Swap Knots

This is one of our favorite team-building games from our workshop. This is a fun variation of the old classic Human Knot. Group up in teams of 8, 10, or 12. Give a bandanna or three-foot piece of rope to ½ the group (give a team of 12 six ropes, team of 10 five ropes and a team of 8 four ropes). Lay the ropes out in an asterisk-like shape. Players grab one end of the rope. Allow each group 6 to 8 minutes to tangle the ropes as much as possible. Two rules: players may not let go of the ropes, and may not tighten the knot by pulling on it. After completing their knot, they place the tangled ropes on the floor so the ends of the ropes can are visible. Each team moves to another team’s knot, and players grab the end of one of the ropes and the try to untangle the ropes until they are standing in pairs back in the asterisk shape.  When debriefing ask: How are we connected to each other? How can we solve problems and remain connected to each other?

Bumpity Bump Bump

Here is one of our Name Games from our popular team-building workshops. Bumpity Bump Bump Circle Up. Choose an IT.  IT goes up yo someone in the circle and says, “left,” “right,” or “yours.”  That player must say the name of the player to the right, left or their own respectively before IT says, “bumpity bump bump.”  If the player in the circle fails to say the correct name in time, they are the new IT.

Best Practices for an Afterschool Program Indoor Environment

The indoor space needs to be clean and colorful, interesting and inviting, and should reflect the children, their varying ages, cultures, and special interests. It needs to be broken up into different areas, providing a variety of activity choices. It needs to be labeled, clearly communicating what privileges and expectations children have in each area. It needs to be homelike and contain at least one very homelike area.

Planning and preparing the environment can be an activity in which the children can and should be involved. Children can generate some discussion and design suggested floor plans. This will give them the feeling of ownership, while teaching them citizenship and a sense of community. Involving all of the children will help the environment to reflect the group of kids and what they like.

Construction Zone

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The activity space should be divided up different areas. One area can contain some Legos, Lincoln logs, craft sticks, wood blocks, construction straws or dominoes. This area should display a sign that says something like "Construction Zone" for the kids, and in smaller letters "Manipulatives/Fine Motor Area" for the educators' and parents' understanding. 

Science of Sunshine - UV Detection Beads

As we were getting ready to begin, Madison snuck in some English and SPANISH language arts when she read them a poem that she wrote about our topic of the day!

SUN

Hot, Bright

Burning, Heating, Energizing

Sol, Fire, Space Light 

Shining, Twinkling, Sparkling

Estrella, Bright

STAR

To sneak in some MORE literacy, she read Bear Shadow, by Frank Asch - a story about a bear who was outside all day trying to do everything he could think of to get rid of his shadow because it scared away the fish when we went fishing.

Sneakin' in Some Literacy!

Habit #7 is Communication

Wise men speak because they have something to say. Fools speak because they have to say something.—Plato

Dynamic and highly-effective afterschool programs are places for generative discussion and intensive action. Language functions as a tool for bonding, innovating, coordinating, and cooperating. People can speak from their hearts and connect with each other in the spirit of dialog—from the Greek dia + logos, moving through.

Dialog is an essential element of organizational learning and highly-effective leaderhip. Peter Senge identifies three conditions that are necessary for dialog to occur: all participants must suspend their assumptions; all participants must regard one another as colleagues; and there must be a facilitator who holds the context of the dialog.



When people talk and listen to each other, they create an alignment of purpose that produces incredible ability to invent new possibilities in conversation and bring about these possibilities in reality. There must be sufficient meeting time scheduled into people’s professional calendars to step back from the day-to-day operations and reflect on what is happening in the program. It is important for highly-effective leaders to understand that ideas can be developed best through dialog and discussion. Through dialog, people can predict and solve problems, replace obsolete systems, and create new systems.

Habit #6 is Community Building

Community Building is a habit that is a paradigm shift away from “activity-led” programming, which creates a curriculum centered on the activities – activities to keep kids busy and out of our hair. Activities without attention to purpose or ethical dimension of community building miss the opportunity to facilitate the child’s social development.

We believe in an afterschool program all the activities should have a purpose. 

In autumn when the leaves fall we see leaf crafts o-plenty! Afterschool program leaders have children making leaf prints, leaf collages, leaf mobiles, leaf placemats, and preserving leafs between sheets of waxed paper. Now… there is nothing wrong with leaf crafts in and of themselves. But often these projects are all about making the final product – a piece of refrigerator art for parents to attach to their refrigerators with magnetic fruit. These projects miss an opportunity to teach leadership, sharing, caring, altruism, and empathy.

ABC's of Powerful Programming Practices

“Learning and development are interrelated from the child’s very first day of life.” 
– Lev Vygotsky

The ABC's of 

Powerful Programming Practices