4/15/15 Workshop Douglass-Truth Library Kaylah

Location: Douglass-Truth Library

Time: 5-7:30pm

Date: 4/15/15

     Today I was a lead for the early literacy activity. I prepared for the kids to make “silly sentences.” I had five printed out lists of words and phrases. Each paper was labeled 1-5. The instructions were for the kids to start in numerical order, pick and write down one word (or set) from each sheet, and the end the result would be a silly sentence. After they had their silly sentence written down, they would then draw a picture to accompany it.

     The children were intrigued from the start. They all had access to blank sheets of paper and art supplies. As they began to create their sentences, they would take time to critically think about what they wanted their sentence to say next.  As they thought of the possibilities, they were so amused and laughter ensued. One sentence example was “the happy lion played cards with the grumpy penguin,” followed by an illustration.  Not only did they create sentences, they visualized what was being read too. The kids didn’t stop with one picture, many walked away with a stack of papers that they made.

     At the end, when the session was slowing down they wanted to try origami. The only thing I knew how to make was a paper airplane, so I taught them step by step how to make them. We decorated them and had races outside. Willa knew how to make paper cranes so we tried those as well.

     Overall I believe this EL activity was a success. Everyone was practicing writing words, sentence structures, and visualizing. All these things were done with having fun! Even some of the other student volunteers poked in and made their own. I think that the children had a fun day and didn’t know they could have so much fun when writing.   

4/8/15 Workshop Douglass-Truth Library Kaylah

Location: Douglass-Truth Library

Time: 5-7pm

Date: 4/8/2015

     Today I worked with the kids. We brought an assembled puppet show stage and we showed the kids how to make puppets by decorating brown paper lunch bags. There were many art materials to choose from including crayons, markers, colored pencils, construction paper and even googley eyes. At first they seemed unsure of what to do but after we had a few lead examples going, they soon were excited about what they wanted to create.

     During the process of creating there were conversations among the children about what kinds of stories they could come up with. Everyone involved at the table made a puppet. It was a nice day outside, and as a group we decided to conduct the puppet show outdoors. Us older students became the audience, and the children quietly discussed behind the curtain what the show was going to be. One of the kids was pretty bossy about the whole process and what she wanted to do, and wanted others to do. The other children had less vocal personalities and avoiding conflict, they went along with the plans.

     Overall everyone seemed to enjoy making their own puppets and using their imagination. The kids even thought it would be amusing to see us older students star in a show as well. Art was the first theme, but equally important was creative thinking with the stories, and collaboration. I enjoyed this workshop. Being a part of crafty activities with children was a nice outlet from my own work. They were so energetic and enthusiastic about their creations. I think it is important to have a creative mindset, not just for artist purposes, but also for thinking in life in general.

4/22/2015 Casa Latina Workshop Willa

Casa Latina
April 22nd, 2015
4:30 - 8:00 PM

The planned activity with the children today was centered around Earth Day. Klarissa had printed out a paired sheets of paper - the top paper was a drawing of the earth for coloring and another sheet underneath that you glue the earth to. On the the second sheet of paper, the kids are supposed to write down four things that they like about the earth or that they want to improve. The earth that is glue over this sheet of paper is cut so that you can reveal the words underneath.

It was a lot of fun. All the of kids started to color in their earth - mostly blue for the water and green for the land. The kids mentioned that they like trees and want to recycle more. One of the girls didn't want to cut their earth out and glue it because that would be too mean to the earth.