Swing into Summer 2026 - Incorporating Summer Brain Gain

 Hello Friends,

As we're gearing up for Summer Program one of the things I like to do is see which lessons from Summer Brain Gain we can pair with our themes. By doing it this way, we're able to pull from several years of programming and have more variety in our Summer Brain Gain Programming.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, our theme for this summer is Passport to Adventure and each week has it's own theme. I wrote out the plan for summer, including the basic storyline, and then paired Summer Brain Gain sessions that seemed to best fit with each week's theme.

While we will have more information in our weekly planners, I wanted to share this layout with you early on, just in case you were using this theme for your summer program as well.

Week One - Adventure Is Out There
2019 SBG Module 1 - Group Agreements

Week Two - Pirate's Cove in the Mermaid Lagoon
2017 SBG Module 2 - The Power of Cooperation

Week Three - 221 Baker Street
2019 SBG STEM 2 - Fun with Forensics
2020 SBG Read 2 - Mystery Stories
Note: We'll be using activities from both of these modules but you can definitely chose one or the other

Week Four - Gnome Man's Land
2019 STEM 1 - Inventions

Week Five - Out of this World
SBG Online - Life on the International Space Station

Week Six - Jurassic Jungle
2017 SBG Read Module 1 - Dino Fantastic Fun!

Week Seven - Under the Deep Blue Sea
2019 SBG Module 2 Session 2 - Ocean Habitat
Note: We're only pulling from one session for this week, but we'll be supplementing that with our own activities

Week Eight - Island Paradise At Last!
Note: Since this is our last week, we won't be doing regular Summer Brain Gain. We will have learning activities that will be showcased in our weekly plans.

Thankfully, I've been with the movement for nearly a decade so I have all of these older programs stored. If you're with the movement but don't have access to these, feel free to email me at jwood@bgcottawacounty.org and I'll happily share them with you.

For the Kids,
Ms. Jen

Spotlight on September

 The "ber" months are here! I am a fall person through and through and I love it when we finally hit the season (even if it takes a while for Oklahoma weather to catch up). This time of year always brings so many things to celebrate, that it seems like the perfect time to bring back the Spotlight On sheets to help keep up with all of the wonderful variety this time of year has to offer. This is just a small sampling of celebrations for the month, but the ones that (to me) seem like the best from a youth development perspective. If you would like to see (and save) the full size version, simply click on the image.

There will be some posts showing how we've celebrated the incoming fall as we go through the month, but I like to release these early enough that you can plan as well. 

Enjoy your celebrations!

Weekly Theme Plans - Quarter One

When preparing for a new school year, the task of planning can seem especially daunting. To help that not feel quite so large, we have a weekly theme that helps when planning.

Quarter One Weekly Plans

Week 1 - All About Me

Week 2 - Dinosaurs

Week 3 - Taking Flight

Week 4  - Volcanoes

Week 5 - Club Community

Week 6 - Community Helpers

Week 7 - Arg Me Hardies

Week 8 - Celebrating Hispanic Heritage

Week 9 - Whimsical Wonderland

These are not complete plans, but they do include the major programs for each week - Smart Moves, Healthy Habits, Career Launch, and Project Learn. A Unit Director will take these one page weekly plans and complete their daily planner filling in with other activities including Triple Play, Art, STEM, and Games.

April Monthly Themes

 In what now feels like another lifetime, I was a preschool teacher. Each week we would have a new theme that I built our lessons around. It was fun and it gave a fresh look to our classroom. Weekly themes can easily be incorporated into your after school programs as well. I use a lot of Magic Tree House and the Magic School Bus when I plan our weekly themes. Our Book Buddies group reads the Magic Tree House books (our goal is to complete one book a month) and we use the Magic School Bus as a kick off for the science aspects of some of our Project Learn lessons. 

Week 1 Robin Life Cycles (featuring our returning pair Bertram and Bonnie and their nest)

Week 2 Plants & Photosynthesis
    - Magic School Bus Gets Planted Season 3, Episode 10

Week 3 Easter & Eggs

Week 4 Medieval Times & Castles
    - Magic Tree House #2 The Knight at Dawn 

Week 5 Frogs & Friends

We have a two-year rotation on our themes and revamp the projects that go with them when we revisit them to keep the projects fresh and fun. Our facility works with grades 1-3 so it's unlikely that kids will have repeat activities while they're with us. We do have some consistent themes (like our Robin life cycle celebrating the mating pair that has returned to our Club to make their nest for the last five years) but we will find different activities to pair with those themes to keep kids excited and engaged.