This list is intended to give everyone an idea of what's coming next term! Classes are entered in the order they're received. The board will try to balance what is proposed across the periods. Being on this list doesn't indicate board approval, final approval of classes will happen after the proposals due date. If you see a need, please propose something or talk to friends about filling in the gap!
Spring 2025
| Class Name | Description | Ages | Teacher |
| Board Games | Come and play a variety of board games and card games. | 6 - 9 | Sarah Fawaz Lotte Bell |
| Manga and Anime Club! | A casual hangout for fans of manga and anime! Bring your favorite books, figures and plushies to show off, and learn about some you may not have heard of yet! This class will be led by students’ interests, with occasional activities like trying our hands at creating our own anime/manga characters and tasting yummy Japanese snacks! | 10 - 18 | Steph Sorensen |
| Board Games | We will bring a variety of board games to play week to week depending on the children’s interests. Children are welcome to bring or request games themselves. | 10 - 18 | Lotte Bell, Sarah Fawaz |
| Into to Ballroom Dance | Let's learn some basic social dancing! We will learn the basic steps of a variety of Standard (foxtrot, waltz, ...) and Latin/Rhythm (merengue, cha cha, mambo, swing...) style dances. Each week we will focus on one or two dances, practicing what we learned and adding new steps. No dance experience required, just try something new and have fun! | 12 - 18 | Deborah Denovich, Rachel Meyers |
| Ballroom Dance: Level 2 | This class is a continuation of Intro to Ballroom Dance. We will be adding dances like Tango and Quickstep in addition to practicing and building on what we have already learned. We will focus more on improving technique as well. | 12 - 18 | Deborah Denovich, Rachel Meyers |
| Science Book Club: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks | In this class we will read, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot. Without Henrietta we wouldn't have been able to develop many of the medical advancements we have today. This will be a discussion based class with some hands on activities. | 13 - 18 | Deborah Denovich, Megan Tarchichi |
| Friendship Bracelets | A hands on class where we will make some friendship bracelets! We will do letter beads, braiding, knoting, grid designs, basic loom beading. We will be starting from basics but experienced bracelet makers are welcome to come and make some more! | 10 - 14 | Kat Mostowy, Nova Everly |
| Zentangle Art for Teens | If you can doodle, you can Zentangle! This hands-on art class requires no previous art experience. Zentangle is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create interesting artwork. Each week we will focus on a new technique and add to our growing portfolio of unique creations while hanging out with peers. | 12 - 18 | Jessica Pedersen, Rae Garcia |
| Speculative Evolution | Are you interested in animals? How about science fiction or just science? Come explore the ideas of evolution while creating your own creatures and world. In this class we will create a world together and/or you’ll have the opportunity to create your own world using the ideas provided by Speculative Evolution. We will brainstorm, draw, and put our creatures under pressure to see how they change over millions of years. | 11 - 18 | Cosette Cornelius-Bates (co-taught by Malachi) |
| Water and light | We will read books about water bodies like river, pond, ocean… etc. We will learn about how water and light provide life on Earth, why do we have rainbow, water cycle, and photosynthesis. We will do experiments and observation with taking note about water. And we will also do wet on wet watercolor art. | 6 - 9 | Mai Nguyen |
| Dungeons and Dragons | Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition will be open to both new and experienced players. Practice roleplaying, math, social problem solving, collaborative storytelling, turn taking, listening, and teamwork. Players make characters and choose an adventure to take together. | 8 - 13 | Andy Medici |
| Let's Make A Play! | This class will be a chance for kids to brainstorm plot/storyline ideas, write a script cooperatively, make props and costumes, and act it out. | 6 - 12 | Becky Ashkettle |
| Teen Lounge and Social Hour | This is a wholly student run class. It's a chance for teens to hang out, listen to music, draw, play games, just talk, etc. Snacks are fine if it's in one of the food acceptable rooms. Teacher is only there to unobtrusively provide supervision, but kids will determine how they wish to interact. | 13 - 18 | Becky Ashkettle |
| Embrdoidery | Come and have fun stitching with us! This class is pretty open ended. We will provide some techniques and stitches and you can either make up your own pattern or bring a pattern/kit from home. You are also welcome to make embroidered patches, experiment with fancying up your clothing or anything else you can think to stitch on. | 8 - 18 | Cosette Cornelius-Bates and Jaime Horst |
| Fiber Arts Open Studio | Come enjoy doing fiber arts with your friends! This class will provide you with the time and space to put all the skills gained in previous fiber arts classes to use. Create your own things or dabble in new fiber arts with the support of two artists. Fiber arts includes a wide variety of things including sewing, knitting, printing on fabric, embroidery, altering clothing, visible mending, needle felting, spinning, making patches, quilting etc. | 12 - 18 | Cosette Cornelius-Bates, Becky Spevak |
| What if you had Animal... | Each week we will begin class by reading a What if you had Animal…? book by Sandra Markle. We will then learn a little bit more about the feature (e.g., teeth, nose, etc.) as it pertains to the human body. | 6 - 9 | Kirstin Swenson |
| Spanish 101 | An introductory course to Spanish vocabulary for young learners. Class activities may include listening to stories, singing, crafting, flash cards, and other engaging learning opportunities. Ideally at least part of each class will be an immersive language experience. | 6 - 9 | Kirstin Swenson |
| Lego Club | Do you love Legos? Do you enjoy a cool build challenge? How about free building to create your own unique designs? Then Lego Club is for you! Join us for a weekly themed build challenge or hang out at our free builders table. We are a club of Lego fans and we look forward to building with you! | 8 - 12 | Jessica Pedersen and Kary Kalinowski |
| Advanced Drawing: What Do You Really See? | Artists are often asked about their style, or the unique way they render their work. But before developing a personal style, artists must first build their foundational skills. This class is for students who already enjoy drawing, and who are ready to level up their skills using the elements of art and observational drawing techniques. We’ll learn how gesture lines can help plan the page, what keeping a daily sketchbook does over time, and why drawing what you see is tougher than it sounds. | 12 - 18 | Abby Kuftic |
| Short Fiction 2 | Return to the world of short fiction in this discussion-based class, featuring a survey of classic and modern short stories from around the world. Practice your analysis and critical reading skills through group discussions and activities while broadening your literary horizons. | 13 - 18 | Allison Johnson Jessica Rudmin |
| Recycled Art | Students will use cardboard, found objects and art media to create a recycled art sculpture. | 13 - 18 | Theresa Stadt |
| Skyscraper | Students will create a scaled model and plan of your own skyscraper using materials like cardboard, chipboard and paper. We will look at design characteristics for this type of building and touch on structures and construction along the way. | 13 - 18 | Theresa Stadt |
| American Girl Doll | In this class we will be doing a timeline of the historical American Girl Dolls. Each week we will focus on a different doll. We will go over the time period they were from and read a chapter from their book. We will also have a craft/activity surrounding the doll. | 6 - 9 | Toma Martin Zoe Weaver |
| Cardboard Sculpture | Create a cardboard sculpture of something real or imagined. | 9 - 12 | Theresa Stadt |
| Cozy Creative Writing | This class will be a chance to get cozy with with a warm drink and creative writing time. We will spend the first 10 minutes each week doing a game or activity to get the creative sparks flying, and then you will have time to write whatever you are excited about: a short story, a novel, a screenplay, poetry, etc. either individually or with others. | 13 - 18 | Holly Schnur |
| Calling All Minds Book Club | Using Temple Grandin's book Calling All Minds: How to Think and Create Like an Inventor, we will learn about famous and not-so-famous inventors and inventions, what a patent is, how to read a mechanical drawing and Grandin's own experience with autism. The class will be part book club (small reading assignments for each class), part presentation with video, and part hands-on as we build some of our own projects to learn about simple machines and test design modifications. | 9 - 13 | Katy Frey |
| Gifts of the Land: A Scientific Walk Through Our Herbal and Food Landscape | Would you like to learn more about the gifts that western Pennsylvania offers, and how to use them? In this class, students will be given overviews of several local species - sometimes herbal, always edible - and will get the opportunity to forage, taste, touch, and create. A down-to-earth yet academically-focused mixture of lecture, discussion, and hands-on activities, this class would be a great fit for students who are interested in a more serious study and practical application of local plant knowledge. | 12 - 18 | Laurel Frey, co-teacher Jessica Rudmin |
| The Cold War | The Red Scare! Communism! Witch hunts! The Cold War, which spanned over 40 years, is an often misunderstood part of modern world history. Together the class will learn about how it started, what it looked like over the decades, and what, exactly, made it so “cold”. | 13 - 18 | Becky Spevack, Jaime Horst |
| Forensic Science | In this class we will work through a number of different topics in forensic science including finger printing, blood typing, fiber analysis and more with lots of hands on activities. | 11 - 18 | Megan Tarchichi and Abby Kuftic |
| Craft Me a Story | Are you creative and able to create a story at a moment's notice? Or do you need a little inspiration to get the story going? Either way, this class is for all kids who enjoy crafts and telling stories! Each week, we will work on our storytelling skills through various activities and hands on projects. Just don't forget to put on your imagination cap before exploring craft me a story this semester! | 6 - 9 | Cassie Byrd |
| Eric Carle and Friends Art Club | Do you enjoy looking at fun pictures in artistic books? Do you enjoy recreating that art? If you said yes to one of those questions, this class might be for you. If you said yes to both of those questions, then this class is definitely for you! Let's read a book by Eric Carle and other friends before creating our own masterpieces inspired by their work. | 6 - 9 | Cassie Byrd |
| History with a Mystery | A little mystery always makes things a little more interesting, right? Whether you love history or tend to shy away from it, the mysteries in this class makes history thought-provoking at the least. Discover some unsolved events, investigate the evidence and clues, debate theories with your classmates, and then form your own conclusion on what actually happened. | 10 - 13 | Cassie Byrd |
| STEM Challenge | Each week we will have a challenge or problem that can be solved using the subjects of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in creative ways. It will mostly be a very hands on class with a bit of discussion. | 9 - 12 | Jennifer Sherrill, Jess Pedersen |
| Animals! | Learn about animals with fun hands on experiments and projects. We will also incubate eggs and watch as they develop and hatch. | 6 - 9 | Jennifer Sherrill |
| Monsters, Myth, Mayhem | A hands on crafty exploration of mythic creatures and monsters from around the world and their origins. | 6 - 10 | Chris Sheridan |