportunities like Book Club for fifth and six graders and seventh and eighth graders, fifth through eighth grade Writing Lab, Basketball Skills for seventh and eighth grade boys and girls, and Wellness Warriors, where students play hoops, soccer, tag, dodgeball and more, learning sportsmanship, teamwork, leadership development and respect.
Nancy Mueller is the summer school principal for both campuses. During the school year she is the math specialist at Roosevelt. This is her third year as summer school chief.
“All students can benefit from continued learning over the summer, but there are some that we’ve identified that this really keeps them working at grade level,” Mueller said. “We built a program so that students don’t hate coming to summer school.
“We have students that could be lots of other places, but they choose to be here, because we really have fun things happening.”
In addition to Gardening Club and Make and Bake, the younger students – both from Willard and Lincoln Elementary School – can participate in a class hosted by Aimee Conrad titled Stop Motion Animation Studio.
In this room, there were several “stations” of rolled green construction paper – a green screen. A tablet computer was affixed directly over the paper. One student was coloring pieces of a character he called Brainrot. He’d color in a section of the legs, a section of the arm and other body parts, and take an image with the tablet, being careful not to get his hands in the way.
What happened when he ran back the tape?
Brainrot essentially “built” on the screen, a cool effect.
There is no curriculum for Stop Motion Animation Studio per se, but that’s not really the point.
“This is completely free floating,” said Conrad, a first-grade teacher during the school year. “They are following their creative instincts and all I’m giving them is tech support every day.”
Robert Bachar, the District 90 summer school student services coordinator, helps guide class placements and ensures kids get the support they need.
“The summer school team has been strategic when we place kids in lab classes to receive academic support by making sure we account for each student’s individual skill level, grade level and individual need,” he said. “Our program models school year small group class sizes.”