This year make plans to start a sports league, or a drama program, or a dance group. One of your group leaders probably has experience and would love to be in charge of such an activity. If you have a little money in the budget you can try a project like Lego® Robotics or building a giant 2D (or even 3D) puzzle. And of course, don’t forget about service learning projects.

Don’t give up on the teaching and learning! Find activities for your afterschool program that include both learning and fun so you can keep your students always wanting more and coming back week after week.

What fun stuff do you have planned for this new school year? Comment and share with us

On their website www.californiaafterschool.org you can browse the 12 topics in their Resource Library or perform a search if you are looking for something specific.  Topics include mathematics, reading/language arts and physical activity as you would expect, but also behavior management, nutrition, program administration, youth development, and more. You can also request a copy of their catalog (published annually).

Once registered, you can add any item from their collection to your loan list and it will be shipped to you (anywhere in California), free of charge, on the date you requested (pending availability).  You can use the materials for up to four weeks and then you ship them back.

This is such an easy way to get quality reviewed materials to use in your afterschool program for just the cost of one-way shipping.  Check out the website and start checking out materials.

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My afterschool curriculum which I publish on my website Curricubits was recently reviewed by CASRC and added to the Resource Library.  The Oceans, Geology, and Family themes are available for checkout.

Keep reading all the way to the end because step number seven is the fastest, easiest, and most important.

1. Notify Parents that Change is Coming

After you work out exactly what your new check-out procedure will be, send home a flier to parents with a detailed explanation of what they should expect and what you would like them to do.  Make announcements to students as well, reminding them of when the new check-out system will start.  If you just spring the new check-out plan on everyone without coaching them first, even more chaos will ensue.

2. Close the Doors Until You Are Ready

Funnel your students in through one door and have parents start lining up outside of another closed door.  Put up a sign and close that door 10-15 minutes before check-out begins so you don’t have parents coming into your meeting space and disrupting the last few minutes of your students activity time.  When you are ready to begin check-out, open the check-out door.

3. Regroup Before Releasing Students

Call all of your student groups back to your main meeting space before you dismiss everyone.  This will give you the opportunity to relay any last minute messages and you can make sure all your students are accounted for before parents start picking them off.

4. Parents Sign-Out, Then Enter

Setup a table near the door where you want parents to enter. Have them sign-out their child first and then allow them to enter. This makes your check-out more accurate and more secure.  Parents can’t forget to sign out and you can screen every parent coming in.  If you run a large program and you think the line will be too long, divide your students alphabetically by last name and have two check-out lines.

5. Train Your Students

When students see their parents they usually get up and run right over.  Train your students to stay with their group until after their parent has signed for them.  When they see their parent they can gather their belongings and wait to be dismissed.

6. Shuffle Your Staff

After the first ten minutes when the majority of your students have left, combine the remaining students into one or two groups and give them some books or coloring for entertainment until their parents arrive.  Assign one or two staff members to supervise those groups while your other staff start cleaning up and restocking supplies for the next day.

7. End On a Positive Note

Even though the end of the day can be hectic, try to have students and parents leave with an upbeat, positive feeling.  Train your staff to say a sincere good-bye to each student using the student’s name as they leave.  Even if you don’t implement any of the previous six steps, do this one.  It is super easy and it let’s students and parents know that you value their participation in your program.

What do you do to make check-out time less chaotic?  Post a comment and let us know!

Arrive early

Schedule your staff to arrive at least 15 minutes before the students arrive.  Make sure they have enough time to collect their supplies, organize their clipboard, prepare their table and prepare snack.  Everything that needs to be ready, should be completely ready when students arrive.

Greet Students

Are your group leaders standing at their table or assigned area when students arrive?  They should be.  Train your group leaders to greet each child individually, using their name, when they first arrive.  They need to strike up a little bit of conversation with students and ask about their day.  Really devote some time to making students feel special when they get to your afterschool program.

Give Down Time

Just as adults want to relax for a few minutes when they get home before starting on dinner or chores, students want to relax, too.  Give about 10 minutes for students to just sit and chat when they arrive to the program before you start making any announcements or sending groups off to their assigned activities.

Giving students time to relax and creating a warm, welcoming atmosphere for them when they arrive will help make your afterschool program something that students look forward to.  This can boost your attendance and reduce behavior problems because you have created a calm friendly environment where students want to be.

Table 1: Assigning Students to Teams by Grade Level

Table 2: Assigning Students to Teams with Mixed Grade Levels

In Table 1, you only have room for one team of second graders – probably 20 students at the most.  What happens if your program suddenly becomes very popular with second graders?  In Table 2, you have room for about 30 second graders.  Mixing grade levels across teams also allows you to move students from one team to another if needed, and that can be a great relief if a conflict arises.

Here’s another tip:  schedule one or two extra students on every team.  If you are working from a grant – as so many Afterschool programs are – you probably need to meet a particular attendance requirement every day to get your maximum funding.  No matter how hard you try and how good you are at getting students to show up, someone will always be absent.  If you overbook your teams by one or two students each, you should hit your desired/required numbers every day. 

Materials are always a struggle for afterschool programs.  You want to get good materials for your students but they are expensive and your budge it limited.  When you do spend the money the materials disappear in less than a week and you are right back where you started.  You already know about shopping around for bargains, so here are three more strategies to help you make the most of your supply dollars.

1. Repurpose

Find ways to use the same materials for different activities.  For example if you purchase a specialty item like a set of pastel chalks you can have your students can use them to draw mountains when you teach a Geology theme and again to make leaf rubbings when you teach a Plants theme.

2. Swap

Whenever possible, schedule your groups (or sites) to do the same activites at different times.  This will save you money because you will be able to buy just one set of materials and then swap between the groups.  For example, if you schedule one site to use the pastel chalks this week, schedule another site to use the magnifying glasses.  Then switch next week.

3. Inventory

If you want to swap and repurpose effectively, you will need to keep an inventory of  your materials.  This may sound a little daunting, but it is not really that difficult.  Make a list of all the materials for and activity and include columns for check-out and check-in on your list.  Write down how many go out and how many come back in whenever you send something out.  Train your staff to check after every activity to make sure they have everything and to return consumables if they are not completely used up.

This three step process of repurpose, swap, and inventory can be used on a large or small scale.  Once you get your staff on board, you can even get your students into the act.  Teach them to save their scraps of construction paper for another project like a mosaic and to return their pencils for use tomorrow instead of losing them.  You will be amazed at how far your materials budget will reach.