WHAT DO THEY DO IN THE PROGRAM? Directly following school, the students report to After School area. In most cases, we gather in the cafeteria. We then take attendance and share a healthy supper meal. The students are given 15 minutes to eat and spend time with their friends. During this time, while we are all together as a group, we typically go over announcements, maybe play a quick game, sing a song. Following supper, students are released for a water/ bathroom break. We then go into designated classrooms by grade-level groups, adhering to a student-to-adult ratio of no more than 20:1 and begin a 90 minute academic period to work on homework, and those referred to us by a teacher participate in language arts intervention during this time as well. Most do their silent reading and when time allows, they play academic games that we call “disguised learning” because they’re fun for the students so they don’t know they’re learning!
Following this academic time, students either participate in an enrichment activity, (arts and crafts, science experiments, computer lab…) or outdoor recreation (sports, games, dancing, relays, calisthenics…). Toward the end of the program, all students gather for purely fun, group games.