This 15 minute webinar presented by a practitioner from Queens Community House, discusses how sports debates can be a vehicle to engage children’s passion in sports as well enhance their writing, research and social and emotional competencies.
This guide has been developed to complement the literacy section of the National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning’s online Afterschool Training Toolkit.
What are the key issues affecting girls today in the U.S.? What approaches can afterschool programs employ to best support the success of boys, specifically boys and young men of color? We’ll begin to address these large-scale questions in a new ongoing webinar series focused on gender-specific programming in afterschool.
The series kicks off with an overview of data on the state of girls and delves into afterschool programming developed to address girls’ specific needs. Guest speakers will discuss a recent report highlighting key issues and major trends affecting girls in the U.S., as well as share research-based programming developed to support girls’ growth and development academically, socially and emotionally. In subsequent webinars, we’ll address gender inequality within STEM education, share practical tips from program providers and discuss best practices.
Literacy is fundamental to one’s learning, growing and comprehension of the world. Yet, when looking at students’ reading test scores as an indicator of U.S. students’ aptitude in literacy, more than 6 in 10 students at the elementary, middle and high school levels are less than proficient in reading.
Afterschool programs hold infinite potential to provide the additional supports necessary to ensure that students are equipped with the literacy skills they need in school, in careers and in life. Hear from three afterschool programs that are providing integral literacy supports to their students by building on their students’ school-day lessons and finding engaging, fun and innovative activities to inspire their students and place them on the road to become lifelong learners.
Bayer’s “Making Science Make Sense” ToolBox is a collection of free resources that include step-by-step, hands-on experiments for youth that can be done in home and out-of-school environments.
The ToolBox includes
Experiment Cards—“kitchen science” experiments done with simple household products.
Experiment Guides—more experiments as well as simple scientific explanations for everyday phenomena and nature questions like “What is a flame?” and “Where do bugs go in winter?” and “Why do socks stick together?”
Audio Series Experiment Book—a selection of the MSMS Audio Series’ most popular segments; matching them with easy hands-on science experiments using common household materials
Activity Book—elementary-appropriate puzzles, word searches, experiments and fun science facts
Periodic Table of Elements—Illustrated with everyday uses of the elements
Showcasing one lesson appropriate for youth by grade (Pre-K through 8th grade) and by topic (9th through 12th), this is the Kitchen Community’s list of quality STEM activities. Many of these activities can be modified and be used for youth in a variety of grades.
The STEM in the Garden curriculum consists of a series of 6 Modules. The order of the modules loosely follows the growing season/school year.
Though you can follow this order, all of these activities can easily be done at any time of the year to fit with your needs.
EverFi’s courses help educators engage students with powerful content and allow them to cultivate critical skills in areas of financial literacy, digital citizenship, STEM, health and wellness, entrepreneurship, civics and African American History. All courses are delivered through a digital platform and are accessible to students beginning as early as 4th grade.
PreventObesity.net is an online network offering free tools, services and support to the people and organizations that are working to ensure children everywhere can eat healthier and become more physically active.
Free Curriculum to Support Healthy Eating and Physical Activity
Looking to help youth get on a pathway to living a healthy, active lifestyle? The National Afterschool Association and the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation are here to help!
Together, they are providing the “Enrichment Zone,” a free curriculum for afterschool programs focused on promoting energy balance. The Enrichment Zone resources explain to students the concepts of “Energy In” (food and nutrition-related activities) and “Energy Out” (physical activities). It focuses particularly on the “Energy Out” aspect to help afterschool programs guarantee students get the daily sixty minutes of physical activity as recommended by the NAA HEPA (Healthy Eating and Physical Activity) Standards.
