After School Care Activities – for primary school aged kids
Keeping the little ones occupied after school doesn’t have to be hard. We have compiled 3 fun after-school care activities that are educational, unique, and exciting!
Gardening after school care
Gardening teaches children about caring for our environment and that we can garden from a young age. Children will be amazed how different and fresh the food tastes when we grow it without chemicals. Healthy diets can be encouraged as part of the children’s learning.
Involve
- Kids love planning. Have them research what plants will grow the best for the time of the year you are planting.
- Make sure to include vegetables that the children will like to eat once grown!
- Include flowers as they will brighten up everyone’s day. Sunflowers are always a hit as they grow to the height of the children – awesome photo opportunities.
Garden Diaries
- Have the children keep daily diaries explaining what they did and how they tended to the garden.
- It’s a great way to remind them how quickly fresh produce can grow.
- Drawing pictures of what the seedlings and the plants look like can be fun. Have the kids measure with a ruler how high the plants are at different stages.
Limited Space Gardens
- If you don’t have the space, plant in pots and you can still achieve fine results.
- Plants that grow well in pots include cherry tomatoes, strawberries and herbs.
- Tasty and easy to grow herbs are coriander, parsley, basil, chives and mint.
- Basil grows extremely well and by the end of your holiday period you may be able to make your own pesto!
CRAFT
Shrink Art
- So much fun, so easy and awesome for all ages.
- Make bag tags, earrings, necklaces, anklets and bookmarks.
- If you have a theme day, print out images the kids can trace onto the Shrink Art plastic. Eg, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or birthdays.
- Simply use pencils or coloured markers for older children to design and colour in their Shrink Art.
- Don’t forget to hole punch!
- Buy pre-printed shrink art for the younger children to colour in.
- Have an adult shrink the artwork in an oven or toaster oven – the kids are amazed at this process. Check out how to do shrink art here
OUTDOOR GAMES for after school
Commonwealth / Olympic Games Day
There is nothing like kids letting off steam and improving their overall fitness. It is very important to remind children of all ages that winning is not the most important thing but actually taking part and to experience a team sport. Games days are an awesome way to get kids excited about sport, enjoy some friendly competition, be part of a team, feel national pride and of course counting medals!
Before the day, divide the children into different countries.
They can choose their own countries depending on what colour clothes they know they have available at home or you pick for them. If clothing colour creates an issue, have streamers around their wrist in the colours of countries.
- Print off flags for the kids to colour in and they can display them in their Team Village on the day.
- Organise Mascots for each team e.g. A teddy bear, doll or similar! So much fun can be had by dressing up the mascot.
Opening Ceremony
A practice march is always a good idea with some really fun music. Have the children march in lines of three around the play area. Mascots will be at the front. Team members can use the flags the they have coloured in to wave as they pass the ‘crowds’.
Games
- Paper plate ‘discus’. Use chalk to draw the area they need to throw the discus from. Watch discus throwers on the internet to see the correct way of throwing
- Basketball – depending on numbers
- Paper Plane – spend time making, decorating and throwing
- Running Races – egg and spoon races, three legged races, long distance races and relay races
- Long jump
- Very simple gymnastics displays – walking on a chalk drawn beam, cartwheels and handstands
Medals
- Have the children colour-in printable medals or draw your own.
- Present medals with the ‘crowd’ clapping and cheering on the winners.
- Now is a good time to remind all kids that it is okay not to win, but being part of a team is a great feeling.
- Tally up all of the medals to find out the winning country.
Closing Ceremony
Similar to the Opening Ceremony but this is more of a celebration of the day.
At the end of the closing ceremony have a special treat for the kids to all enjoy.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our ideas for fun after school care activities. You can get your Shrink Art supplies here, guaranteed fun for all ages!
Another fun idea is to make Egyptian Scarab Beetles using embossing materials !
