Resources for After-School Enrichment Programs and Clubs
Great after-school programs offer students the time and space to learn and experiment on their own terms. Free from curricular pressures, and classroom periods, educators can offer students sustained, deep learning in nontraditional topics like game development, robotics, storytelling, and beyond. These enrichment programs can also provide students with the academic support, test prep, and homework help they need to build skills and confidence. Whether you're running a chess club, a game development program, or a makerspace, or helping students develop their reading and math skills, we've curated some of our favorite digital tools, lesson plans, and curricula. These resources will fit well in after-school contexts, and in many cases they offer students exciting, unique, and interest-driven opportunities that rarely make their way into classrooms.
Game-making platform fuses coding and physical play
Bottom Line: This platform could appear gimmicky at first, but in practice it blends SEL, movement, collaboration, and STEM learning in clever, compelling ways.
Crafty, mostly screen-free approach to computer science
Bottom Line: These creative, beautifully made craft- and interest-based projects have the potential to bring students -- particularly girls -- into the world of coding and computers.
Kids use block code and wireless blocks to program, design, and create
Bottom Line: With some perseverance, it's a great fit for PBL and STEAM, helping students learn programming skills and engineering concepts through invention.
Middle school CS curriculum has stellar resources, room for creativity
Bottom Line: A high-quality introductory CS curriculum where students can be creative, collaborate with others, and express themselves, in the classroom or at home.
Wildly engaging contest turns students into novelists in 30 days
Bottom Line: A thoughtful adaptation of the famous and fun grown-up novel writing contest, NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program is brimming with advice and encouragement as well as classroom support.
Leave and locate hidden packages in a real-world treasure hunt
Bottom Line: Kids learn problem-solving, teamwork, and mapping skills, but the site doesn’t provide instruction or explanations for most of those topics; educators will have to fill in the gaps.
Bottom Line: For kids who are new to chess but want to learn how to play, this fun intro to the game provides a well-done tutorial combined with a light overarching storyline.
Spiraling sandbox of adventure and creation gets kids to dig deep
Bottom Line: An irresistible and seemingly limitless incubator for 21st-century skills that, with a little guidance, can chart new courses for learning.
Best entry in classic strategy series might not be best for classrooms
Bottom Line: As with all games in this series, Civilization VI is a great learning experience with the right support, but older, cheaper versions may be more practical for classrooms.
Design and launch a rocket into space in realistic astrophysics sim
Bottom Line: This accurate rocket sim encourages trial-and-error learning and makes for great (and often explosive) physics and engineering experiments.
ELA site mixes grammar and writing practice, layers in useful feedback
Bottom Line: This tool has meaningfully evolved over time, expanding the range of skills students build and offering students helpful suggestions for improvement.
