At Hillcrest Elementary, one afterschool activity is keeping students excited and engaged.

This class, which has students creating their own video games, was so popular during sign-ups they had to turn students away until next semester.

“It synthesizes everything they do all day in class,” said the instructor, Sharon DeWitt. “They use math skills. They use narrative writing …  They use art in their backgrounds. They use music.

“It’s a great way to bring all their learning together, and they don’t even realize they’re learning their eighth or ninth skill of the day.”

They’ve only had six hours of the class total so far, but the students, ranging from third to fifth graders, have already made a few video games, including versions of the popular game Flappy Bird.

DeWitt said that by the end of the semester, “every kid should be able to write his own video game.”

Some work in small groups, some work alone, but they all are learning persistence, according to DeWitt. She said that the students in the class don’t get discouraged when they do something wrong because they can just try it again and even get help from their peers.

“It’s not really a failure kind of thing,” said fifth-grader Kyle Bowles, “because you don’t fail, you just found another way of doing it wrong.”

Many of the students taking the class have goals of making video games for a living when they’re adults.

Grey Morris, a third grader, says he wants to work with Game Freak designing Pokemon games.

Asher Frazure, a fourth- grader, wants to make games like Skyrim.

“I think it has them utilize those skills that they’re learning in class,” DeWitt said. “Anytime you can make learning relevant to kids … this is something they can relate to.”

Some students, like Bowles, don’t want to do this for a living one day, so, he said, “this is something I just do for fun.

“It’s very awesome to be here, working on a computer after school Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Bowles said.

With nearly 40 students in the class, much more than originally planned, the students had to be split up into two different rooms to make sure everyone had a computer to work on, though they also utilize tablets in the class. Next semester, DeWitt is hoping to have plenty of new students take the class, as well as repeaters, hopefully learning more advanced skills.

“It appeals to both left and right brain: the artistic kid, the creative kid, and the logical, sequential kid,” DeWitt said. “That’s what’s really nice about it, I think.”

Despite the limited space, DeWitt and Hillcrest Principal Paula Seaman said they want each student to have the opportunity to learn these skills, so during the week of Dec. 8, Hillcrest will be participating in the world-wide Hour of Code, put on by Code.org to introduce and teach computer science to students.

Morris joined the class with his best friend Porter Henderix, and the two work together and share their games with each other to play.

“The best part is how I get stuck on levels and everybody helps me,” Henderix, nicknamed “The Coder” for his skills, said. “And then I help others on levels, and then we just get through it all together.”