5th Grade CLAYMO Fun! News Story by Sara

5th grade CLAYMO fun!

On September 8th 2016, the first CLAYMO of the 2016/2017 school year happened at Glenridge Elementary School. What does CLAYMO stand for? CLAYMO stands for Care Lots About Yourself and Many Others. CLAYMO is a creative program where you learn  to take care about yourself and others and do lots of life skills learning. CLAYMO usually takes place from 2:45 to 3:25. Two or three 5th graders lead each CLAYMO group with one or two supervisors. Each CLAYMO group has around 9 -12 people from all different grades. Usually two or three people from each grade are put in one CLAYMO group. I decided to get a closer look at one of the CLAYMO groups. I picked Mrs. Scotino’s CLAYMO group.

I noticed how well the 5th graders taught their CLAYMO groups. Today’s activity was having an olympic mindset while working with students from different grade level to make the highest newspaper tower that your team could build. In this CLAYMO group, there were three different CLAYMO leaders and two supervisors; Mrs. Scotino, a 5th grade teacher, and Mr. Kearney, Glenridge’s Science teacher. I walked in as they were splitting into two different teams: Team A and team B. As the teams started building their newspaper towers, I walked over to team B as I saw them already fooling around with their tape and newspaper. Some of the kids in team B were making fortune tellers with their newspaper as one of the CLAYMO leaders warned them that was all the newspaper they got. Some other kids of team B was playing with the tape as a 4th grader, who was going to be a CLAYMO leader next year, wrapped his face in tape and shouted to the other kids, “I’m the tape man!”, and team B started rolling on the floor laughing. As team B was goofing off, I walked over to team A. Team A was using excellent teamwork and an amazing strategy. As the timer stopped, team A and team B both let go of their structures and gathered on the rug in a circle. They waited patiently as one of the CLAYMO leaders came around with a tape measure measuring both of their towers. Team A smiled as the CLAYMO leader said their structure measured over 30 inches! Team B frowned as their structure was only 9 inches. Even since I was only watching, I learned a fantastic life lesson in this CLAYMO lesson. You need teamwork to make things go right.

As the lesson wrapped up, I asked one of the CLAYMO leaders, Sara if I could ask her a couple of questions before she went back to class. She was very kind and said yes. My first question I asked her was how does she cooperate with her other fellow CLAYMO leaders. “Well it was hard at first because i didn’t think I would end up with who I ended up with and in a totally different CLAYMO leaders in a totally different CLAYMO room.” Sara said. “ I did get through it and we did end up working really well together.” The next question I asked her was did you feel nervous about your first CLAYMO? “I do admit I was VERY nervous at first, but then my emotions changed to frustration about how nobody was listening to me,” said Sara. “If that was the only thing I could change in my CLAYMO group I would change that.”

As I went back to my house, I thought about why CLAYMO was really important to Glenridge. In my opinion, I think CLAYMO is a great program to teach younger students life skills and teamwork. Also, with 5th graders as the CLAYMO leaders, it prepares them for middle school next year. As Sara said, it could be very hard at times. Kids could mess around. 5th grade CLAYMO leaders could get stressed and frustrated. But we all need to know that you’re not alone.

If CLAYMO could spread worldwide, schools could be able to teach younger students life skills much easier. 5th graders would be better prepared for middle school. Life skills would be learned. If anyone is a teacher reading this article, talk to your principal about this. I can make a difference. You can make a difference. We can make a difference.