Over the past few weeks, we have been wrapping up our games and activities with our groups. We have played telephone, the silent line up game, and we have also brought in a few board games to play. All of our groups really enjoyed all of these games. We are so sad to see our group come to an end, but we are so proud of all of our kids hard work and accomplishments. We have watched them bloom and grow all semester and we are so happy we got to make a big impact on their lives in such a small amount of time.
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We asked our groups for suggestions on what they wanted our activities to be. We got lots of recommendations to do trivia! Trivia is a great way to build confidence, knowledge, and communication skills. Our groups had so much fun competing in a friendly trivia competition amongst their peers. This will be an activity that will be used in the future as it doesn't always have to be the same. You can do individual and team trivia as well as ask different topics of questions.
Returning back from spring break, we got a new group at one of our schools. We went from a group of 3rd grade girls to a group of 3rd grade boys. The first week with them, we did a little get to know you game. We then introduced our groups rules and expectations. With the remaining time, we allowed them to write a letter to a someone special as a "random act of kindness". They were able to write a nice note to a friend, parent, sibling, or anyone of their choice. Also, they were able to draw them a picture that went with their writing. They enjoyed this activity as they were able to express kindness and creativity.
We played Hedbanz with our group to build their communication and listening skills. They had to ask questions and use their thinking skills to narrow down the character that was on their head. They also had to use their listening skills to listen to the clues their peers were giving them about their character. Our groups all enjoyed this activity.
We completed an activity called "Friends Wanted". Our goal was for our groups to understand what a true friend really is. They completed a paper that asked them for their name, what they like, and what they look for in a friend. They could also draw a photo of what they think a good friend looks like. We then discussed ways to be a good friend and reflected on the paper they completed.
One of our activities that we have completed with the kids are "affirmation jars". These jars are personalized with the kids' names on them. We instructed kids to write compliments for themselves and others who were in the group. It was so fantastic to see their faces light up when they received compliments from their peers. The affirmations were then glued onto their jars so they were able to take it home and hang it up some place where they could be reminded of all the great things that was said about them. I believe it helped the kids grow their self confidence in receiving compliments from others.
We have decided to do a student mentoring project during the second semester. This project will benefit children to grow their social skills and self confidence. Me and my partner both are going to college for elementary education, so we felt as if this would also benefit us, too. To begin our project, we had to contact local school counselors to see if they were interested in working with us. We contacted two counselors at the elementary schools to introduce them to our project and what we would be completing. They both were super interested in what we had to offer and felt as if it would benefit their students. We went over to both schools to meet with the counselors. We laid out a timeline, threw out some activity ideas, and make sure everything was good to go. We decided that it would be best for us to being our groups at the start of the second semester. So, in the meantime, we spent our class time preparing activities that we were going to be using with the children.
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