July 18th: One Last Squires

 

It was a bittersweet day as it was my last time with all the kids at the Summer Squires program. The morning groups were fairly well behaved with the a few exceptions. The afternoon groups were a little higher energy. However, to help keep the focus with the kids and minimize distractions, last week I asked the children’s librarian along with Ms. Karen B for some more tips to keep the kids in check. I ended up using several of their suggestions. I found that just telling the kids if they kept talking, I would then move them seemed to help keep them in check a bit better. As well as being firmer when I gave directions for games like emphasizing what specific behaviors they needed to display to be called on. Also, my handy dandy the let’s be “quiet so our friends can hear” or “we are going to continue with the story now” reminders helped most of the kids. The combination of all three really minimized the distraction level and rowdiness of the group as a whole. 

I really enjoyed reading the monster story in verse to kids as the cadence seemed to stick with the kids and hold their attention. It probably also helped that it was a lighthearted silly tale about monsters. The craft was interesting this week. When I first told the kids what it was quite a few told me it was lame. So, then I showed the kids my demo monster bookmark and illustrated with a book how to use it. Then in each class usually one kid would follow saying things like “that’s useful actually” or “that’s kinda cool.” Moreover, their appreciation for the craft increased as they made their own and then put them in the books they got for the library. A little lesson there was that kids may need a personal connection point or demonstration of a craft to enable deeper engagement and appreciation. 

It was a great day overall. The kids as they left would say thank you and I even got a few hugs too. I really enjoyed spending time trimming programs with them each week even when they were a bit on the wild side.


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