Schools & afterschool
ASES
Fills After School Education and Safety hours with hands-on STEAM that boosts engagement and attendance; students produce a music video you can use for recruitment and funder reports, and the SEL books and keynotes strengthen SEL and school climate while giving students access to celebrity producers.
We support attendance/ADA improvement, PBIS, MTSS Tier 1 SEL, student engagement and program enrollment, and expanded-learning quality with the SEL books, keynotes, and the STEAM recording program.
FAQs
Straight answers.
Yes. Recording and video production run as STEAM enrichment programs, and the underlying content is acoustics, signal processing, and the arithmetic of tempo and subdivision.
That satisfies the educational enrichment element without being another worksheet and offers safe and constructive programming.
STEAM based projects satisfy the educational enrichment element and give students something to show families at the end.
STEAM enrichment in a 2-3hr ASES block works when the project spans a week or more.
Yes, indirectly and reliably. Students attend the school day to reach the afterschool block they want, which is why expanded learning shows up in strategies to reduce absenteeism in school. Music is an excellent way to increase student engagement.
Your attendance data will show it before anything else does.
Yes. The Psychological Effects of Music Interactive Social Emotional Learning School Assembly works as a site-wide event an end-of-session showcase, or a family engagement event teaching students and/or parents who music effects their behavior, self-regulation and how music can be used as a tool to manage behavior, emotions and stress management.
For sites running enrichment across several campuses, we can do a SEL school tour providing morning and afternoon assemblies at multiple sites within a drive-able radius.For enrichment activities for kids at the elementary level and music enrichment ideas generally, seeing a session plan answers the fit question faster than anything we could write.
Programs searching for what are some enrichment activities that satisfy the ASES educational enrichment component typically use a weekly music block built from the consumables.
Through it. SEL in music education fails when it is bolted on — a check-in, then back to the activity. Music SEL in our program means the social-emotional content is inside the musical task.
That matters more in an expanded learning setting than in a classroom, because students choose whether to come back tomorrow.
Sites that share staff with the school day sometimes want the same approach applied to SEL in the music classroom during instructional hours.
For programs comparing SEL music education options or looking at music education organizations as partners, they should consider whether the program is using outdated music, references, etc. We keep it relevant with what's happening in social media that students are keyed into.
SEL music activities that run in 30 to 1hr with your staff leading the class. The Psychological Effects of Music Supplemental Instructional Books are built to that constraint.
Coordinators looking for music enrichment activities or a music enrichment program for the educational enrichment element usually need a defined arc across several weeks rather than one-off sessions. For older students, music activities for high school students generally means the teen edition plus recording.
Music Enrichments built on the Psychological Effects of Music Supplemental Instructional Books over a 6 or 12 week period (once or twice a week), plus recording and video STEM production.
Programs looking for enrichment programs ideas or asking what are interactive activities that satisfy the ASES educational enrichment element typically use us for a week long music or arts block during afterschool, spring break, fall break, or in the summer or use the Music Video Enrichment as a behavior or attendance incentive . Students who attended most get to do the Music Video.
The consumables are built for short sessions rather than a full instructional period, which suits programs running enrichment in 30 to 45 minute blocks. Coordinators searching for social emotional learning books for elementary students or music class ideas are usually trying to fill exactly that slot with something that has structure rather than a one-off activity.
Materials that support enrichment activities are generally allowable when they appear in your approved program plan. ASES programs are required to include an educational enrichment element alongside the academic component, and arts and music activities are a standard way sites meet it.
Confirm the specific expense against your approved plan and your grant's terms before purchasing.
The Legislature intends ASES, 21st CCLC Elementary/Middle, and ELO-P to function as one comprehensive expanded learning program, and ELO-P funds may be used as local match for ASES. Many sites braid the two.
Keep documentation clear about which stream paid for what, since the streams carry different expenditure deadlines.
No. The materials are written to be led by program staff rather than requiring a credentialed music teacher, which matters in expanded learning settings where staffing is mixed. Staff training on the Psychological Effects of Music Supplemental Instructional Books is available separately if a site wants it.
Consumable. Each student works in their own copy and keeps it. Sites budget per student per year rather than buying a reusable set. That structure also means the material a student produces goes home, which programs often use for family engagement.
Yes. Music recording and video production runs as an enrichment block, on site or virtually. It satisfies the educational enrichment element while giving students a technical skill.
Programs searching for music class ideas that go beyond a single session use the book as a multi-week enrichment cycle rather than a one-off activity like the Music video enrichment.
No. We send our own staff to run the programming. We do not train your staff to run it.
Recording and production is a skill set, not a procedure. Trying to hand it off in a few hours would be like teaching a doctor to perform surgery in an afternoon — you would get a session that technically happened and a result nobody wants to hear.
Program staff support the session and learn the material by being in it. They do not run the equipment.
No. We are supplemental. We do not replace your SEL curriculum, your trauma-informed practice, or any program you already have in place.
If you run a core SEL program, keep it — ours adds a music-based component alongside it. If you have trauma-informed protocols, training, and referral pathways, those stay in force exactly as they are. Nothing in our material substitutes for them, and our facilitators are not a substitute for your clinical, counseling, or behavioral staff.
It sits inside your educational enrichment component. It does not replace the academic component or anything else in your approved plan.
45 minutes to 2 hours. Most schools book a class period or 90 minutes.
The 90-minute format is the one we recommend when you have the room. 45 minutes works for a single class period or a tight bell schedule, and 2 hours suits a half-day event, a grade-level rally, or a Black History Month or Red Ribbon Week program.
Tell us your bell schedule and we will fit the session to it rather than asking you to build around us.
Yes. SEL The Psychological Effects of Music interactive School Assembly and Family Engagement workshop is built for exactly this — a family engagement event where parents and children participate together rather than sitting through a presentation.
That is the difference that matters for attendance. Families come to an event where something happens; they skip an information night. The session is music-driven and participatory, so a parent who speaks little English and a fourth grader are in it on the same terms.
Family engagement is a recognized element of expanded learning programming. Because the books are consumable, student work goes home ahead of the event, which gives families something to arrive already connected to.
How this program runs
Same SIWM work. Built for ASES.
Start with the social emotional learning books. Add a keynote. Bring a recording program when you want participants writing and performing — we produce the song and video.
Aligned with ASES priorities for academic and literacy support, safe enrichment and positive youth development. CASEL 5 SEL competencies; National Core Arts Standards (Music & Media Arts); Common Core ELA writing & speaking/listening (songwriting, public speaking); CTE Arts/A-V Technology & Communications; The program integrates Music and Media Arts, SEL, STEM/STEAM and science concepts—including sound waves, frequency and acoustics—while supporting engagement, collaboration, PBIS and MTSS goals.
Send a request and tell us this is a ASES site.
The Psychological Effects of Music
SEL books & curriculum
SEL books by Ava Johnson plus keynotes for the same rooms.
Ava the Aviator
Keynotes & assemblies
Interactive talks on the science of sound and the psychology of music.
The studio
Recording & music video program
Participants write and perform. We record, produce, and film.