Russell Boulevard

Russell Adventure Club meets at 1800 Russell Elementary School, which is located at 1800 W. Rollins Rd. The average enrollment at Russell Adventure Club is 65 children AM/PM. At this site there is a Site Facilitator along with 9 Site Assistants. Most of our site assistants come from the local universities in Columbia. A majority of these site assistants are education and early childhood majors. Some are studying in a related field such as Social Work or Psychology.

Russell Adventure Club meets in the school cafeteria. We also have daily access to the school's gymnasium, media center and playgrounds. The children often get to choose between two or three areas throughout the morning and afternoon sessions. The staff uses walkie talkies to communicate with each other when a child is moving to another area to keep track of the children.

The children must be signed in by a parent/guardian (16 years or older) for the morning session and by the Site Facilitator or Site Assistant for the afternoon session. This process is done on an attendance form with the time of arrival and the initials of the adult signing them in. Also, the children must be signed out by the Site Facilitator or Site Assistant for the morning session and by a parent/guardian (16 year or older) for the afternoon session. Again, the time and initials must be on the attendance form.

In addition to the sign in/out sheets and the walkie talkies, we have a large magnetic "Where are you?" board. This allows us and the parents to tell where a child is. Each child has their name on a magnetic strip and must move it on the board according to where they are. Some of the areas on the board are cafeteria, gym, outside, media center, and outside.

Each day the children participate in a system called J.O.L.T (Jumpstart Our Learning Time). This includes a weekly club which explore areas such as science, math, art and music. The children also have the choice to do homework, read a book or engage in educational games and technology. Children can get extra help on their homework from the Site Facilitator and/or the Site Assistants and a JOLT log is kept to track the activities that the children choose on a daily basis. This JOLT summary is distributed to parents and teachers at the end of each month. Russell Adventure Club provides a safe and fun environment for children before and after school. We offer fun educational activities everyday and allow the children to choose their activities. We often feed off the interest of the children when planning arts and crafts and field trips. The children at Russell love playing gym games, especially when it is adults against the children!