Berkeley Leader

When he walked into Boulder Bluff Elementary earlier this month, Moose became popular extremely quickly.

Maybe it was the Superman bandana. Maybe it was the sweet, endearing face. Maybe it was all the excited whimpers he made as he and his handler checked in at the front desk.

Most likely, it was just the fact that it is not every day that Boulder Bluff Elementary students get to welcome a dog to school.

Early Release Days at Boulder Bluff are also Club Day, when students are given an hour out of the morning to participate in a ton of different clubs that promote academics, creativity, wellness and movement, science and problem-solving. All students participate in Club Day – they select a club they want to join at the start of the school year and then halfway through the year they can transition to another club if they want.

Lots of Berkeley County School District schools host their own variations of Club Day on Early Release Days. At Boulder Bluff Elementary, one of the clubs is called the Pet Buddies Club, and these students gather in Lauren Kilgallen’s classroom on the first-grade hall to meet different pets who come out to visit the school.

Kylie Wiest with the Charleston Animal Society brought Moose to class on Nov. 9 to mingle with club members while she talked all about Moose, who is a Charleston Animal Society "alumnus" (he now has a family). She also talked to students about safe ways to handle and approach dogs, particularly when meeting one for the first time. Moose enjoyed receiving back scratches from the children and doling out kisses while Wiest spoke.

That is just one club – there were many more club meet-ups going on throughout the school while Moose hung out with the Pet Buddies.

The Cooking Club hung out in the cafeteria making “bread in a bag”; students had to work together to measure out and add ingredients like flour and sugar to a Ziploc bag in order to accomplish the task. Just outside, the Garden Club was busy raking leaves in the atrium.

A few clubs had some Thanksgiving-themed activities going on: students in the Rock Painting Club enjoyed painting turkey faces on small, smooth rocks. The rocks that are painted in this club either go home with the students, or they can take the rocks and place them somewhere in their community with a sticker that reads “BBE rocks!”. Meanwhile, the Painting Club used watercolor to paint coffee filters to look like turkeys and also finger-painted some turkeys.

The school’s Just Dance Club rocked out to the “Ghostbusters” theme song in Jennifer Schultz’s class. Across the hall, students in the Board Games Club went head to head while they played Monopoly, Jenga and Connect Four, among other games.

These are actually just some of the clubs students can sign up for; next semester, students can either remain in their currently-selected club or switch to another one.

The school also has Drawing, Yoga, Nature, Cheerleading, Walking, Academic Challenge, Pen Pal, “Countries Around the World”, Self-Care, Soccer and Science clubs.

View more photos from Club Day on Nov. 9.

Original source can be found here.