Preparing for the end ......... of the school year.

The End is NEAR!!!!  The end of the school year that is.  There are lots of things you can start doing to prepare for the end of the school year without waiting until the last few days and panicking!

• Make a list
• Just get started by walking around your space and making a list of things that might need to get done before school ends and everyone goes home for the summer, or your space gets used for a summer camp.
• Vetting Process
• Go through some of your games and toys to see if you have lost pieces or things are broken.  If they aren't worth keeping, toss 'em.
• I am super thrifty, so I rarely throw out things I think might still be usable.  If I have a game with missing pieces, I will email other sites in my network and ask if they need pieces, or have extras.  I always keep a bag with extra generic movers and dice, and left over pieces to popular games like Sorry, Monopoly, and Trouble.
• Have the kids played with this this year?  If not, it doesn't mean your new friends next year won't want to play with it, but if it's from an out of date character or show it might be time to let it go. 
• Characters such as Hannah Montana, High School Musical, Power Puff Girls have lost their luster with most kids and no matter how fun it is, they probably won't be touched. 
• Consider trading unplayed with items with another site.  It's free, but the items are new and fresh to your students.
• In the future, don't buy the newest, hottest characters and games.  The old standards stand the test of time if you need games and toys to last for years to come.
• Fix Stuff Up
• Books and game boxes can be taped up to last another year.  Games should be cleaned organized and have all pieces put into a baggie within the box for safe keeping. Damaged toys fixed.  Dirty toys and equipment cleaned.
• Supplies
• Have students go through all markers and check to see if they are still good.  Toss the bad ones and make a note of how many you will need for next year.
• Sharpen colored pencils.
• Marry bottles of glue and throw out the bottles with bad tops.
• Sharpen a set of new pencils to get ready for the new year.  Why wait until the end of summer?  Get all supplies ready for the new school year that you can.
• Inventory
• When you are done cleaning and organizing, do a good inventory of your supplies, games and equipment.
• This will help you when you hit a good garage sale this summer!  It also helps you determine what supplies and equiment need to be purchased for next year. 

My BEST ADVICE is to be a scavenger!  If you are located in a school building, talk to the secretaries and teachers about taking left over supplies.  Used markers, bottles of glue, colored pencils, and other supplies get thrown out at the end of the year.  Classrooms get shiny new supplies each year, but you can save your program some cash for more fun stuff, by reusing equipment that still has some use.  Let teachers know that you are willing to take things and you will end up getting little surprises all throughout the school year!  I once had a teacher bring me 15 unused board games.  I've gotten a garbage bag FULL of markers, brand new glue sticks and bottles, hundreds of sharpened but unused pencils and LOTS of other usable items.  I never say no.  If I can't use an item I offer to another site, families of my students, or donate to Goodwill.  Once you start saying no, the items you get is reduced. 

Awesome Art Projects from Pinterest

If you haven't discovered Pinterest yet, where have you been?  Oh yeah, dedicating your life to kids.  Okay, I forgive you!  There are SO many cool projects and ideas there.  Here are some fun ones that I found recently. 

I always like to do some fun and invovled projects at the end of the year.  Things are starting to wind down at school, but you need to keep those littles busy so they don't go "summer" crazy. 

White Crayon Resist Watercolor Painting


Animal Water color tutorial










The monsters game and hand knitting are great free time fillers!

Follow my After School Awesome pinterest board for more fun ideas!
 

April is Poetry Month - Free Resources - Shel Silverstein

Every kids loves poems and illustrations by Shel Silverstein.  www.ShelSilverstein.com has some great poetry packets to help teach kids to write different types of poetry and illustrate them. 

These ideas will work with all ages and they can get super creative, or you can give them a specific theme to write the poems about.  Perfect for decorating a bulletin board.  It would be fun to have a poetry show where students share their artwork and present their poem.  Parents would love to attend.


More ways to share poetry.

•      Pick an expressive or abstract poem, read it out loud to students and have them illustrate the poem.
• Show the students pictures and have them share what they were thinking about when they were listening to the poem.
• Have a discussion about what they think the author was thinking or what the poem means.  You would be surprised at what context clues that students will pick up on.
• Read the words of a popular song.
• Explain to students that songs are poems set to music.

 

Make a Scrapbook

It might seem like a simple idea, but kids really love it.  Take a few snap shots when you are doing a fun activity and print them out.  Put them in a binder on cute paper and allow students to write about that day.  Even if only a few of them want to write a few sentences it would be fun for them to look and read later.  I have a book that I kept when I left my job after 15 years.  The kids enjoyed it while it was there and now it is great memories for me!

Extended Day Halloween Pumpkin Painting

 

Teaching Kids about Advertising Tricks - Sooper Goop! PERSUASIVE WRITING!

A fun way to teach kids things is through films.  I have always had a 16mm projector and plenty of films on hand.  I know, I know, most people wouldn't even know how to use one.  But, many of those fantastic educational films are on the internet now and available for you to share with your students.

This film, Sooper Goop, teaches kids about how cereal advertisers fool them into thinking their product is SUPER when it actually isn't.

I have used this, and other films about advertising, to teach kids about how to be aware of the commercials they see and to not let it influence them too much.  We talk about the different strategies they use to make things look or sound better than they are.

In addition I have broken the kids into small groups and allowed them to come up with some advertising for any random object that I give them.  They have to give it a dynamic name, draw a logo, and write a fun advertisement that they can act out for the group later.  You can even record them to make a commercial! 

This could be a great week long project.  With about 30 minutes a day of activity.

See update about Persuasive Writing at the end!

Day 1
   Watch the Super Goop film and talk about how advertising works and have the kids identify what they do to make things sound better than they are.  Make a chart to keep for future use.

Day 2
    Watch some fun vintage commercials and let the kids point out what they did to make things sound great and if they think it's true about the product.  Possibly add to the chart.

Day 3
    Separate the kids into groups, give them an object, and allow them to write a commercial and advertising(logos) to make it sound SUPER.  Have them use at least two of the advertising strategies on the chart.

Day 4
    Continue work on their advertising and commercial they can act out.

Day 5
    Act out commercial for the entire group.  You record it for commercials and let them watch it later.

Kids who are allowed to be creative can have a ton of fun and learn something important!

UPDATE, PERSUASIVE WRITING!

You can also include lessons on Persuasive Writing. I was substitute teaching today and the teacher asked me to teach a lesson about Persuasive Writing. As I was teaching it the students said it sounded like a commercial!   I forgot to take a photo of my anchor chart. Dang!  Anywho, it looked something like this.

I used some examples about Eating healthy to make a persuasive poster.

I then asked students to talk in small groups to brainstorm some ideas and they came up with some great ones.   Connect the advertising lesson with persuasive writing and the classroom teachers will thank you!

Read Across America - Dr Seuss Birthday - March 1

It's Dr Seuss Birthday on March 1.  Most school celebrate Read Across America Day.  There are LOTS of activities on Teaching Blog Addict.  Fun and education!  That's the goal of a great afterschool program!

 

St. Patricks or Spring Cupcakes - Rainbow

This would be a great cooking project to do with your littles if you have access to an oven.  If you are in a school, the industrial oven will cook faster, so keep your eye on them!

Kids LOVE to help with cooking projects!  You might want to start by reviewing good hand washing practices and then having them do a really good hand wash.  Give every student gloves and instruct them not to touch anything but utensils for food prep.

Basically you will make white cupcake batter as normal, but split it into 6 different containers and color it with food coloring.  Then you will pour a little of each color in each muffin cup, in order.  When cooked it will look like a rainbow.  It's a lot of work but comes out looking great!

Here's the link to the recipe.
 
http://spoonful.com/recipes/taste-rainbow

You'll need:

White Cake Mix.  Enough for as many kids as you have. I always make a couple of extras for building staff that are still there when you are enjoying your treat.

Cupcake Cups

Frosting

Food Coloring

Mixing Bowl including 6 smaller bowls, or cups for separating the batter.

Great jobs for kids....

• Start by having one of them read all of the cooking instructions on the cake mix box.
• Talk about how important it is to read all instructions first, that way you know what you will need to do and hopefully you won't mess anything up.
• Make sure you have all ingredients and utensils ready to go.
• Have kids pour pre-measured items into the mixing bowl.
• Stirring (Each can do it for a short time.)
• Teach them to break eggs and have an older student break the egg over a seperate bowl (incase of shells) and someone else can pour it in.
• Checking off steps on the directions and reading the next direction.
• You should do the food coloring to make sure you don't get too much, which can ruin the color.
• Have students take the colored frosting by the spoonful and pour it in.  That way the amounts should be pretty consistant.

 This could be done in different color combinations for different holidays, School colors, etc.