Category: After School Activities

A leader’s guide to hosting an after-school club from home

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

Has your after-school children care center been out of commission due to school closures? Do you still want to provide activities for your students but don’t know where to start? Here’s a few ideas to get you started.

There are a few great options out there such as ZOOM and google hangouts if you want to try and schedule live class sessions with your students. Make sure if you do this that the supply list is minimal as your students likely won’t have access to as many supplies as they are used to having at your center.

  1. Set a meeting time at least 3-4 days in advance to allow your students to create time in their schedules and gather necessary supplies. Make sure the meeting time is finite – 20-30 min. at the most. and schedule in the lat afternoon after school hours as you normally would for your after school club. Some ideas of content that would work during a meeting like this: drawing lessons, dance lessons, origami, paper airplane making, knitting/crocheting, and basic cooking lesson (preferably with no heat source required)

OPTION 2: Send an email with pre-recorded content and supply list from you.

This is great option for parents that provides flexibility for them to use your lesson plans on their own time. Make sure the videos are short and able to be completed in the students home. Once again, keep the supply lists short.

Have fun, and just know that whatever service you provided will be welcomed by your families. They will be delighted to see your smiling faces and to know how much you care about them by provided much needed activities and social familiarity opportunities for their little ones.

Do you provide an online service to youth in your community? Comment below if you’d like to be featured on our After School Club Ideas blog?

Fun with Australian Animals at home

Fun with Australian Animals at home

Looking for fun activities to do with your little ones at home? Have little animal lovers? Check out live stream and educational videos from “Australian Reptile Park” and “Animal Tales with Tim Faulkner” daily on instagram.

My girls are excited to check out Koala feeding time, which will be around 8pm for us – a pre-bedtime adventure.

One of my favorite things to do with my own children and former students is to create a themed week (or weeks) of activities to help aid in my planning. Here are some resources to extend learning and activity time about animals from this region of the world!

Australian Animal Crafts and Activities for Kids from DLTK

Top 25 Books about Australian Animals to Share with Children from Tracys Travels in Time

Australian animals worksheets from Teachers Pay Teachers

Cheers!

Books to read with your children during Social Distancing

Books to read with your children during Social Distancing

Whether you are a working parent, stay at home parent, or some mix of the two, chances are lately you’ve also been given another role — full time teacher! (Raises hand over here!) These are challenging times! Between managing the schoolwork load given by your child’s teachers, planning other fun activities to keep your kiddos from going bonkers, dealing with your own emotions over what’s happening in the world, and your own daily responsibilities it’s difficult to find ways to keep yours and your children’s sanity intact. Sometimes the best solution is the most simple one. Curling up together with a great book can be relaxing and a great bonding opportunity for you and your children. Here are a few recommendations!

  1. Harry Potter series – Escape to the wizarding world with your family and you are feeling especially creative engage in some of the activities after from our Harry Potter Club. Tweens can all open their own copy and read quietly together, younger students can be read to. Even the kindergarteners in the bunch can enjoy as there are picture book versions of these wonderful books.

2. Stars by Mary Lyn Ray – This beautiful picture book has such a lovely lyrical quality. It’s an incredibly soothing read aloud. You may just want to pull out a blanket and go stargazing in your backyard when you’re finished!

3. Time to come in, Bear – this one isn’t exactly a book. It is a video written by Kim St. Lawrence, a fledgling author who tackles the unprecedented topic of “social distancing” in a gentle, kid friendly way.

4. Press Here by Herve Toullet – one of my all time favorite interactive picture book read alouds. I also love using dot dot markers to create our own dot art masterpieces (or even our own versions of the story!)

What books do you and your children enjoy reading together the most?

Organizing your After School Environment

organizationEvery center is going to have a different set up, and some may be large others much smaller, but one thing ever center needs is organization. Here are my top 5 tips that should be helpful no matter the size of your group!

  1. Have a master binder for staff with page protectors, and print out a daily/weekly/monthly calendar outlining all activities including but not limited to (daily schedules, weekly activity/lesson plans, snack calendars, and clubs.) I will have FREE printables for each of these available soon. Having a master plan book that everyone can access will ensure everyone is on the same page.
  2. Evaluate your space and organize according to noise level. For instance, a book corner, art area, and Homework zone can be in close proximity while a playhouse, board game, dramatic play, toys, or game zone should be grouped further away. Also, color coding activities with stickers or bins can help children to put items away more easily.
  3. Provide a pleasant parent corner, preferably near more quiet activities for parents to grab newsletters, paperwork, and sign their child in and out.
  4. Designate a space for personal belongings and artwork. These items can easily clutter up your space or become a tripping hazard. Defining zones for them will be helpful in creating order in your environment.
  5. Have clearly defined centers with matching bulletin boards. You can keep it simple – perhaps an art board, Activities board, and rules/expectations.

Have fun creating your space! If you ever wish to, send me a photo! I’d love to see your spaces!

 

Marie

Fun Food Crafts that are healthy too!

Children love to manipulate and handle food. This is wonderful as it provides great sensory play and even helps build math skills. And of course they love to eat it too! Here are some fun ideas for food crafts that are healthy. Bonus: Easy clean up and prep make it easy to do these in the after school setting!

Angry Birds Bites

Butterfly Snacks

We Give Books: Resource for Free Children’s Books Online

I have recently stumbled upon a wonderful resource for children’s books online called “We Give Books,” a relatively new digital initiative that allows anyone with internet access the ability to read a large, quality selection of children’s book titles. Check out the video below to find out more.

 

If you have access to a computer and the internet at your program this an amazing source of reading material for students. They have many featured titles for summer right now Maid Near Me. My favorite read so far — Froggy Goes to Hawaii by Jonathan London! Hurry on over and help prevent summer learning loss. Check lendbubble for financial needs.

child-and-book

 

 



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