Enrichment Programs
Enrichment activities are a vital part of your child’s overall education. Whether it is an all-school assembly, an on-campus activity, or a field trip, these activities enhance your child’s understanding of the concepts and principles taught in the classroom.
Because of the generosity of the Crocker/Riverside community, we are able to fund a variety of during-school, enrichment opportunities for our students. Over half of the annual, PTO-operating budget is devoted to funding these activities.
Accelerated Reader/STAR Reading
Our students have access to Renaissance Learning, the umbrella company for Accelerated Reader (A.R.) and STAR reading, a diagnostic test which provides accurate written and oral reading fluency assessments.
Students have the opportunity to use computers during their class visits to the library; additionally, they may come in during recess to take A.R. quizzes.
For parents who would like to receive emails of their students’ Accelerated Reading quizzes, please ask your child’s teacher for the login information. Then, paste the following address into your browser address bar, and sign up! You will then be able to follow your child’s A.R. progress.
Art Docent
The Crocker Art Program has been around for around 20 years with art docents providing a 1 ½ hour lesson once a month.
Students are introduced to well-known artists and their works (Monet, Picasso, etc.). They also learn basic art techniques and play with various mediums. Each year is a unique experience depending on the art docents and other parents involved.
Parent volunteers are the key to this successful enrichment program. Whether you have time to lead the art docent program in your class, or only have a few hours to support a lesson, you are welcome!
Garden Docent
The Garden Docent program strives to engage our children’s minds through a hands-on experience by enjoying the touch, sights, sounds, and smells that a garden offers. Participating classes meet with their docents 3-4 times a year to plant, harvest and/or maintain their classroom garden bed.
Please volunteer and help bring the children outside!
We need 3 docents per class to help teach 3-4 lessons a year (fall harvest, winter planting, spring harvest, summer planting). The children love being outside and learning about plants, soil, pollination, and more! Lesson plans and most materials are provided, reimbursements for extra materials are available. No gardening experience required, but you must be a cleared t. You will work with your teacher’s schedule and plan dates/times that are best for them. Help make the garden come alive for the kids!
Library
Thanks to the PTO, our library is stocked with more than 5,000 books ranging from beginning readers to advanced non-fiction. Students come to the library weekly as part of their class, during which time they check out books, do printed and/or online research, and hear books read aloud.
Our library works in partnership with the Sacramento Public Library; our students have access to e-cards, which allow students full online access to SPL research sites such as several Gale databases, Academic One File, U.S. History in Context, and General One File to name a few.
Common Core
Many students have made good use Sacramento Public Library e-cards and various online databases that can help them with research projects. For instruction on how to use the e-cards, please email me (betsy.c.long@gmail.com).
Additionally, the American Library Association has put together a website that directs students to many different websites that are excellent for research. The address is: http://gws.ala.org/ Happy searching!
Science Docent
The Science Docent program was designed to expose our students to basic scientific principals in a hands-on and exciting way. But parent volunteers are needed to help pull these off!
No worries if you’re not Bill Nye the science guy, all lesson plans and experiments are pre-developed…we just need you to implement them.
Each grade has 5-6 EXPERIMENTS that have been developed inclusive of docent instructions, student worksheet, and any needed presentation materials. Supplies are organized by experiment…just grab the experiment box, supplement as needed, review the experiment information and GO! Classes generally meet once per month in the Auditorium, and NONE OF IT IS POSSIBLE WITHOUT YOU!