Resources - Program Activity Ideas & Curricula

The Walking Classroom Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the health and education of all students. The Walking Classroom program is an in-school obesity intervention that promotes health literacy and develops and supports lifelong fitness habits for all students while addressing different learning styles. The method combines standards-aligned academic content and exercise during the regular school day.

Using WalkKits pre-loaded with a year’s worth of standards-aligned audio content, students walk, listen and learn.

The Walking Classroom actively seeks corporate and foundation support so that after school facilitators can get The Walking Classroom for free. After school facilitators interested in implementing The Walking Classroom but who are unable to fund a class set, apply for a donated set here.

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.

With close to 1 in 3 children and teens overweight or obese in the U.S., the health and wellness of students today is a national priority, concerning everyone from policy makers to parents. Afterschool programs are an integral partner to keep kids active and healthy during the out-of-school-time hours and a vital piece of the solution to tackle the obesity epidemic by providing nutritious foods, keeping kids physically active and instilling healthy habits that can last a lifetime.

Tune into this webinar that will review the current afterschool landscape by looking at programs providing physical activity and healthy foods, as well as initiatives taking place in the afterschool field to strengthen healthy eating and physical activity offerings. Speakers on this webinar will cover new data from the latest America After 3PM special report, Kids on the Move: Afterschool Programs Promoting Healthy Eating and Physical Activity; discuss the Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (HEPA) Standards; and share insights, tips and resources that can help program providers with their food and physical activity offerings.

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

More and more young people are learning about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in a wide variety of afterschool, summer, and informal programs. At the same time, there has been increasing awareness of the value of such programs in sparking, sustaining, and extending interest in and understanding of STEM.

To help policy makers, funders and education leaders in both school and out-of-school settings make informed decisions about how to best leverage the educational and learning resources in their community, this report identifies features of productive STEM programs in out-of-school settings.

Identifying and Supporting Productive STEM Programs in Out-of-School Settings draws from a wide range of research traditions to illustrate that interest in STEM and deep STEM learning develop across time and settings. The report provides guidance on how to evaluate and sustain programs. This report is a resource for local, state, and federal policy makers seeking to broaden access to multiple, high-quality STEM learning opportunities in their community.

Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. They tackle all kinds of curriculum, from math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more. The Khan Academy math missions guide learners from kindergarten to calculus using state-of-the-art, adaptive technology that identifies strengths and learning gaps. They’ve also partnered with institutions like NASA, The Museum of Modern Art, The California Academy of Sciences, and MIT to offer specialized content.

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.