You may have heard of the middle school dances at recreation community centers that are out of control. Kids sneaking out, engaging in inappropriate behavior. Fights. Items being broken. Here’s how we run our dances.
You may have heard of the middle school dances at recreation community centers that are out of control. Kids sneaking out, engaging in inappropriate behavior. Fights. Items being broken. Here’s how we run our dances.
So the other day I heard about a local recreation organization that runs a teen center offering a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) program. I had no idea D&D was still around.
You’ve decided to offer a new after school program, or maybe an adult program. You’re pretty sure that enough people will be interested in taking the class. Now it’s time to create the curriculum.
Before you start you should make sure you cover my three E’s of programming – Entertainment, Education and Empowerment.
Every recreation department teaches sports to kids, whether by their own staff or through contract instructors. And why wouldn’t they, the benefits for children are many. But what if you want to offer a sport and don’t have an instructor? Maybe you can’t find a qualified contract instructor to teach the skills and nobody on…
Are you offering your teens (specifically the middle school students) a Friday night program? Here are some ideas that may appeal to the teens and pre-teens in your area. Most of these activities can take place in your community center or a school gym. If you find one or two that are a real hit…
A few weeks ago we started an after school program based around fitness. If you have ever tried to plan a fitness program for kids you know that it’s not as easy as having the kids run and do sit-ups. You want the kids to enjoy themselves so that they will continue to be active…
A Drum Circle (a.k.a. rhythm circle) is an empowering group activity which uses a combination of various percussion instruments. The main purpose is to experience the joy of group music making. The facilitator creates an atmosphere charged with excitement – and focuses on developing group cohesion. We have an innate ability to feel and respond…
Transitions from one activity to another can be difficult, especially if there is downtime while your group of kids are waiting for the next activity to start. Camps are notorious for this. There is so much downtime between activities and meals that campers start getting restless during these times. Thankfully, I have a solution. There…
Kids love puppets. Create an after school program that kids can learn and practice puppetry once a week. After 8-10 weeks you’ll be ready to put on a show for other kids and/or their families. A puppet program is relatively easy to run and the kids will really get into it. Kids first learn the…
What is a B-Boy? Here is the definition from Wikipedia: A B-boy or B-girl is a person devoted to hip hop culture, more specifically, bboying/breakdancing. The term originates with the first hip hop DJ, DJ Kool Herc, who, noticing the reaction of some dancers to his playing the part of the record with a drum…
