- RED Clubs allow teachers to delve deeper into projects. They will have the same group of students from 3-4pm on the same day each week.This round of clubs will happen on January, 9, 16, 23, 30.
Honeybees
Sports Club
Honeybees will spend the month learning the rules and strategies to some of their favorite games: basketball, softball and soccer. We will dive into what it means to be a team, by creating a team name, logo and pendent. The Honeybees have already made great progress this year in terms of teamwork and sportsmanship and we’re excited for their skills to grow even more.
Week 1: – What does it mean to be a team? (The Honeybees will brainstorm ways they can make this club feel inclusive!)
Create a Team Name and Team Pendent
Week 2: Soccer drills and Scrimmage
Week 3: Basketball Drills and Scrimmage
Week 4: Softball Drills and Scrimmage
Gardening Club
1/9 – Parts of a Plant- Students will discuss what parts a plant has and make a diagram as they try each part of a plant: carrot (root), celery (stem), lettuce (leaf), broccoli (flower), strawberry (fruit)
- We will play a game like Princess using the parts of a plant as poses
- Students will talk as a group to figure out what plants need to grow: light, water, and soil
- As a group, we will plant the base of the lettuce in water, and celery stalks in colored water
1/16 – Planting Wheatgrass- We will check on our plants
- We will plant wheatgrass as a group
- We will make origami flowers
1/23 – Bees- We will check on our plants
- We will watch a short video about bees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta154f5Rp5Y
- We will play a game of Bee Tag, where the group is split into two teams, each with one Queen Bee. The goal is to tag everyone on the opposite team. The queen cannot be tagged while in the throne, but can leave their throne to untag members of her team.
- Everyone will have an opportunity to try a spoonful of honey
- We will plant microgreens as a group
1/30 – Worms- We will check on our plants
- We will watch a short video about earthworms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-zc_1vjLnI
- We will make pipe cleaner and bead worms: https://jeniutley.com/blog/46434/worm-patterns-activity-for-preschoolers
- Everyone will have the opportunity to try a gelatin worm, or we will make them for all the Honeybees to eat on Friday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOL9TCyhonQ
Songwriting Club
The children will work together to come up with a tune and lyrics for 1-3 songs, and eventually put together a performance and music video!
In week 1, the children will get comfortable using the instruments by playing some songs they are familiar with, doing some free exploration and playing some guided rhythm games.
In week 2, the children will begin working on our first song, doing some improvisation to begin the writing process.
In week 3 we will finish writing our songs.
In week 4, we will rehearse our songs, create music video recordings and put together a performance for the rest of the honeybees.
Week 3: Basketball and Around the World
Week 4: Softball tournament
Crickets
Active Around the Globe Club 🌎
In this club, members will be trying active games from around the world! Each week will feature a new activity from another culture.
Week One: Pilolo (Ghana) – A game that involves racing to find hidden objects.
Week Two: Touch Rugby (Australia)- American football’s distant cousin, minus the physicality.
Week Three: Cricket (England) – I mean, how could we not?
Week Four: Luta de Galo (Brazil)- This game requires balance and skill. Players must steal the cloth from their opponent’s pocket.
Miniatures in Motion Club!
This year, many Crickets have earned tiny resin critters and flocked bears from Abby as prizes for particular activities, as well as from our weekly drawing challenges. These critters have quickly become members of the Cricket community. We have given them names, personalities, and even built them their own homes. In this club, we will be bringing these miniatures to life through stop motion animation, working together as a team to create characters, build sets, and write narratives. Our club will conclude with a stop motion shorts film festival!
Thursday, January 9th:
Each student will choose a miniature animal and create a personality for them. Students will brainstorm different character traits and introduce their miniatures to the larger group. After introductions we will start thinking about potential storylines for our stop motion films.Thursday, January 16th:
Together, we will complete storyboards for our films and then begin building sets. We will use poster board backgrounds, model magic, and other mediums to create an imaginative world for our characters.Thursday, January 23rd:
We will make last minute set changes and begin filming, students each taking turns in the director’s chair, making important decisions on how our narrative should unfold. Filming should be complete by the end of this club meeting.Thursday, January 24th:
This club meeting is all about celebrating our hard work! We will watch our stop motion on the big screen, complete with popcorn and a post screening Q&A.Extreme Board Game Club
These are games that feature high energy, social deception, and strategy. We’ll also have some smaller games available if students aren’t feeling like a high energy game that day.
Week 1: Spoons Elimination Tournament. The card game we love, with a twist! Who will outlast the group and claim the final spoon?Week 2: Poker Tutorial. How do you know when to hold ’em?Week 3: Avalon. The King Arthur legend meets Mafia! Two teams, one Merlin, endless bluffing.Week 4: Group’s favorite! Now that we know the rules, we’ll replay our favorite of this month’s extreme board games.Dragonflies
Knitting Club
In this club, children will learn the basics of knitting such as understanding different materials, how to cast stitches, follow patterns, and complete a piece.
The first week we will learn how to start a knitting project, how to understand a knitting pattern, learning the materials, and picking a pattern for their project
The second week we will select our materials for our projects and begin our patterns
The third week we will continue to work on our projects and see how much progress we have made and what we have left to complete
The fourth week we will learn how to complete our projects and reflect on what the process of learning to knit was like
Medieval Machines ClubThe Medieval Era lasted for nearly 1000 years and was a time of many new technological advances. Though these machines may seem old fashioned now, at the time they were the height of technology and are the basis of most of what we have now! Each week of this club the Dragonflies will explore and build some of the most famous of these Medieval Machines.Week one we will be exploring the printing press, and creating our own small (more stamp like) versions of it!
The Medieval era saw the creation of both chainmail and plate armour. The Dragonflies will spend week 2 of clubs building our own armour.
Looms are the base machines for the way all our fabrics are made. In the 3rd week of clubs, we will try our hand at constructing and weaving one of these machines.
In our final week, we will build ourselves a trebuchet and explore the physics which allow them to launch objects!
Dragonfly Book Club
The Dragonfly book club will:Get kids who might not usually gravitate towards reading and the library, comfortable and more familiar with that space
Allow kids the venue to express their thoughts on specific books and make recommendations to friends
Give kids the opportunity to learn about new genres and styles of writing
Week 1: Reading Rainbow
Reading rainbow will help kids expand their creative thinking by participating in an imaginative group game. Dragonflies will link sentences together from different books to create unique stories with friends.Week 2: Among the Books
During the second week of our club, we will wander among the books, while playing an adventurous role playing game. This activity will give kids the opportunity to get more comfortable with the library space and more familiar with all of the different genres of books and where they can quickly/easily find them.Week 3: I Read, You Read
I read, you read will give Dragonflies the time to go and select new books they’ve never read, give them a try, then hold small group discussions with friends to share their thoughts.Week 4: Book It!
During our final week of the Dragonfly book club, we will play an exciting round of Book It! We will wrap up our month of clubs and say goodbye to the library for now with a few rounds of fun filled scavenger hunts!
