Can your preschool double up as an after-school activity center? Yes! You can offer several interesting after school activities for nursery children who finish school at noon.
After a regular day of play and learning at the preschool or primary school, a child is bound to be tired. You can offer day care services along with after school activities to keep these children engaged post noon.
After school activities can be designed to stimulate creativity. Here is a list of after school activities that will play a key role in helping your children acquire important life skills. Games and other interactions help children develop social skills.
Some activities are messy, while some others require a few resources. So plan well ahead of time and keep them engaged.

7 After School Activities For Your Preschool:

Art & Craft Session

Children love art and craft. You can engage them with interesting craft ideas that spur their creativity. This need not be the usual art and craft session that you do in your classroom. You can get a bit more creative and try paper plate crafts and teach various painting techniques using cotton balls, forks, feather, leaf etc. You can also use this time to build using blocks and Lego.

Recycling Activity

Recycling craft is another brilliant way to keep your children engaged and impart social consciousness. Try converting a cereal box into a box where they can keep their crayons or maybe a plastic bottle can be reused for planting.
Recycling objects can be a great task and this can be done as an after school activity to encourage children to understand the world we live in, how nature works, how things are made and it also promotes environmental awareness.

Book Club

You can introduce children to book reading by setting up a small library. Read aloud stories to children and also encourage them to read. You could also organize various activities based on stories read from the books.
Children can be asked to sketch their favorite character. Try setting up story tables that would inspire children to read more. You can also come up with games that allows them to think creatively. Give them a book, ask them to read the first half and then complete the story. You will be surprised to hear a few creative stories.

Indoor Board Games

You can invest in some board games. Traditional board games help children learn the art of negotiating, taking turns and co-operative play.
Games with dice are also a great way of introducing math skills to children. Board games are a fun and creative way of allowing children to work in teams and interact with one another. Children also learn to win and lose as they realize that any outcome is possible and acquire coping skills.

Word Games

Word Games can be done both indoor and outdoor. Traditional word building games are not only fun but also allow children to build their vocabulary. Children learn from one another and work in teams.
You can also try other variations of the game where one child says ‘I am a house’ another child might add on to it ‘I am a man inside that house’ and third child could say that ‘I am the car in the house’. Children can continue to build, this improves their creativity.  It builds their confidence and improves their language skills. Children can also build a story as a team.

Little Chef

Children love experimenting in the kitchen. You can provide them with an opportunity to make some yummy dishes. Simple salads and snack recipes can be tried out. There are plenty of recipes you can try that doesn’t need a stove. Cooking is not only fun, it teaches children math lessons such as measurement and volume along with other important life skills.
You can also bake cookies and cupcakes if you have a microwave oven at your school. Children love decorating cupcakes!

Celebrate Festivals

Celebrating various festivals sensitizes children towards different traditions, customs and culture.  Children can prepare a greeting card and take it home. A small activity related to the festival can be organized where all children take part. You can discuss about the festival and make craft related to the festival that will help children understand the significance of the event.
The after school activities must be fun, engaging and aim to develop a skill. You can also organize dance, music, or yoga classes for children by hiring qualified professionals. Such classes focus on developing a specific skill and train children in a particular field.