Clubs & Activities
The school day may end at 3 p.m. but our campus still hums with after-school activities!
Since its founding in 1982, Almaden Country Day School has understood and embraced the importance of experiential learning. Children learn and thrive when they are engaged in activities that are relevant, enjoyable, and meaningful to them. After school activities can play a crucial role in this type of learning.
Our campus is host to a variety of after-school activities that extend the interests and talents of our students in wholesome, exciting ways. The following are a sample of the after school activities provided at different times during the year at ACDS. Please contact the Student Life Office for more information about this year’s after-school activity schedule.
ACDS Speech and Debate Team
Grades 6 - 8
The 2022-23 school year includes a middle school speech and debate team. Students interested in joining the squad must take the Competition Speech elective during the first trimester. For more information, please contact Coach Chris Wardner.
For more information on our speech and debate program, please visit this page. Do you have questions about competition Speech and Debate Team? We hope we answered them here.
Chess Club
Grades 1 - 8
Love to play chess? Join the ACDS Chess Club run by Success Chess on Fridays online. The club involves students learning and playing chess at one of three different levels. Students in grades 1-8 can participate. Get more information by visiting the Success Chess website.
CraftyKidz Club
Grades 3 - 8
Ms. Tamboury leads this crafting adventure each quarter for girls and boys with all sorts of hands-on right-brained projects such as fabric, yarn, and papercrafts. No sewing experience required but admired! We will be making creative pieces such as hand-sanitizer fabric keyrings, friendship pins, packaging tape stickers, personal artwork on canvas, shrinky dinks, and more! Club majority depends on what we make next!
Dungeons and Dragons
Grades 5 - 8
Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy adventure role-playing game where players take on the role of adventurers who work together to explore ancient ruins for treasure and glory. D&D encourages improvisational acting, creativity, collaborative problem solving, and social interaction as well as helping to build basic math skills.
Girls on the Run
Grades 3 - 5
The two words that best describe Girls on the Run are "fun" and "run". Every aspect of the program is geared toward helping girls feel good about who they are physically, emotionally, and socially.
Girls on the Run meet two days a week to train for a future run/walk event.
Girl Scouts
Grades Kindergarten - 1st Grade
The Girl Scouts have been an after school presence at ACDS for many years. This year there is a Cadette troop for eighth grade girls, and a Daisy troop for K-1st grade girls. All girls are welcome to participate even if they have not in the past.
Troops usually meet 1-2 times a month (depending on each troop’s schedule) and participate in community service projects and events throughout the school year.
Math Club
Grades 3 - 8
The Math Club run by Dr. Xin Ai uses materials from the California Math League, as well as plays games and engages in activities that involve number strategy and math facility.
Band
Grades 2 - 8
Band, led by Modern Minded, doesn't just teach how to play an instrument and read music. Playing music increases student's memory while helping to improve coordination, math, reading, and comprehension skills.
In band, students learn perseverance with a valuable sense of achievement and, while experiencing rich culture and history, learn a strong sense of responsibility. Even though we all know music nurtures self-expression, it’s important to remember it also improves student’s listening and social skills.
Clay Club
Grades 3 - 8
Students will explore clay modeling techniques and develop their ideas into finished works of art, such as animal figurines and pots. Participants will also decorate factory-made ceramics with glazes, including mugs, plates and bowls. Finished projects will be fired in the kiln. All skill levels welcome.
Choir
Grades 1 - 8
ACDS offers an Upper Choir for students in grades 4-8 and a Youth Choir for students in grades 1-3. Students in the Upper Choir will work on more advanced vocal repertoire and techniques in this group. Students in Youth Choir will learn a variety of vocal repertoire and techniques, as well as build their confidence through onstage experience and optional solo performances. Both Choir groups perform for the school community and in the winter and spring concerts.
Drama
Grades 3 - 5
ACDS Drama Encores are for students in grades 3-5 who love the stage and live to sing, dance, and perform. In our Advanced Drama Club, students in grades 4 & 5 dive deeper into the dramatic world and ready to work on larger projects. Weekly skit creations build into multiple-week projects, script work, and more challenging improv games. All of the hard work by the students culminates in a sharing performance session for invited family and friends.
Robotics
Grades 4 - 8
Robotics is an after-school parent-led activity for 4th-8th grade students who are interested in computer programming, and Lego robotics. Generally, teams get together once a week after school to work on their robot and research project/presentation.
Girls Who Code
Girls in Grades 5 - 8
Girls Who Code is designed to nurture and support an interest in engineering and computer science that often exists in middle school, but too often fades in high school. By focusing on real-life problems and on-screen role models, Girls Who Code aims to help ensure that this interest will continue to grow in high school and beyond.
Our own chapter of Girls Who Code is open to girls in grades 5-8 and no experience is necessary. Girls will have opportunities to explore and work in pairs or individually, in a supportive, inclusive, interactive and collaborative environment. Depending on their interests, girls will learn to code in a few popular programming languages, practice logical thinking and problem-solving and build projects that entertains, educates or solves a real world problem. Some programs that GWC will explore are, “Art & Math with Python,” “Games with JavaScript,” “Apps with JavaScript,” and “Web Programming.”
Extended Care Programs
We offer complimentary supervised before-school care for children enrolled in grades Kindergarten through 8th Grade. ACDS also offers three fee-based after-school programs, The Apple Tree, for Pre-Kindergarten students; The Apple Orchard, staffed by certified caregivers for Kindergarten through 3rd grade students; and, MASH for 4th to 8th grade students.