Jill, Bridge and I are at the centre prepping for next week. Initially I was worried about everything coming together because there was not that much structure. However, seeing the dedication in the girls and having a day of organizing English and Craft lesions, is making me excited for next week.
As I’ve previously mentioned, we’re going to have themed weeks. Last week was The Circus so we made masks and juggling balls for Art and Bridge taught baton twirling. This week is Farm Animals. The kids will be making paper bag puppets. I am currently working on a lesson plan for English that will hopefully include a word search, a couple of activities, songs, stories, and maybe a brief news article. I just found a really good website for teachers. It includes activites and crafts that are related to The Three Little Pigs. I have decided to get the students to read the story and then create their own version of the story. (My friend and coworker, Judee, did a similar activity with her grade 7 students last summer). Brigette, Jill and I also decided on the following weeks theme since we will be away and won´t be able to prep next weekend. We will be doing Oriental Week. The girls are working on crafts for the kids, which include fans and finger painted dragons. I´m excited already!
We have also decided on making each day of the week a different subject. Thus, Mondays will be Art, Tues. English, Wed Yoga, Thurs. dance, and Fri Sports. We’re going to do roll call/attendance at the beginning of class (last week there were too many kids showing up and although we reacted well by splitting them up it was still a bit chaotic) and go over rules (i.e., everyone helps clean up, no one is allowed to touch the equipment unless told otherwise, etc.). I am glad that the other volunteers have agreed to create rules for the programs because last week a lot of the supplies went missing. These included my personal craft supplies, some of which I had been saving for YEARS. Also, it was very disappointing to have been disrespected and to see that my supplies were taken, used, and or no long in sight; it was definitely a wake up call/learning experience. This week also made me realise how much the children like to dance!
On Wednesday I taught the other volunteers my orientation week dance; the song is ´shook me all night long´ by ACDC. On Thursday, we taught the children. Since then the children have been requesting to do it non-stop. For instance, we have done in at the centre at least 5 more times, and my neighbours have done it outside at least 10 times. It is nice to know that the children enjoy it as much as we do. It’s funny because most of the moves are corny ones like ´the shopping cart´, ´karate moves´, ´skipping rope´, etc. Yoga was also a huge success. It was funny trying to pack 30 children into a small room and trying to get them to concentrate on their breathing. The directors of the centre also want us to create Yoga classes for adults. I think I will start to organize that next week. Moreover, I finally had a chance to go to my sister´s karate class and the instructor asked me to teach them some yoga. So in front of 20 students and about 30 spectators I taught a VERY brief introduction to Yoga. Afterwards, I found out that the instructor wants me to come every other day to teach for half the class; I told my sister I might come once a week. Later on, I went running with my sister and ~10 other neighbourhood kids at the Croat, elementary schools´ track field. After running, they wanted to do another yoga session. I just can’t believe how into it everyone is. It’s the fad in BiH right now!
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