Afterschool Constitution

Afterschool Constitution - In many afterschool programs, the adults develop and enforce the rules.  In many more programs, rules are generated through a discussion with the children.  Staff then help children rephrase their suggested rules for the official rules document.  Many programs do rules with kids, and then develop consequences for misbehavior through group discussion.  

Take this a step further and sneak in some social studies.  Print copies of the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitutional Convention, and the US Constitution.  Talk with the children about the meaning and relevance of each.  

Announce your idea to create a “Constitution of the Children’s Choice Afterschool Program” (insert the name of your program here).  The goal is to capture the flavor of the US Constitution in your program document - “We the children, in order to form a more awesome program…”  Have them write an initial draft and revise it for clear communication of ideas, and edit it for all writing conventions.  

When the final document is complete, transfer it to a poster board and have a program meeting to review what they created and agreed to.  All children sign their “John Hancocks.” Take this a step further.  

Have kids create a U.S. Bill of Rights My Way! First put each amendment into modern context, by paraphrasing it using terms that they truly understand.  Each amendment is paraphrased in 10 words or less.  For Amendment #3 on the unlawful quartering of soldiers in homes during any time whether in peace time or war, our kids said, “No soldiers in my crib – never, ever!” 

Thanksgiving Science

This week our afterschool science club is studying density. d = m/v... Density = mass per volume - or how much matter (stuff) is crammed in an amount of space. If a substance is less dense than water it has buoyancy... so it floats.

Since our study of density is happening so close to Thanksgiving, we decided to do some SINK or FLOAT experiments using some items from the typical Thanksgiving table.

We started with Sweet Potatoes! Yes, we tested both a fresh sweet potato and canned sweet potatoes! They both SUNK.

Then we tested cranberries! The fresh cranberries FLOATED, while both the canned varieties (both the whole berries AND the strange and creepy gelled variety) SUNK.

To discover why the fresh cranberries floated, the kids DISSECTED the cranberries. The reason was obvious. Upon cutting the fresh cranberries open we discovered they had hollow pockets of air inside which causes them to float.

We learned that to harvest cranberries, cranberry farmers flood the marshes or bogs with water and then drive a harvester through the flooded fields removing the ripe cranberries from the vines. The ripe cranberries float to the surface of the water for easy collection.

Next we tried to determine if turkeys would sink or float. We discovered that turkeys are very fast and extremely difficult to catch.

Greedy Dice - a FUN Math Game!

Greedy Dice: Goal: Be the first player to rack up 1000 points by rolling the dice. Set up: Form groups of between 4 and 6 people. Each group gets six dice. The youngest player goes first, and play continues clockwise. 

Directions: On your turn, each player rolls all six dice. Separate the 1s and 5s from the rest of the dice. 1s are worth 100 points and 5s are worth 50 points. After each roll, players have the opportunity to either stay with (bank) the points they have earned and pass the dice to the next person, or get a little “greedy” and roll the remaining dice in an attempt to roll more 1s and 5s. You may roll as many times as you like, but if on any roll you do not get ANY 5s or 1s you lose all the points and the dice are passed to the next person. Play continues until one player scores 1000 points.

Educated Guess Guessing Jar

Educated Guess Guessing Jar

Fill containers (varying sizes and shapes) with balloons, beans, baubles, or anything that will fit.  Children begin by making a guess, but then they refine their guesses by measuring and estimating. 

Don’t tell them to measure, just ask them how they could refine their estimations and let them figure it out.  Measure the container and calculate volume estimates. 

Give them some of whatever you use in the mystery container and some empty containers of varying sizes to experiment and estimate with.

On Monday's we count the previous week's jar and find out who the winner is. On the day of the announcement, kids volunteer to help count the previous week's jar (and practice their math skills).

It's usually a privilege if you get picked to help as one of the counters and we try to pick kids that have done positive things in their community over the past week. During our round-up (community meeting) the community does a drumroll and cheers when the winner is announced. They get to take home whatever the prize in the jar is. 

We vary what we put in the jar to try and get both small and large numbers of things that relate to our theme of the month – pumpkin seeds during fall harvest theme, balloons during hot air balloon fiesta theme, or pieces of gravel during our Science Rocks monthly theme.  

Lights OFF to celebrate Lights ON Afterschool

Lights OFF to celebrate... Lights On!

October 17, 2013

Yesterday, 1 million Americans are came together all over the country, for the nation’s largest rally for afterschool programs at more than 8,000 events worldwide... celebrating Lights On Afterschool. Children in hundreds of programs are coloring images of light bulbs and decorating their programs with their artwork to tout the importance of afterschool enrichment. At Children’s Choice in Albuquerque, New Mexico, we wanted to celebrate this event, learn about science, and kick things up a notch by doing a Lights OFF Afterschool project.

We turned the lights OFF to study the science of GLOWING things.  We printed out the lightbulb templates available free at www.afterschoolalliance.org. Instead of coloring the light bulbs with crayons, kids painted their light bulbs with the chemicals inside of glow sticks, which caused the light bulbs to glow through the process of chemiluminescence.

Chemiluminescence: Glow sticks are housings for two chemical solutions. When you bend a plastic glow stick, a glass vial breaks open and the two solutions flow together, combine and rearrange themselves to form new compounds. The atoms begin emitting photons - causing a release of light energy. Special dyes give the light different colors. The energy released during that reaction produces luminescence that can last for many hours. 

They also coated, the light bulb templates with luminous zinc sulfide (also known by Steve Spangler as Glow Powder, available at www.stevespanglerscience.com). The glow powder made their light bulbs glow in the dark through the process of phosphorescence. 

Phosphorescence is a type of GLOWING in response to LIGHT energy. A light bulb excites atoms in the phosphor, causing them to store light energy. When we turned the lights OFF to study the science of GLOWING things, these atoms release this energy.  

Science Standards Addressed:

- Children know that light is a form of energy, Recognize that energy can be stored in many ways (phosphorescence).

- Children know that changes to matter may be chemical or physical and when two or more substances are combined, a new substance may be formed with properties that are different from those of the original substance.

Stop! Get Your Geometry On!

Afterschool Rap Videos

Creating rap videos is a great way to engage kids in meaningful and pleasurable learning. 

This is a great strategy afterschool programs can use to promote and support literacy, reinforce school-day learning, and in this case... teach important math concepts.

Anyone who knows us also knows that creating a rap video is outside of our typical "box" but that we also love to BLOW UP the box. 

The word RAP doesn't immediately come to mind when you look at either one of us. RAP means Rhythm And Poetry. 

We used a website... www.rhymezone.com to help us write the rhyme. Then our kids ran with the idea and created a great rap video. Check it out. 

Based on the Common Core State Standard in math... "Identify and describe shapes... squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, hexagons... "

Please share, like, and comment on YouTube! 

FilmCamp Facilitates FUNdamentals

Film classes and camps directly teach about technology and design and also facilitate the development of literacy skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

We have been having a blast with our film classes this year. Enjoy this great example.

Title:  The Haunted School

Description:  Students learned what makes suspense in movies.  They were then given the challenge to make a movie that would actually build suspense in the audience.  They brainstormed ideas, and made an outline of the movie.  They also wrote dialogue for all the characters. They did their own make-up and gathered props and costumes.  During production, students took turns directing and filming scenes.

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