Rancho Lindo

Hello Everyone,

We've been super busy at Rancho Lindo...the activities I have for the week include Cinco de Mayo arts & crafts: 1) a guitar made out of construction paper and yarn...we actually cut out a pattern to make the guitar,  2) Mexican sombreros using small paper plates, mini pom poms and cups...the kids painted and carefully glued the pieces together,  3) maracas were made by using two cups, beans, pom poms and yarn.  The students placed the beans in each of the cups, then taped the cups together followed by adding colorful decorations to them...lastly, we will try to make our own pinata using a balloon, glue, color tissue paper and newspaper...the activities that I have chosen for the following week will be so much fun...we will be doing a little bit of science and a whole lot of learning.

 

Cottonwood Creek

For the past two weeks we have been busy little bees!  Last week we celebrated Earth Day with some coloring projects and activities to beautify the apartment complex!  We also had a "green" scavenger hunt and had an awesome time playing baseball!  I also set aside time to relax/reflect because last week we worked hard reviewing for the CST exam.  We tried to make it as interactive as possible so the kids could get the most out of the reviews...we teamed up into groups and "competed" to see who worked harder and who worked smarter!  It's turning out to be a great success.

 

Lincoln Plaza

Hello Coordinators,

 

This week at Lincoln Plaza we have been learning how to play new sports such as volleyball and lacrosse while getting ready for 5 de Mayo festivities.  Last week we made some maracas in order to celebrate the Battle of Puebla.  This week we will be focusing on making more projects which celebrate the Mexican culture while at the same time, continue teaching Lincoln students new sports.  After showing them how to play volleyball, many of the girls were curious on when the volleyball season begins...not only did they like it but they found out that they were good at other sports other than soccer or basketball.  Go Sports!

 

 

Rolling Hills

Hello coordinators!

We have been quite busy here at Rolling Hills After School Program.  We have been doing arts and crafts, read-alongs, drama plays, drawing activities, homework help, face painting of diffrent animals, painting crafts, outdoor chalk fun, show and tell day, play dough creation, telescope making (everyone was painting their own telescope).  The fun continued by baking cookies, girl day (choosing nail polish), video games for boys ,karaoke for everyone, circle time, a spring fling party...we had games and prizes for everyone and last but not least a wet day...everyone had a blast.  Whew!

 

Lincoln Plaza

Hello Coordinators,

Here at Lincoln Plaza we are enjoying this weather and taking full advantage of it.  This week we began to do some spring crafts which involved making some tulips and a banner with a Spring setting/theme.  However since it is Spring we are experiencing some allergies (Not Good!)...and my plans of playing Speed Ball didn’t work out, darn allergies.  I made sure the students got that movement/exercise through the wii game console.  This week I brought my wii to the center and we took turns playing it.

If any of you coordinators have a wii, use it...it's a good way to take care of that physical activity indoors especially on those days where allergens are high or when the weather just doesn't want to cooperate.  I made sure to take games that require lots of movement like Just Dance or wii sports.  Towards the end I allowed the kids to pick a fun game (free choice)...they picked Mario Party and for the last 30 minutes they took turns on this really cool and fun game.  It was awesome to see the younger students school the older students on how to take turns and share.  LOL!  Before starting each mini game, before I set the rules of the game, the younger kids had already set the rules with the older kids and it worked out perfectly.  Next week I plan on taking the children out and playing Speed Ball.  Say No to allergies and bad weather.

 

Parksdale II

Yesterday the kids created a book about themselves and the things they like to do were included in the book as well as some of their favorite foods.  Today for show and tell they shared/read their book out loud to the entire class.  This was a lot of fun!...the kids thought they knew each other fairly well but little did they know about how much more there was to learn.  A lot of the students were surprised to learn all the new and interesting things about their friends...it was a great and fun way to learn more about each other.

 

Parksdale II

Hello Everyone!

Today we are celebrating Alex Rodriguez's 6th birthday...Happy Birthday!...he turned the Big 6 today...we wish him many more happy and joyous years to come.  You da man Alex!

 

Cottonwood Creek

Hello Everyone!

This past week at Cottonwood Creek was jam packed full of learning and fun!  We started by making our window sign that you can't really see from my humble photo below but it's suppose to read: "Cottonwood Creek celebrates spring!"

We continued the Power Play campaign/curriculum as well as the Harvest of the month program which sort of goes hand in hand with the Power Play campaign.  We reviewed the fruits and veggies portion of the activity and I had each child color and share an interesting/unique fact about the fruit/veggie (i.e. a carrot grows underground, a tomato is not really a veggie...and so on).  Instead of having the kids take each picture home, I decided to put them on the wall and name it our "healthy corner."  We will be putting different pieces which include Power Play, harvest of the month and a handy pocket where the kids can drop suggestions (i.e games they want to play) for the week!  We also played outside in this beautiful weather!  Overall we had a great week at Cottonwood Creek!!!

 

Goshen Village II

Hello everyone!

This week the children at Goshen Village II drew and painted some of their favorite plants, trees and flowers.  They also learned how to make strawberry ice cream from some helpful online tutorials.  Hope everyone has a wonderful day and please enjoy the pictures below.

 

Parksdale

Hello After School Coordinator's!, yesterday the kids and I played a game called "Freeze Dance."  This is how you play it.  BTW, get ready for some exercise:)

It’s as simple as it sounds. Play some of the student's favorite tunes (or even some of your own) and dance to your heart’s content.

Then when they least expects it, yell “freeze!” and stop the music.  See what funny position's they wind up in.  How long can they hold that position?

I guarantee you will all love this fun game.  Enjoy!

Parksdale

"Boredom is good for kids"

Children are seldom truly bored, they just haven’t lately exercised that part of the brain that requires them to use their imagination.  Make a rule that if your child announces they’re bored, they’ll have to do chores.  So if they truly can’t think of anything off-hand to do…  eventually, they’ll think of something.

It’s a good lesson to learn that life is not always entertaining, and that they’re not the center of attention.  And if you’ve got a typical home, there’s actually plenty they can do.  So don’t feel like you always have to provide options and events for your children.  They’ll be just fine exercising their brain.

Cottonwood Creek

This past week we had a few wild and windy days!  The very obvious solution was to make a kite to enjoy this wonderful weather with!  So we did.  We made this simple kite by using wooden skewers, regular white copy paper, string, pipe cleaners and markers for coloring and decorating.  What a fun and very seasonally appropriate arts and crafts project.  Everyone knows it's Windy!

 

 

 

 

Joke of the Day

Q.  Why do melons get married in church?


A.  Because they cant-a-loupe!!!

Lincoln Plaza

Hello Coordinators,

 

Hope everyone had an awesome Easter and Spring Break.  Here at Lincoln Plaza we have begun to do more Spring stuff as well as begin to teach new fun activities where students can teach their families...kinda like train the trainer.  Since we have been having nice weather, this is when we should take advantage of it and do some outside activities, before it begins to get really hot.  This week the boys and girls did a sewing activity of their choice. The boys decided to do a Frankenstein and girls did a Virgin Mary out of felt.  I also taught the rules of a game that we will be playing outside this week.  The game is speed ball!

 

For those of you not familiar with this activity, you will need a football and two soccer nets.  However to get small practice soccer nets set up cuts the time of our game so we went ahead and used the basketball court.  The objective of the game is: you have two teams and whoever scores the most points wins.  When using the soccer nets, the person with the ball runs as fast as they can in order to score while the other team tries to intercept the ball.  The opposing team can tag the person with the ball forcing the person to pass the ball to his or her team members within three seconds.  If they fail this objective, the ball becomes the other teams ball.  When using the soccer nets, you do have the option of having a goalie, but with the basketball court they need to try to put the football in the hoop.  How fun is that!  Its soccer and football combined into one sport!!!  Yea Combo!  But at Lincoln Plaza it was Football and basketball put together.

Luigi, Virgin Mary, Frankenstein I'm so proud of all my students and the effort they put into their crafts.  Enjoy!!!

 

Cottonwood Creek

This past week was jammed packed with our Easter basket project that our students at Cottonwood Creek took on!  You can tell from the pictures below that this was a full contact activity.  We started on Monday with a balloon and paper mache paste that I made myself.  Then we wrapped the balloon with a few layers of newspaper and let it dry.  On the following day, once they were dry, we used a second layer of brown butcher like paper and then let that dry.  After that, we moved on to the painting and decorating portion of the project.  The last thing we did was put handles made out of pipe cleaners and inside we put colored grass.  On Friday we went out for our Easter egg hunt and the baskets worked out great!  The kids loved how they turned out and with all the hard work they put into making them, the finished product was truly spectacular!