WAUKEE, Iowa — This year all second and third-grade elementary students in the Waukee Community School District will participate in a five-day Aquatic Experience Course that will teach them how to swim and water safety skills.

Bobby Kelley, the Director of the Waukee Natatorium, said teaching kids how to swim and water safety is critical to preventing drowning.

“Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental deaths in children ages eight and under and it’s so critical that we teach these kiddos how to be safe whenever they have the chance to be around water. Whether it’s learning to swim or other important information about like never going swimming without an adult to wear your life jacket,” Kelley said.

Over the five-day course, students start with learning to blow bubbles and float then learn the different strokes before graduating to swimming in the big pool and deep end.

Johanna Vander Wilt, a teacher at Shuler Elementary, said that her students have made huge progress during the course.

“They have loved it, every day they are so excited to come they think it’s really cool and it’s been fun to see a lot of them get to level up and be better. And the kids who are in the big pool it’s really fun to see them, like how good they are,” Vander Wilt said.

To learn more about the Aquatic Experience Course visit Waukee Schools’ website.