The Missoula Family YMCA has expanded it’s after school programs to the newest elementary school in the city, Jeanette Rankin Elementary.

Director of School Age Programs for the Missoula Family YMCA Tyler Taylor described the after school activities available to children.

“We have two lanes that our after school programs run into,” said Taylor. “One of them another director is in charge of and that's our Active Six Program and that gives all of our sixth graders in Missoula a free YMCA membership. They can come in whenever they like to use our facility. They've got a pool, a rock wall, some cool stuff like that. And Eli, our Director of youth programs, he has set up some really cool stuff for those middle schoolers to do during that time.”

Taylor said he is in charge of activities for younger children.

“My kind of wheelhouse is the after school program for school aged kiddos,” he said. “We host from kindergarten to fifth grade in their schools with some fun after school activity time. Generally we have homework help, we have a healthy snack. We have physical activity, songs and games, kind of anything a kiddo would want to do to wind down from school.”

Taylor said once Jeanette Rankin Elementary opened up, the ‘Y’ introduced after school programs there.

“We were looking around Missoula at what some of our at-capacity elementary schools are and kind of looking out to where the why really hasn't been able to reach as far, and Jeanette Rankin being located down lower Miller Creek area,” he said. “We're thinking, hey, that's a relatively new school building. They've got some new kiddos and new families moving out into that area of town, so let's get in with them and see if they have a need for after school programming.”

Taylor described some of the programs available at Jeannette Rankin.

“We've got STEM kits with science, technology, engineering, mathematics, with all sorts of fun science projects they can do there,” he said. “We go and play on the playgrounds, we have games that our counselors lead. We have songs and dances that go along with them. It's generally just that time for the kiddos to make their transition into the evening as seamless as possible to just have a little bit of fun at the end of their day.”

Get more information about after school programs here.

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