Through their studies of NYC in the classroom and the field trips they've taken, we were going to use their knowledge in creating NYC structures out of LEGO bricks. We spent about three weeks on this and the kids created some awesome structures. But three weeks of LEGO overload caused them to burnout. The second graders began to notice the different toys in my pre-k classroom. I decided to change the after school to a more of a language through play course. This idea was a spin-off of our school's Language through Movement and Language through Music classes. The focus of our after school class would be for the second graders to play in the same centers our pre-k kids have so they could communicate and socialize with each other.
The after the initial three weeks LEGO binge, we began our Language through Play movement. It was chaotic as first. A lot of the second graders lose control when they're given so many options for play. We had to go over the rules and clean up routine and it began to settle in shortly after.
The after school enrichment program is less than 50 minutes. By the time we get them from dismissal and they eat snack, they have about 30 minutes for play. There isn't much you can do, and since we only run on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday but for these 11 kids, it's more play than their peers ever get.