Tizmos after school
End the session off the screen.
For clubs, programs, scouts and libraries: put the mission on the room's screen, send the kids out to do it, and close the session with what they found.
No accounts, ever. Printed cards for kids without phones.
How a session runs
- 1 Present it to the room One screen for everyone. Play the hello, read the mission together, answer the ready-check as a group.
- 2 Send them out The mission happens in the yard, the park, or on the way home — the last stretch of the session is off the screen by design.
- 3 Close with what they found A show-and-tell circle beats a worksheet. Cards come back by hand; links report with a tap and a photo.
No phones required
One screen for the room. Paper for the pockets.
Plenty of eight-year-olds don't carry a phone, and after-school shouldn't assume one. The room's screen carries the mission; a printed card carries it home. Kids who do have a phone can scan the QR — and get the dark screen, the timer, and the one lit button. It is the same mission a classroom teacher sends home on Friday, ending in your room instead.
- Print a stack of cards — the whole mission fits on one.
- No accounts, ever — not for kids, not for parents, not to open a link.
- Reports fit the room — a card handed back or a photo counts the same.
Questions program leaders ask
Quick answers.
Most of our kids don't have phones.
Good — they don't need them. Present the mission on the room's one screen, hand out printed cards, and the kids go do it. Reports come back on the card or out loud at the next session; one device for the whole room is enough.
Do kids or parents need accounts?
Never. Nobody signs up, signs in, or gets a profile — not kids, not parents. A link or a card opens the Tizmo, and what comes back goes only to the leader who sent it.
We're not a school. Does it still fit?
Tizmos doesn't ask what kind of group you are. A club, a scout troop, a library program or a rec centre sends a mission the same way a classroom does — the mission just happens to end with the screen off.
End tonight's session off the screen.
One mission on the room's screen, a stack of cards, and a circle of stories to close.