Join us each month for a new theme and activities to work with your students! This month's theme is #FriendlyFebruary

#FriendlyFebruary Quote of the Month:

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”

– Maya Angelou

Week 1: Action for Happiness Calendar #FriendlyFebruary

https://actionforhappiness.org/sites/default/files/Feb%202025.jpg

Let’s give everyone a chance to spread kindness by shouting out someone in the program. A shout-out is a positive comment given from one peer to another, acknowledging something good they did or overcoming a challenge. This can be done at the beginning or end of your program, allowing youth a chance to give shout-outs. Check out the video from Edutopia on how shout-outs can bolster peer relationships. #FriendlyFebruary #Shoutout #BuildingPeerRelations

Week 2: I Heart Afterschool

There are millions of reasons to love afterschool. Afterschool programs keep kids safe, inspire learning, and help working families. Tell the world why you, your students, and your community love your afterschool program! I Heart Afterschool is February 14, and what better time to share how you feel about their afterschool program. Afterschool Alliance has free resources for you to use to share your love for afterschool. #FriendlyFebruary #IHeartAfterschool

A fun and engaging activity for your program to try is a holiday themed Connections game. The connection game is based on the Connections game in the New York Times. Thanks to TCEA for sharing this fun and exciting game that will surely get your brain juices flowing. HOLIDAY THEMED - Connections GAME that can be done in your program, colored in pink, purple, and red. There are 16 words, divided into four categories of four words each, and each group shares a common thread. #FriendlyFebruary #ValentineDay #Connections

Week 3: Create a Friendship Flower Garden (Random Acts of Kindness Day 2/17/25)
First, ask youth to draw a flower with big petals and write a characteristic of a friend on each petal, then color them. Afterward, they can hang up their flowers to create a “friendship garden.” Friendship Activities for Kids – Very Special Tales (Activity #11) #FriendlyFebruary #FriendshipGarden

Week 4: Let’s Dance! (Celebrating Black History)
Learn about the art of stepping. Stepping is a form of dancing in which the body is used to create unique rhythms and sounds. The website Step Afrika! offers videos and information about the history of stepping. Challenge the youth in your program to create a unique step. Have them practice and share it with the whole group. About Us | Step Afrika! #FriendlyFebruary #CelebratingBlackHistory #Dance

Week 5: Pom-Pom Jar Activity
A pom-pom jar is a positive reinforcement strategy that promotes kindness. The process begins with an empty jar. Start by providing examples of acts of kindness, such as saying kind words, sharing, or helping with an activity. As kids perform helpful acts, they can add a pom-pom to the jar and share what they did. Afterward, everyone can acknowledge each act of kindness. Once the pom-pom jar is full, celebrate with a treat or game. #FriendlyFebruary #ActsofKindness

• Join us each month for a new theme and activities to work with your students! This month's theme is #DoGoodDecember

  #DoGoodDecember Quote of the Month:

  "How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time."

  —Morgan Freeman

The holiday season is the perfect time of year to help your students develop and practice positive habits. Kids are already super excited about the upcoming festivities. Use that enthusiasm to encourage thoughtfulness, empathy, generosity, and more! This December, encourage students to look outward and create true acts of kindness. #DoGoodDecember #ActsofKindness #PositiveHabits

Join us each month for a new theme and activities to work with your students! This month's theme is #Self-CareSeptember

#Self-CareSeptember Quote of the Month:

"Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure."

 

—Oprah Winfrey

Self-Care the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one's own health. There are many reasons that self-care is important. Research shows that self-care helps to keep you healthy, helps you recharge and helps to improve your overall well-being. #Self-CareSeptember #SelfcareIsNotSelfish #ActionforHappiness

Download the calendar here

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Week 2: Get Silly

When youth are having a tough time or cycling through big emotions, ask silly questions to help them reset. Asking a concrete question, they know the answer to helps re-route their thinking. Ask questions like: What color is the sky? What did you have for breakfast? Where is your shoe? Even if they answer incorrectly, you're helping their brain and body calm down and get back into the zone. Encourage youth that when they have big feelings, they can pay attention to the room around them and name five things they see to "reset" their brains. #Self-CareSeptember #SelfcareIsNotSelfish #NameYourEmotions

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Week 3: Active Exercise and Healthy Snacks

Activities like yoga, meditation, walks and outdoor games can all promote movement and physical well-being, while also focusing on mindfulness and reflection. Follow a YouTube video for yoga or meditation—or make up your own! Try out Sanford Fit for free mindfulness activity cards. Nourishing our bodies and making sure we have the fuel we need to get through the day is a vital part of self-care for kids. If your child is feeling a little "hangry," encourage them to recognize and name this sensation, and then suggest a nutritious nibble. #Self-CareSeptember #SelfcareIsNotSelfish #GetActive #EatHealthy

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Week 4: Mindful Craft Projects

Providing students the chance to get hands-on with art we provide them with a fun and concrete experience that they can use to self-regulate during times of escalation. It provides a tangible coping strategy that students can use at home, at their desks, or any other time they need to calm down. Here are some simple and mindful art activities your students can do, with little to no preparation from you. #Self-CareSeptember #SelfcareIsNotSelfish #JustBreathe

• Draw Your Breath
  Each student gets a piece of paper and a marker or pen. With the marker in the middle of the paper, students breathe in and breathe out drawing lines for each breath. During this whole activity, students will not raise their pen from the piece of paper. When you breathe in, you draw a line in any direction. Keep the pen on the paper and when you breathe out, you draw another line. Students keep doing this as they breathe in and out making their own lines, shapes, and creative artwork. After about 30 breath cycles, students use colors to color in different shapes. Students can be creative by coloring in the shapes, drawing little pictures or patterns in each shape, etc.
  
  
• Drip Painting
  Show your students a few examples of different abstract art, such as Jackson Pollock's drip paintings. Drip painting can be a fun and accessible painting technique for kids to explore different colors and moods simply through dripping paint on their papers. Be creative and have fun!

• Breathing Beads
  With some yarn and beads, students can make their own unique breathing beads. After students make their own creation, practice some mindfulness by taking a deep breath for every bead.

   

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Week 5: Positive Affirmations

Kids and young adults can use a positive affirmation list by reading the words to themselves or out loud, discussing how they might help, and identifying which phrases would work best. Help students create a positive affirmation list. This activity can be done as a whole class activity, or students can create an individual list. #Self-CareSeptember #SelfcareIsNotSelfish #ControlYourHappiness

Here are a few positive affirmations to get you started:

• There is no one better to be than myself.
• I am enough.
• I get better every single day.
• I am an amazing person.
• I can work through my problems.

Join us each month for a new theme and activities to work with your students! This month's theme is #AltruisticAugust

#AltrusiticAugust Quote of the Month:

"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness. "

 

—Seneca

Altruism plays a vital role in creating harmonious relationships and building a caring community. Altruism encourages children to consider the impact of their actions on others, promoting fairness, cooperation, and a sense of responsibility. #TeachingEmpathy #AltruisticAugust #SEL

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Week 1: Action for Happiness Calendar #AltruristicAugust

Altruism is the unselfish concern for other people—doing things simply out of a desire to help, not because you feel obligated to out of duty, loyalty, or religious reasons. It involves acting out of concern for the well-being of other people.  #AltruisticAugust #SEL #Empathy https://actionforhappiness.org/sites/default/files/Aug%202024.jpg

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Week 2: Notes of Appreciation

Give each student in your program sticky notes and ample opportunity to write positive messages addressed to one of their teachers and/or peers. Locate an empty wall in your program and have students place their notes of appreciation on the wall. Read out the notes and watch the faces of students and staff light up. #AltruisticAugust #SEL #Empathy #StudentConnection

 

 

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Week 3: Role Playing-Compassion

Have students create a role-play where they show compassion. For example, what would compassion look like if: A friend is confused by what the teacher said? Someone in your afterschool program is sad because their mother is in the hospital? Your sister is crying because she didn’t make the basketball team? A new student is feeling lonely and left out? Have students perform their role-plays for the class.  #AltruisticAugust #SEL #Empathy #Compassion

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Week 4: “Feelings Charade” 

In Feelings Charades, students will have a chance to demonstrate one emotion. The rest of the class will guess what the emotion is. The person who is doing the charade cannot speak – they must use facial expressions or body language to get classmates to guess the emotion. Write down different feelings/emotions on slips of paper. Place them in a bowl and take turns pulling them and acting them out. Once the correct feeling/ emotion is chosen the person that guessed correctly gets a turn. #AltruisticAugust #SEL #Empathy #ItsOkayToFeel #FeelAllTheFeeling

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Week 5: Fixing the Community

Do your students feel like they are part of their community? Many students feel they are, but they might become more compassionate people if they’re part of their town’s community. Even the best communities have homes and businesses that need repair work. Think about what projects your students can do to help “fix” their community or school. #AltruisticAugust #SEL #Empathy #GiveBack #MyCommunity

 

Join us each month for a new theme and activities to work with your students! This month's theme is #MeaningfulMay

#SEL Day 2024: https://selday.org/

#MeaningfulMay Quote of the Month:

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."

 

—William James 

We matter every day. But how often do we stop and take the opportunity to “be” in the moment of our daily lives? With easy access to technology, we often find ourselves viewing those moments behind the lens instead of taking the opportunity to “be” in the moment. Take the opportunity this month to “be” in the moment. To “be” intentional with your everyday life. #MeaningfulMay #Intentionality #Beinthemoment

Week 1: Action for Happiness Calendar #MeaningfulMay

https://actionforhappiness.org/sites/default/files/May%202024.jpg

Week 2: What matters most activity

Week 3: Year in Reflection - Thank you notes

Writing thank you notes creates a positive environment in which youth feel grateful for all they have accomplished and are able to acknowledge the people who helped them.  Provide youth with blank paper or thank you cards and help them create thank you notes. Youth can write notes to their teachers, after-school staff, friends, and family.  #MeaningfulMay #Gratitude

Week 4: Affirmation Box

Join us each month for a new theme and activities to work with your students! This month's theme is #NewWaysNovember

#SEL Day 2023: https://selday.org/

#NewWaysNovember Quote of the Month:

"The hallmark of successful people is that they are always stretching themselves and trying new things. "

 

— Carol S. Dweck

Week 1: Action for Happiness Calendar #NewWaysNovember

New experiences can be scary! However, creating a supportive environment can help youth build confidence and get out of their comfort zone to explore and experience new things.

Nov 2023.jpg (3508×2480) (actionforhappiness.org) 

Week 2: Who Do You Want to Be Vision Board

Youth often have a narrow vision of themselves or the person they might wish to become (e.g., to be liked by others, to have a particular job, or fantasies of an idealized future).

Challenge youth to describe themselves 20 years in the future. Using old magazines or images from the internet, have youth to create a vision board of their life 20 years in the future. Ask youth to describe the important choices and actions they would need to make today to reach this future self.

Week 3: World Kindness Week (November 13-17)

Spread kindness all week-long during World Kindness Week, held during the week of World Kindness Day. World Kindness Day falls on November 13th each year. To observe World Kindness Week, have youth participate in:

• Write notes of kindness on small pieces of paper and stick them in random library books
• Give notes of appreciation to family members, teachers, afterschool, and school staff
• Encourage others to be kind
• Open the door open for someone

(World Kindness Day is November 13, 2023)

World Kindness Day is on November 13, 2023, and it’s the perfect occasion to show kids of all ages the importance of being kind to everyone, to ourselves, and to the world. This day is the best time of the year to stop and spend an entire day doing some good actions in the world, such as complimenting strangers, doing random acts of kindness, learning about compassion, and more!

https://schoolofkindness.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/World-Kindness-Day-Pack-2023.pdf

Week 4: New Phases, New Language, New You!

Week 5: Try Something New: Paint like Jackson Pollack

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a huge canvas of white, and to be able to just throw different colors of paint on it? If you have, then you are a lot like Jackson Pollock! Jackson Pollock was an American artist, known for his unique style of painting which involved spraying, flinging, or dripping paints onto canvas. Watch this short video on Jackson Pollock and how he creates his masterpieces and challenge yourself to create your own Jackson Pollock work of art! https://youtu.be/aSYo-98fO1Y

Join us each month for a new theme and activities to work with your students! This month's theme is #OptimisticOctober

#SEL Day 2023: https://selday.org/

#OptimisticOctober Quote of the Month:

"Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. "

 

— Nelson Mandela  

Optimism isn’t about just seeing the bright side of a situation or donning rose-tinted glasses, optimism is about the hard work of finding new options. When youth are taught how to practice optimism, #OptimisticOctober, they shift into a proactive stance and see that progress is possible. It may just be the underlying skill which allows youth to engage in a growth mindset, with support from a responsible and safe adult. #OptimisticOctober #GrowthMindset 

Week 1: Action for Happiness Calendar #OptimisticOctober 

Optimism involves learning to think positively about the future, even when things go wrong. It’s about looking objectively at a situation and making a conscious decision to focus on the good. 

Oct 2023.jpg (3508×2480) (actionforhappiness.org)

Week 2: Bring Back the Best Week Activity 

Negative thinking may drive a child to believe that bad times never end. As educators, we can motivate them to recall past experiences, which made them sad initially, but they could later overcome it. Asking questions such as ‘How did you feel when you got a better outcome than you had expected?’ can help them introspect and find hope from within. Here is a fun activity you can do with your students to help them recall their best week ever!

1. What happened during that week to make it so enjoyable?

2. Who was part of that great week?

3. How did it feel when things were going well?

4. What did you do (or not do) to make sure things stay positive?

Week 3: Lights On Afterschool 2023 Youth Voice and Leadership 

Giving young people a voice in school or a program empowers them and makes them feel like they belong, they are valued, and their contributions matter. These competency feelings also help youth fully engage and develop team building and leadership skills. #OpimisticOctober #YouthVoice

Highlight the great work your program is doing around youth voice and leadership. Talk with the youth in your program and garner ideas and ways in which they would like to engage local policymakers and share their ideas and express their views on the afterschool program in their area.

Week 4: Optimistic Thinking-Growth Mindset 

Week 5: Which Quote Describes You 

Being optimistic can make you happier, healthier, and more successful in all that you do. It can help you overcome problems. It can keep you focused on your goals. It can make you less stressed. It can help you have more fun. It helps you to learn more from any situation. It can make you more enjoyable to be around. #OptimisticOctober #PositiveThinking

Have youth choose from the quotes listed below and have them share out the quote they choose and why it describes them.

Quotes for Kids About Optimism and Positive Thinking

· “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

· “Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise.” Victor Hugo

· “Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.” Roy T. Bennett

· “They can because they think they can.” Virgil

· “Every problem has a gift for you in its hands.” Richard Bach

· “Don’t let your failures define you—let them teach you.” Barack Obama

· “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

· “One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.” Lucille Ball

· “You’ll never find a rainbow if you’re looking down” Charlie Chaplin

· “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorns have roses.” Alphonse Karr

· “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars and see yourself running with them.” Marcus Aurelius

· “You are doing your best only when you are trying to improve what you are doing.” Mae West