Out of School Activities

[lewis]

I've been getting quite stuck coming up with things to interest the children in our after-school club; they are getting rather bored of drawing pictures before tea, and at the minute there's not much chance of going outside for long! it's not the fact i can't be bothered to plan, but i've got the nursery children to plan for aswell!
Has anyone got any ideas for activities to do with the children? Lately i've been making cookies and things like that, but it's getting rather dull

[suewhit]

can they help with the planning? we find they are good at suggestions most of them can come up with something that is suitable. ours also make suggestions for equipment .
sue

[DizzyDora]

I agree with Sue. We do our planning daily which allows the children to contribute, we are encouraging them to come and say if they want something out and we make a big deal of taking them to planning sheet and writing it or geting them to write it down for the session they are next in so they know they can be involved. some times i have a blank sheet the day before and have to say the children ... what do you want to play with tommorrow, it's a work in progress but i believe that is the way to go.

[flipflop]

We have activity sheets with happy faces on them and evaluation sheets at the back so you can check further down the line if it was not successful or not. It's important you tell the truth if there was any problems as it is reflecting on practise. The children take part in choosing what they want although we do help by giving them plenty to choose from. For example, table games seasonal quizes, bingo, lego, dvd, seasonal freize, chalk pictures, charcoal pictures, pool, organising and shopping for their own snack and giving them supervised independence in the shops. Preparing snack washing dishes and general cleaning if they want to of course. We also get the children to take part in making home made soup or spag bolognese.
Hope this has helped a wee bit.