Williamsburg Northside Lower School; a Reggio Emilia-inspired elementary school located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is providing several afterschool programs ranging from sports to comic strip creation for the summer of 2015. Williamsburg Northside Lower School is located on 299 North 7th Street in Brooklyn, New York and offers classes from kindergarten to 5th grade.
The lower school is inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to education that was first formulated in a town of the same name in Italy, after World War II. The school views students as active participants in the learning process and strives to engage their interests and ideas in order to make learning engaging and effective.
The afterschool programs are teacher-directed and supervised and are conducted from Monday to Thursday from 03:00 pm to 04:30 pm or from 03:00 pm to 05:30 pm. The duration of the varied classes available is 45 minutes with the classes being divided into two sessions, with the second session being an attempt to reinforce the lessons learnt during the first. Students will receive a healthy snack during the class and each class will be followed by downtime and homework assistance, if requested, in the gym of this Brooklyn elementary school.
The various classes offered to children include training for sports such as chess, basketball and soccer. The other classes offered include LEGO building and playing, puppetry, an interactive media class and a comic strip creation class.
The afterschool programs reflect the Reggio Emilia approach that places importance on ‘differentiated instruction’ or the presentation of a flexible curriculum using different media to convey knowledge and information. Moving in line with this teaching ideology, the afterschool programs use innovative ways to drive home rules and concepts that are a part of the sports and creative classes offered.

Chess is taught to the elementary school students through stories designed to explain why different chess pieces move the way they do and students are made to move like chess pieces to foster a fun and effective grasp of the game’s rules. Another example of engaging learning is the LEGO building and playing class called Bricks 4 Kidz. In this afterschool class, students explore science concepts and themes such as torque, friction, geography and space through modeling structures with LEGO bricks.
Parents can fill the afterschool program registration form online at www.willnorth.org
Williamsburg Northside Lower School is a nine-story, 36,000 sq. ft. space with 14 classrooms, an art studio opening out onto a large terrace, a library, a gymnasium, a science laboratory, an indoor play space and a cafeteria with direct access to the terrace. In 2014-2015, almost 50% of the students who attended this Brooklyn lower school received financial aid after qualifying through the School and Student Services.for more information visit: http://www.willnorth.org/lower_school/