It’s No Mystery Why BFX Fridays Are Fun!

One of the brightest lights of the 2021 school year to date is our newly-launched extended day program, BFXplorations! Re-imagining an afterschool program, BFX is grounded in equity, joy, and exploration, and is a place where children want to be!

Focusing on the needs of our students, equity, and the critical importance of joy and connection in children’s lives, the BFX program offers all children equal access to daily play, study and homework groups, as well as these special age-relevant “Xplorations” in movement, art, science, sports, storytelling, and more. Equally as important, the program offers children an opportunity to wind down and relax at the end of their school day.

While students get to enjoy many different fun activities at BFX, one of the highlights each week comes with the Friday Mystery Guest. Each Friday afternoon, a member of the Brooklyn Friends community arrives at BFX with their own special activity! To date, there have been some fantastic guests, as classes have been divided into groups of Preschool students and students Kindergarten through Grade 6.

Through the first week of November, Preschool guests have included: Maura, who had fun with the children doing storytelling and movement; Coach David, who taught juggling with scarves; Crissy, who held an exciting storytime called “All About Wishes”; Vanessa Reynolds taught the children all about houseplants; Joy explored different kinds of storytelling with the children; Vernessa, a guest of Sara, also focused on storytelling. 

For the older children (K–6) the Mystery Guest’s topics were a little more advanced.

Crissy held a workshop about Train Poetry, while AnaMaria had the house rocking with a community dance experience; Speaking of rocking the house, Melanie, Tommy, and Joy had a blast with the children doing Karaoke, while Martín taught us all about celebrating Indigenous People’s Day; Maura hosted a special dance party; Brett taught the students about journalism and how to create our own magazine; and Suzie held a masterclass in origami. 

Registration for the second semester of BFX will begin in mid-December. One thing is for sure—the Friday Mystery Guests will continue to impress! For more information, stay tuned to The Weekly and brooklynfriends.org for the latest information. 

This article appears in our print magazine The Life for Fall/Winter 2021.