After-School Transition Activities: The Ready Set Go! Guide to Strategies That Work (New in 2nd Edition) David L. Whitaker

After-school and summer programs often have kids on the move. Moving between places, changing activities and waiting for materials, other children or new activities often creates confusion. This book helps you analyze your program's daily schedule to determine what you need to make transitions--the change from one experience to another--smooth and fun. You'll learn about the three different types of transitions where children wait for the next activity (READY); transitions where children are sitting for a while (SET); and transitions for when children are on the move (GO). Plus over 100 quick, easy-to-use activities and ideas that will make every transition fun.

This resource focuses on the "transition times" in after-school programs. Whether it is waiting in long lines or working with students who finish their activities before the other students, the author recommends ways to turn those times into positive experiences. The book is divided into three sections with the first focusing on daily transitions to decide which are effective and which are not. This author helps the reader consider existing transitions and decide whether to pump them up, lump transition and activities together, or dump unnecessary transitions. The second section provides tips on how to make transitions more effective and describes three types of transitions. The third section, which is more than half of the book, offers activities ranging from games to songs that can be used during transition times. (76 pages)