4/29/15 Workshop Douglass-Truth Library Kaylah

Location: Douglass-Truth Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 4/29/15

     Today had a special dedication to Mother’s day, as it is approaching. As a group we all started off with playing a big game of “Loteria,” or “Bingo.” I thought this was a nice activity because normally the adults are separated from the kids, but today we did an activity as a cohesive group.  I don’t speak fluent Spanish, but this activity was especially cool because everyone knew how to play bingo regardless of the language, and I even began to remember Spanish I had learned in high school.

     We played several rounds and everyone was able to get a prize. It was a good activity for people to get engaged in. After, we split into our groups. Mother’s day cards had been a craft we had been talking about all month, and today was the day we finally got to do it. The kids had fun drawing pictures for their moms and writing sweet messages inside like “te quiero mucho.”

     It doesn’t matter if you’re artistic or not, mothers are always going to appreciate hand made cards.  I thought I was going to buy my mom a card, but now we all have something to give our moms that we made. I think making a card vs. buying a card is the better way to go.

      

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.

4/29/15 Workshop Douglass-Truth Library Brad

Location: Douglass-Truth Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 4/29/2015

Today we made mothers’ day the focus of our workshop with the children. The first activity we did was a bingo-style game with the group as a whole (women and children together). I loved doing an activity with everyone together; it is refreshing to have both the families and the facilitators all playing the same game. I really felt like we were bridging the gap between our communities and enjoying a moment together. As an added bonus this game helped me learn some new Spanish vocabulary, which is always positive.

            Once several rounds of the game were played and people collected their prizes, the technology workshop for the women started and our group split like usual. With mothers’ day fast approaching, an obvious craft we could do was make cards for our moms. Some of the children got very creative with their cards, using a variety of colors and drawing techniques (I totally forgot about holding three crayons at once!). One child asked Willa how to memorize the colors of the rainbow- ROYGBIV!

            Making crafts for our moms made me miss my own mother. Sometimes it is difficult going to school so far away from home, but I never forget all of the awesome things my mom has done for me over the years. My parents continued support helps me every step of the way along this new journey at college.

4/1/2015 Workshop Douglass-Truth Library Klarissa

Location: Douglass-Truth Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 4/1/2015

For the crafts with the kids we did a photography through literacy project, which Ivette lead, called My Favorite Place. We all thought of our favorite place and drew it with oil pastels. Then, we had our pictures taken from behind so we could glue ourselves, cut out, into our favorite place. But one thing, we forgot to have them write anything about their favorite place, so I’m not sure about the literacy goal there. A few kids drew libraries as their favorite place, which is exciting. After that, since some of the girls had wanted to do origami last week, we did a little bit of origami. Willa and I had prepped by practicing a few different shapes. However, they were not as interested in doing the origami now. Instead they were excited to be in the library this month, and so we spent an hour in the kids section. We asked the kids about what they liked to read, but for the most part they browsed through the books on their own. I noticed the younger girls picked up some princess books, and I wonder how much that is because gender stereotypes are marketed to children.

I did not look too much at the books in terms of content or messages, as I was surprised at how nostalgic I felt looking at all the books I had read in elementary and middle school. Thinking back, the books I read, such as the Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie series, privilege the story of white American settlers. But it seemed like there were some more books that showed other perspectives. One of the girls showed me her favorite book which seemed to deal with modern indigeneity. 

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.

4/8/15 Workshop Douglass-Truth Library Brad

Location: Douglass-Truth Library

Time: 5-7pm

Date: 4/8/2015

Today the children put on a puppet show using puppets made from paper lunch bags. We encouraged the kids to draw characters on the bags using the art supplies we provided. Some examples of characters included goldilocks, a puppy, and Mike from Monsters, Inc. The kids seemed very excited about putting on a show for us, and we were happy to see them enthusiastic about making up their own story.

            Once everyone had made at least one puppet, the whole group left our indoor space and set up the stage outdoors. I filmed with an iPad while the children discussed behind closed curtains how they wanted to put on the show. Unfortunately, one of the kids was very bossy about how she wanted the story to play out, shutting down the other kids’ ideas in favor of her own. It was obvious that the other kids were not happy about this, but they went along with it anyways.

            Regardless of the child who was bossing the other ones around, everyone had fun putting on the show and the story was definitely original. They even encouraged me to put down the camera and control a puppet of my own, which I did. This helped me remember how important imaginative play is with young children.  It’s unfortunate that we start to use less and less of our imaginations as we grow older; nobody says we have to grow up.