Extracurricular Activities at Countryside
Our Athletics Director, Josh Clark, oversees our competitive sports teams in co-ed soccer, girls basketball, boys basketball and girls volleyball. Extracurricular team sports are offered to our students in grades 4-8. Our no-cut policy ensures everyone plays.
Chess Team
Chess club meets once a week, on Tuesdays, 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. Chris Merli is the coach and is open to students in grades K through 8.
Throughout the year, chess club members also have an opportunity to participate in tournaments in Bloomington, Normal, Peoria and Chicago. Tournament play is optional.
Band
We have an after-school band program led by Nathan Mandel. Students in grades 4-8 are welcome to join. It is strongly recommended that students in band take private music lessons as well. The band performs both a winter and spring concert.
Chorus
Julie Gunn is our chorus director. Chorus is open to students in grades K-8 and meets on Wednesdays at 3:00. Choristers are assigned to two groups, based on audition. The first group need have no choral experience. This group is dismissed at 3:45. The second group, Varsity Chorus, stays until 4:30 to learn more complicated harmony parts and more difficult pieces.
Two main concerts are offered, in December and May, and there will be a handful of school performance opportunities.
Ensemble Groups
Students who play piano or string instruments have the opportunity to participate in chamber music ensemble groups. The groups are created based on skill level. They also perform in the winter and spring music concerts.
Art and Crafts
The Arts & Crafts Club meets Thursdays 3:00-4:00 for students in grades 1-3. Through exciting projects, students are exposed to different techniques and theories, work with a variety of materials as well as learn about historical and cultural arts and crafts movements. They discuss and investigate a variety of materials including sculpture, painting, drawing, collage and textiles.
Newspaper Club
Newspaper Club meets Tuesdays from 3:00-4:00 for students in grades 4-8. The club takes a close look at the history of the newspaper while creating a newspaper from concept to completion. The students create the name of the paper, a masthead, a basic layout and fill in the articles, photos and graphics. They learn about the different parts of a newspaper. We discuss writing and interviewing tehcniques, photography, cartooning, as well as lay out the newspaper on the computer in Adobe After Effects. Everyone contributes to the newspaper as a whole and each student is given a primary area of responsibility including: Editor, Layout, Graphics, Photography, Sports Section, Interviews, Feature, Articles, Cartoons, Book/Movie Reviews, Advertising.