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Teen center is a drop-in space for students who might be staying just for one day in program, who need a break from club activities, or just for students to have some self-guided fun. Teen Center can be ran in the MPR, a classroom, or outside in a bench/lunch area. It's all about making the most of your space!

A Teen Center should have at least 4 stations in that space. You can create your own stations, but here are some that you can adopt for yourself:

Homework Station

Gaming Station

Creation Station

Zen Space + Reading Station

This could also be a space for clubs that are not as successful. If you have only 5 students in crochet, add a crochet center in Teen Center.

Ultimately, you want Teen Center to be a quiet and self-sufficient space where you as a PL/PC can still engage with students without instructing.

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The board game station is to promote communication and collaboration between students. It allows a group of students to play beloved games or new games that they might come to enjoy!

The board game station supports Continuous Quality Improvement Point of Service Standards Safe and Supportive Environment, Active and Engaged Learning, and Healthy Choices and Behaviors.

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We all need a break sometimes, and the Calm Corner is there for us when we need it. Use this station to allow students to calm down and practice mindfulness/SEL.

The Zen Space station supports Continuous Quality Improvement Points of Service Standards: Safe and Supportive Environment and Healthy Choices and Behaviors.

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You might have a student that is only staying for the day who needs to absolutely finish their homework before going home or students that need to get their grades up and need extra time to spend on their homework.

Teen Center allows a space for that additional time, however it takes some extra TLC to make sure students are successful in that space. Take a look at some materials, photos, and resources that can help you visualize what it might look like in your program!

The homework time center supports all 21st Century Skills: Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication. This center also supports CQI Points of Service Active and Engaged Learning and Healthy Choices and Behaviors.

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Now, we all know that it's hard to create a space like the one in the image for the kids when we don't have a space for ourselves! Check out these alternatives that do take some time to set up. Use your prep time wisely!

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Do not buy out of your own pocket, not all lights should be turned off in a space with students present.

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Mubarek Northern Lights Projector Ceiling Projector, 18 Colors Lighting Galaxy Projector Mood Lighting,Remote Room Projector Lights for Bedroom Lighting,Ambient Lighting Room Decor for Teen Girl Gifts

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room decor home decor night light table lamp led lights for bedroom teen girl gifts room decor aesthetic galaxy projector led lights for room cute stuff ceiling light led light night lights plug into wall sensor night light for kids party lights lights for room decor aesthetic twinkle lights cute...

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Teen Center serves as a space for ALL! Teen Center is directly supported by Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Points of Service Quality Standards Safe and Supportive Environment, Active and Engaged Learning, and Healthy Choices and Behaviors.

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Sometimes all you need is to grab a nice book and read to relax from the day. Create a "Book Nook" for students during Teen Center so students are encouraged to read something they normally wouldn't.

For books that you are not familiar with, you may need to skim the book and block out profanity and/or any drug or sexual innuendos.

The Book Nook station supports Continuous Quality Improvement Points of Service Standards Safe and Supportive Environment, Active and Engaged Learning, and Healthy Choices and Behavior. This station also supports 21st Century Skill Critical Thinking.

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Here's a playlist to some LoFi beats for background music

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Lofi Hip Hop 🌧 lofi sleep rain beats to study, relax & chill to by lofi fruits

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Selection of the best lofi fruits chill music & sleep lofi hip hop beats for a perfect rainy night to sleep, study or relax - best lofi sleep music playlist…

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Here is an example of Teen Center Agreements, feel free to use this one!

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Hues and Cues - a fun strategy game that challenges students color knowledge and recognition!

Hues and Cues supports 21st Century Skills: Critial Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration.

Heres a video on how to play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emL0VvBnaMQ

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Azul - A strategy game based on Azulejo tile from Portugal!

Azul supports 21st Century Skills: Critical Thinking and Creativity.

Here's a video on how to play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=193R2h2M3Yk

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Buy Azul Board Game - Strategic Tile-Placement Game for Family Fun, Great Game for Kids and Adults, Ages 8+, 2-4 Players, 30-45 Minute Playtime, Made by Plan B Games: Board Games - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

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Sequence - a strategy game using regular game cards. Students can play in teams or solo!

Sequence supports 21st Century Skills: Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration.

Here's a video on how to play!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK8defbdNEA

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Headbanz - A game to get students engaged! A great community/team builder for all students.

Headbanz supports 21st Century Skills: Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, and Creativity.

Here's a video on how to play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPKjGXxyJPE

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Chameleon - This game is about not being the odd one out! Find the imposter!

Chameleon Supports 21st Century Skills: Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity.

Heres a video on how to play!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IEEUcG0nSo

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Buy The Chameleon Board Game: A Spot-The-Imposter Game for Families & Friends | Includes 80 Extra Secret Words: Board Games - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

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Top Pick - Helps students find commonalities within each other!

Top Pick supports 21st Century Skills: Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity.

Here's a video on how to play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TyY81qk5mg

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Top Pick by Uzzle Games - Engaging Tier List Game - Creative Fun for Game Nights and Parties - Dynamic Scoring System - Board Games for Adults & Kids - Entertaining Family Party Games - 3-8 Players

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Buy Top Pick by Uzzle Games - Engaging Tier List Game - Creative Fun for Game Nights and Parties - Dynamic Scoring System - Board Games for Adults & Kids - Entertaining Family Party Games - 3-8 Players: Board Games - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

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The key to an art station during Teen Center is there has to be activities that require self guidance rather than instruction. Here are some examples of self guided art activities that are appropriate for Teen Center.

Choose one of these activities to set up per day or per week!

The Creation Station supports Continuous Quality Improvement Points of Service Standards Safe and Supportive Environment, Active and Engaged Learning, and Youth Voice and Choice.

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This activity supports 21st Century Skills: Creativity.

Prep:

1) Cut small squares from construction paper, scratch paper, any paper

2) Divide those pieces by color and place them separately on a table

3) Place a glue stick box on the table

Make sure to have an example/inspiration of the project so the kids have an idea of what they're doing.

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Collaging supports 21st Century Skills Creativity and Critical Thinking.

Students can use old magazines, photos, or already made collages to build their own! Pinterest has great images for students, try getting a list of their interests and printing out those images for the next session. You can find resources for collaging below!

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This activity supports 21st Century Skills: Creativity and Critical Thinking.

Here are videos to show how to make different styles of friendship bracelets!

•https://youtu.be/Y_FzuLwCZnk?si=YSe1GOBXP7wy73ZU

• https://youtu.be/RS2ICDlmX2o?si=Php7FnPdoNPaW2GZ

• https://youtu.be/HtTW8yGG5b0?si=YttahuTEUeNcw1aV

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This activity supports 21st Century Skills: Creativity and Critical Thinking.

Here are videos to show how to make simple phone charms!

•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t_FHarvSec

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Cute beaded phone charm fun in 2024 | Beaded bracelets diy, Trendy jewelry handmade, Beaded necklace diy

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Mar 14, 2024 - This Pin was discovered by The Crafty Masshole. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest

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This activity is supports 21st Century Skills Creativity and Critical Thinking.

The emotions wheel allows students to look introspectively, seeing what their main emotions feel like and giving them a visual can help them regulate themselves.

This activity can be paired with an Inside Out movie marathon in Teen Center! Play it in the background while the students identify the emotions they lead with!

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This activity supports 21st Century Skills Creativity and Critical Thinking.

Using cut outs from old magazines, allow students to create poems following prompts. Maybe one day their poetry prompt is "Something out the weather today." Students can piece their poem together. You can add word minimums and maximums too!

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This activity supports the 21st Century Skills Critical Thinking and Creativity.

Consider asking the community to donate old books (maybe a service learning project?) and using the old book pages to create black out poetry.

Ask your students to lightly circle the words they want to use for their poetry. It can be a one, two, three, fifteen word poem - however many words they like! Then, they can go over the rest of the paper to do their black out art.

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This center supports 21st Century Skills Creativity and Collaboration.

Allow students to color on a destress board to create a community art space. You can print these sheets or order jumbo ones on Amazon! Here are some links:

https://tinyurl.com/ys4e2u7r

https://tinyurl.com/2my6hdyc

https://tinyurl.com/49mcu5hf

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This activity supports 21st Century Skills: Creativity, Communication, and Collaboration.

Here are some coloring books you can purchase on your supply order. You can make copies of each of the pages so the resources last longer!

•https://bit.ly/41koHxi

• https://bit.ly/4f8zrlI

•https://bit.ly/3VkQY2X

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We can't expect you to have a whole room to create an After-School library, so use other materials and resources to create a book nook for your students.

Rolling carts are a great and inexpensive way to display books so they are easily accessible to students.

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Always have a vessel to put materials in. Anything and everything the students might need for homework, some of those items might be:

• Pencils, Pens

• Crayons, Makers, Colored Pencils

• Scissors

• Glue

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For students who do not have paper homework 🔌

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For students who do not have paper homework 🔌

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Always have an outlet and chargers handy!

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Purchase 2-5 for program to loan out to students who don't have one! Label them and keep them plugged into the outlet so they don't go missing.

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Teen Center provides a space for homework support and enrichment. Some students work best in a quiet environment, consider purchasing some noise cancelling headphones the students can wear in case it gets too noisy. Give your students the tools to succeed!

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This activity supports 21st Century Skills: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration.

For Legos in Teen Center, you always want to have guidelines and expectations. Provide a challenge to the students! Students should not be building weapons of any kind or inappropriate objects.

Ideas for Lego Challenges are:

• Individual build : Cars, homes, flowers, building

• Partner builds: City block, famous monument, imaginary planet

• Group builds: Create their own city, replicate historic cities, create something with all the legos at the table.

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LEGO Classic Medium Creative Brick Box 10696 Building Toy Set - Featuring Storage, Includes Train, Car, and a Tiger Figure, and Playset for Kids, Boys, and Girls Ages 4-99

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Designed with builders of all ages in mind, this collection of LEGO bricks in 35 different colors will encourage kids play with building toys, and inspire creative play. Windows, toy eyes, and lots and lots of toy wheels add to the fun and offer endless possibilities for creative construction set...

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This activity supports 21st Century Skills Creativity, Collaboration, and Critical Thinking.

Using a puzzle board allows students to safely start and stop their puzzle making process day to day. The board has compartments for different pieces and a clear, plastic film that goes over the puzzle to make sure everything stays in place. Here are some puzzles your kids can do to contribute to your site's artwork!

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We know that students are still struggling with learning loss, and sometimes they need a visual aid to help them out. Consider laminating these resources or putting resources like this in sheet protectors to keep around the area. Make sure to collect them back as to not create waste and be sustainable!

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Consider storage that is easy to set up and put away for these resources.

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Dictionary, Thesaurus, Vocabulary Builder 📖

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Dictionary, Thesaurus, Vocabulary Builder 📖

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Additional resources that students might need for their English/Language Arts class.

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A timer to serve as a visual aid for students for how long they have left for their activities/homework.

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Video games are a great way to promote and support collaboration between students! By using intentional co-op games where students reach a common goal together, you can create a safe and supportive environment within your Teen Center. Take a look at some fun games for these stations!

Remember - moving forward all console games must be purchased digitally.

The video game center directly supports Continuous Quality Improvement Point of Service Standards Safe and Supportive Environment, Active and Engaged Learning, Skill Building, and Healthy Choices and Behaviors.

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This activity supports 21st Century Skills: Creativity and Collaboration.

Allow students to show their own creativity in a Teen Center Tiny Art Show! Using post-its and coloring utensils, allow students to create a small work of art to add to the show. They can create as much as they'd like!

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Players: 2-8

Console: Nintendo Switch, XBOX

This game supports 21st Century Skills Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking.

Check out this blurb from Nintendo:

"The rule is quite simple: "Get all the keys and get to the goal and clear", but all 48 levels have special gimmicks designed specifically for multiplayer. At most levels, different gimmicks will appear as you move forward, and you will need to consult with your peers and think about new ways to cooperate."

Challenge your students to not speak when playing the game, see how they communication to ensure they reach their common goal!

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Player: 1-2

Console: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, XBOX

This game supports 21st Century Skills Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking.

Check out this blurb from Nintendo

"In PHOGS! you play as a duo of dogs on a captivating, puzzle-filled adventure. Linked by a stretchy belly, you’ll need to bark, bite and bounce your way through obstacles set across the themed worlds of Food, Sleep and Play, in co-op or single-player."

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Players: 1-4

Console: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, XBOX

This game supports 21st Century Skills Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking.

Check out this blurb from Nintendo:

"You’ve saved the world from the Ever Peckish. Now a new threat has arisen and it’s time to get back in the kitchen to stave off the hunger of The Unbread!"

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Players: 1-4

Console: Nintendo Switch

This game supports 21st Century Skills Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking.

Check out this blurb from Amazon:

"Choose from the largest cast of characters in a side-scrolling Mario game, including Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, and Toads. Players of all skill levels can feel the wonder by playing as a Yoshi or Nabbit who don’t take damage! Grab surprising new power-ups like Elephant Fruit to use your trunk to trounce enemies and spray water, on your adventure to save the Flower Kingdom from Bowser’s wonder grip. You can even find and equip new badges to change up your play style to truly make this Mario adventure your own."

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A lot of our kids are into anime and manga at this age, bring some of those interests to your site library! Reading of all kinds should be celebrated!

THAT BEING SAID: A lot of Manga can be inappropriate for school settings. When you order these sets, flip through the pages and add stickers or tape to images you might find questionable. Here are some articles on Manga that is appropriate for the learning setting.

https://tinyurl.com/y7pdhwd2

https://tinyurl.com/3mw93xt3

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Graphic novels are another way to grab students attention and help them form a love of reading! Studies show that sometimes people cannot visualize what they read and that makes reading boring for them (source: https://tinyurl.com/yc67jft2). Graphic novels visualize the story for them, and allows students to fall in the love with the story. Here are some articles of appropriate graphic novels for Middle and High school.

MS: https://tinyurl.com/2dd8vcze

HS: https://tinyurl.com/39rvrawt

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Chapter books are sometimes really daunting to our students, so providing books they can connect to or might have a movie tied to them so they are relatable. Here is a link to Barnes and Noble with books in the YA genre!

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/books/teens-ya/_/N-29Z8q8Z19r4

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Poetry is a way to help students connect with themselves and it is not so long that they can't hold attention to it. Many activities can be done in connection to the poetry that students read! Here is a link from Barnes and Noble with poetry for young adults.

https://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/reading-and-viewing/book-lists/poetry-books-teens-and-young-adults

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Chess - a long time favorite board game that originated from India during the Gupta Dynasty. Did you know chess was originally played with 4 players?

Chess supports 21st Century Skills Critical Thinking and Creativity.

Here's a video on how to play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU6k-4rKf-g