Janney Elementary School

Janney Student Organizations and Activities

After School Classes. Many after school classes are offered at Janney through the Janney Extended Day (JED) Program and outside vendors. Click here for more information.

Band. All instruments welcome. Beginning instruction offered on flute, clarinet, saxophone, and trumpet; several instruments available on loan. Band performs several times during the school year, including the winter and spring concerts and the Janney musical. Open to 4th-5th graders (and 3rd graders taking private lessons). Coordinator: Sterling Scroggins

Basketball. Janney fields both boys and girls inter-mural basketball teams during the winter months. Our Lady Jaguars won the city-wide championship in 2008! Try-outs open to 4th-5th graders.

Book Buddies. Intermediate grade students are paired with primary grade students, meeting weekly to read books together. This program helps children improve reading skills and helps develop a sense of school community.

Chess Club. Students work with a coach to hone their game, and participate in competitions. Open to 4th-5th graders (and 3rd graders with special permission).

Community Service Committee. This student-faculty group organizes various activities in support of greater community needs, including a mini-walk for the homeless and occasional food and clothing drives for the homeless. Chairman: Shana Zallman.

Fifth Grade Chorus. The chorus, composed of all 5th graders, meets once a week during school. The group gets a varied repertoire, extra opportunity to perform on Orff instruments, and several performances (both at school and across the city). Select groups have performed at the White House.

Flag Football. Try-outs for Janney’s inter-mural flag football team, which plays during the spring, are open to 4th-5th graders.

Green Team. This group is dedicated to making our world a better place to live. Students collect trash and clean up the playground during lunch time every Monday and Friday. Members are also working to provide rain barrels for the school garden, and selling sandwich wraps and other “green” ideas for packing lunches.

Janney Assistant Cybrarians . JACs help the librarian check out materials on the computerized library system and work with technology, including using video and digital cameras to record classroom and school events. 4th and 5th grade students are invited to apply each spring.

Kids for Darfur Committee. Students seek to raise money to help children, especially in Darfur, organizing events to raise awareness and collect money for the Save Darfur coalition.

Math Counts Clubs. Janney sponsors challenge math clubs in which members participate in a series of problem-solving experiences that have been created by MathCounts, a nonprofit foundation. Age-grouped students from 2nd grade up meet to collaboratively solve interesting problems and stretch mental math strategies and skills. Older students also engage in intermural competitions.  Coordinator: Karen Langford

Musical. 4th-5th graders can try-out for a full length Broadway musical. Students perform on stage and in the orchestra pit, as well as in behind-the-scenes activities, in this annual spring event. Coordinator: Virginia Curtin

1st-3rd graders can perform in a Musical Theater Performance class in the fall. Students are introduced to all aspects of musical theater: singing, movement, improvisation and performance skills. All class members take part in a final performance of a musical written particularly for this age group. Coordinator: Karen Harris

Notebusters Chorus. Students sing in an all school choir and perform twice a year.  Parents sometimes sing back up for the children’s chorus in their own group, Noteboomers.
Coordinator: Shellie Wood

Orff Ensemble. Students practice and perform vocal and instrumental pieces that fit into Orff-Schulwerk. Instruments include xylophones, drums, recorders, voice, and many others. Open to 4th-5th graders. Coordinator: Kristen Bellissimo

Peer Mediation. Peer Mediation is offered in all DC public schools.Peer mediation helps students solve their own problems. Two students from each classroom in 4th–5th grades attend three days of training to learn how to mediate a problem without taking sides or making the situation worse. The mediation process is confidential. Problems that can’t be resolved are handed over to the principal for adult resolution. The mediator follows through to ensure the disputants keep the agreement. If they don't follow through or the situation worsens, it is handed over to the principal and the solution is decided by an adult.

Recycling Committee. Children volunteer to sort through the recycling bins of every room at Janney for an hour once a week after lunch. The kids gain a sense of accomplishment and the realization by the end of the year of how much their efforts have helped the environment. Parents are needed to help provide a little guidance each week.

Safety Patrol. Students in the 4th & 5th grades can volunteer to be safety patrols. Patrols act as crossing guards at the intersection of Albemarle and 42nd Streets and assist students being dropped off by car in front of the school.

Scrabble Club. Students work with Janney parent Stefan Fatsis, author of the bestselling book Word Freak (about the subculture of competitive Scrabble), learning and honing their Scrabble game and participating in competitions. Open to 4th-5th graders. Coordinator: Stefan Fatsis

Soup Kitchen. Students, families, and classrooms contribute the makings for a full lasagna dinner once a month for the Dinner Program for Homeless Women. Volunteers also deliver it, serve it, and help clean up. Coordinator: Camille Martone

Sports. Sports classes, clubs and teams are plentiful and include soccer teams at all grade levels, flag football, lacrosse, Capoeira, yoga, basketball, and street hockey.

Student Council. The Student Council consists of representatives from grades 2-5, plus officers elected each fall by students in grades 3-5. Students also elect a student representative to the School Improvement Team. Members provide leadership, represent Janney students, and organize a range of activities, including community service.

Students in Concert. An annual recital in which students perform solo or small ensemble pieces that they prepare on their own time (for example, on piano, violin, or flute).

Talent Show. An annual, Student Council-sponsored celebration of song, dance, and other assorted acts by our talented student community.

Trick or Treat for UNICEF. Janney students receive cardboard boxes before Halloween each year, which they can use to collect funds in support of the United Nations Children's Fund. Coordinator: Maureen Levanthal.

Winter Fair. A favorite annual event sponsored by the Janney Student Council. Students, parents, and vendors rent tables for a day to show off art work, advertise their business, or sell toys and handmade goods. Proceeds from table rentals support Student Council activities. The Student Council also sponsors some type of dance every winter to raise money for charities.