Best Part Reading Jonathan and His Mommy by Irene Smalls

This journal details some of the highs and lows of the camp weeks throughout the summer of 2013. Looking at the curriculum I developed while reading these notes will make these notes more understandable.

Week One Notes

SAC Groups 1&2 (5 year olds) Best part – Reading Jonathan and his Mommy by Irene Smalls  Kids LOVED it; they were quiet, into it, looking at all the pictures, listening and answering questions Good part – Physical activity charades  Kids liked it and participated. Only issues were of the 5 year old nature e.g. someone getting to go twice, answering before called in, etc. Good part – drawing in workbook  Kids were interested and participated Okay part – line technique  Might take some time for the “fall out” and “ten hut” to settle in? Okay part – quiet technique  Kids practiced it well but didn’t execute when actually were loud. They already had a quiet technique in their classroom (1,2,3 eyes on me). Perhaps try the Scooby Doo quiet game? Bad part – reflection moments  Closing eyes and thinking of what they have done that day didn’t work. Closing eyes and taking 3 deep breaths when coming inside didn’t work. Perhaps try to do some stretching before coming inside. Worst part – We Belong to Many Groups game  Kids had a difficult time walking in a circle, keeping it large, and running into the circle when a characteristic pertained to them. Probably didn’t help that we were on the soccer field. Try to play fish and minnows tomorrow and use cones. Notes – I forgot how big of a deal it is for someone to cut in front of you in line. And I forgot how big tattling is. They need constant reminders and structure and to feel that life is fair. I want to work to give more positive rewards than negative punishments. However, I think that age group is just always going to be a little rowdy and pouty.

Groups 3&4 (6 year olds) Good changes  Sharks and minnows on basketball courts – kids loved it.  Stretched at the end of outdoor activities – I counted odd, they counted even. Notes – Overall, this group was pretty manageable. Whether it was the group itself or the age group, today went smoothly.

Groups 5&6 (7 year olds) Good change  Did a short relay race at the end (split into 4 groups, had to go around a cone, first running, then skipping, then high knees, then hopping) Notes – This group surprised me at how inappropriate they were, talking about “buttholes” and “the most private part of a girl.” One of the counselors said that they had heard one (or some) of them saying kooka. *I spoke with Gail and Emmalie about this.

Teen Extreme Tuesday Velcro activities to wall  Kids liked it, were into it, and answered questions, had questions, and were attentive. They had their own ideas too. Good activity. Finding pulse and What Happens When…Activity  Kids had a hard time finding resting heart rate. But they enjoyed doing the activities to find their pulse, whether or not they actually found it. Notes – Probably need a quiet technique. Treat them maturely, but don’t give them too much responsibility. They need to feel that the information they are learning is important, and then they will be into it.

Thursday Physical Health Assessment  Worked really well to split them into 4 groups. Smaller groups made finding resting heart rates much easier, and it made them quieter.  The 1-mile walk took about 25 minutes total.  Only got to jumping jacks Journals  Didn’t have time to Notes – The more we can split them into a small group, the better.

Week Two Notes

SAC Groups 1&2 (5 year olds) Good changes  Began to count down for them to be quiet, making a line, eyes on me, etc. This worked really well and got their attention.  Did cool down stretching at the end of the activity. This works well to get them together and ready.  Spent more time getting in lines and making groups and going over directions. Keep things simple! Blind Taste Testing  Brought up 2 at a time and each tried a fruit. They had two options to choose from (so one ate an orange and one ate a grapefruit, and they knew they had to choose either orange or grapefruit)  Took 10 minutes or so Sampling uncommon fruits  Probably should have everyone try it at the same time – have plates made up to begin with?  Took 10 minutes or so Fruit and Vegie Relay  Split into 3 groups and went through 2 rounds. It worked well. Technically they weren’t competing against each other, but they thought they were which made them run fast without being mad at who was first or last. What Part of the Plant Am I Eating  Didn’t have time for Workbook  Passed out new sheets for them to color. Then passed out workbooks and added the pages. Brought front covers for those who weren’t here previous week.

Groups 3&4 (6 year olds) Same as groups 1&2, basically. Really great group. Easy to work with! Had one of the counselors pick the fruit on the plate while campers blind taste tested.

Groups 5&6 (7 year olds) A couple of the kids went to the kiosk before I even got there, so it went much smoother this time around. We had extra time after the fruit and vegie relay, so we played elbow tag. Once they understood it, they liked it. Next time though, I will split them into 2 groups to play, because everyone wanted to get tagged and in that big of group it didn’t happen that often.

Groups 7&8 (8 year olds) These are the easiest kids to work with. They LOVED trying the fruit. They had seconds, since they were the last group. They liked the fruit and vegie relay, and we had extra time so I gave them 3 choices (relay again, another game, or go back to the room early). They chose to play another game, and they wanted to play sharks and minnows. They love that game too.

**Need to buy more gold tacks for the books**

Teen Extreme Tuesday Good changes  Split the group in half – hip hop yoga and in classroom. Will split in half for rest of summer to get the groups smaller and more manageable. Good things  Socrative went well. One group of boys fought over the iPad, but besides that the campers seemed to really enjoy it.  Blind taste testing went well. Campers were excited to try it and be involved.  Taste testing went well. Almost all campers were willing to try new fruit.  Writing in journals went well. Calmed them down, I think. Okay things  Pedometers. I think they might just shake them.

Thursday Socrative went extremely well! There were only 26 campers total, meaning I had 13. They loved using the iPads and were extremely respectful with them. The <$1 pedometers are showing that they are <$1. A lot of them don’t work or turn off randomly.

Week Three Notes

SAC Groups 1&2 (5 year olds) Positives  Kids were very involved in answering questions about the environment.  Kids listened well and enjoyed planting the chives.  Kids enjoyed Waste no Water while we played…  They caught onto elbow tag quickly.  Colored well in their books. Negatives  Two boys collided into each other while playing Waste no Water. One of them went to the hospital, probably with a broken nose and concussion. The other has a big bump on his forehead and went home with his mom.  After this incident, I took the rest of the group to the grass to play a different game with them while the two counselors attended to the two boys. Once I explained Elbow Tag, one of the girls said she got stung by a bug. So then we went inside. Notes - This group was the calmest and most attentive they have ever been. Perhaps they are getting used to the camp environment now?

Groups 3&4 (6 year olds) This group was really restless today, probably because it was a little rainy and they were headed to a movie that afternoon. They were just whiny and not really listening.

Groups 5&6 (7 year olds) Changes  We did milk jug workouts instead of Waste no Water, because I didn’t think this group could handle any inconsistencies with the leaking and might get. Notes – This group is a challenge. The main problem is trying to keep the class calm and not chaotic in order to do the next activity. However, it takes so much time to get them calm and sitting in their seats that some of them get restless and want to do the next thing. So sitting in seats quietly lasts for about 5 seconds.

Teen Extreme Tuesday Went really well. The class cooperated in giving me their steps for the week, although I think there were some exaggerations considering the group totaled 24 million steps 

The half of the kids that stayed with me listened really well as we went through environmental stats playing the higher lower game. We went outside to play Waste no Water, and before we went out we made the agreement that we would be okay if the jugs didn’t all leak at the same rate and we wouldn’t get upset. I also gave them 3 choices, and let them vote what they wanted to do. We played once, and then whoever wanted to play again played again.

Thursday Went well again. Instead of playing the Waste no Water game, we planted chives. We also did the journals today. Week Four Notes

SAC Groups 1&2 (5 year olds) Match drinks with sugar  Only one group guessed right – the water group. Most of them thought that juice and kool-aid had no sugar. I let them guess twice, and then I put them in the correct order. Not sure if that will stick or not, though. They participated well! Bowling for sugar smarts  Divided them into 3 so that each group was a counselor. I think they enjoyed it. They might have gotten the gist that milk and water are good for you. Circuit workout  They were really funny during this. I think they liked it. However, their water bottles were broken and so that kind of shadowed the whole point of the activity, although we did get a water break afterward. Notes – All in all, a really good activity day with them. Groups 3&4 (6 year olds) We didn’t meet this week because they had a field trip and didn’t get back in time.

Groups 5&6 (7 year olds) We didn’t meet this week because they had a field trip and didn’t get back in time.

Groups 7&8 (8 year olds) We didn’t meet this week because they had a field trip and didn’t get back in time.

Teen Extreme Tuesday Not sure how the circuit workout went over, but I would guess that they didn’t love it. However, they were only at every station for 30 seconds.

The in-class activity went well. I think that measuring out the sugar themselves was very beneficial, and they were surprised by just how much sugar was in each of the beverages, especially the Mt. Dew. They were fairly accurate at guessing the order of sugar content among the drinks. It was god for them to try the water, although being the age that they are, they all just wanted seconds and to try more of it. It was kind of an exhausting day.

Thursday Today was a 180 difference. On Tuesday and Wednesday, all of the counselors were talked to by Emmalie and/or Jimmy about being involved when I come. The goal is that the counselors are still in charge of the class and disciplinary, so that I am able to teach and lead activities, therefore giving the kids the most out of the activity.

Today was awesome. We had extra time at the end because I wasn’t spending my time trying to quiet down the kids and keep order. And they also said that they liked the circuit workout. Much, much better. Week Five Notes

SAC Groups 1&2 (5 year olds) Kids LOVED the games. Tic-tac-toe went well. Several of the sugar bags broke, though. Egg Relay Race went well. Next time I should have a buck of water out there for when an egg cracks. Otherwise I have to clean up fried egg. :/ Giant Marbles was FANTASTIC. It was their favorite game. We are definitely getting in a groove by now.

Groups 3&4 (6 year olds) Went very similarly to Monday. Went extremely well.

Week of 4 th of July – No groups 5-8

Teen Extreme Tuesday Counselors participated with me well, making the process much easier. The kids are getting easier to handle, too. They loved the smoothies and really enjoyed the Minute-to-Win-It games without getting into fights or anything. Thursday – 4 th of July

Week Six Notes

SAC Groups 1&2 (5 year olds) Very chill games and group today. They may or may not have actually learned the names of the muscles, but they enjoyed the stretching and learned that you do it before and after you exercise. The games were extremely easy to play and they enjoyed them!

Groups 3&4 (6 year olds) The kids remembered the muscle names better than Groups 1&2. They enjoyed the games until they got out. We only had one boy who cried.

Groups 5&6 (7 year olds) Kids were EXTREMELY unruly today.

Groups 7&8 (8 year olds) Diddo. Tough day.

Teen Extreme Tuesday Today went very well again, especially with the counselor participation. From what I heard, the group that made the posters enjoyed it, and I hung their posters up in Schoo. The group I was with seemed to enjoy learning about the serving sizes and for the most part were very surprised at how much smaller a serving size is than what they previously thought. We only had time to play Pyramid Picks, which they enjoyed too. Thursday Didn’t go as well as Tuesday – we wasted a lot of time in between activities waiting for them to quiet down.

Week Seven Notes

SAC Groups 1&2 (5 year olds) For “Healthy House” game – Played in the gym with two teams on either side. Each team had a basket that represented their house. The balls represented healthy foods, and so they tried to shoot the balls into their basket. Each team could also have 2 blockers. I taped down a square outside of the basket where they had to block outside of. Each team only got 1 ball into the basket, so then I just divided the gym longways and let each team stand closer to its basket and shoot without any blockers.

Slow Food tag – 2 Taggers held fitballs and it represented slow food. 2 Unfreezers held a bag of balloons that represented go food. They liked this game!

Almost a Pyramid Sundae – They loved it!

Groups 3&4 (6 year olds) We didn’t have time to play “Healthy House” because there were more kids, and so Slow Food Tag took longer. Each person got to be either a tagger or an unfreezer at one point, and we played each game for 2-3 minutes before switching. They could have played longer probably, because everyone really wanted to be both a tagger and an unfreezer.

Groups 5&6 (7 year olds) Another tough day, as usual.

Groups 7&8 (8 year olds) We had to play outside because they were refinishing the Schoo gym. We didn’t play Healthy House, only the tag game which they enjoyed quite a bit. Teen Extreme Tuesday Talking in class went alright – I think it may have been a little over their heads, but it was worth a shot. I think some got it. At the end we had nap time for 10 minutes. The Scavenger Hunt went well except that it is SUPER hot out today.

Thursday Today instead of talking in class, we went on a walk outside where everyone had a buddy and they talked with their buddy about the best part of their day, the worst part of their day, and what they wanted to happen later in the day. That seemed to work much better. At the end we talked about some healthy choices and some unhealthy choices on how to deal with anger and frustration.

Week Eight Notes

SAC Groups 1&2 (5 year olds) This or That Fast Food game – They got pretty into it and the majority was often correct. I quizzed them throughout to review what they had learned. I think they have a decent idea of what is and what is not good for you at fast food places, though most of the time they did not know why it was healthier. They usually picked choices if it had fruits or vegies or dairy in them.

Scavenger Hunt – It was HOT today which made them a little grumpy and not move too fast between cones.

Groups 3&4 (6 year olds) The whole class got almost all of the right answers for the This or That Fast Food game.

It wasn’t as hot today, so the Scavenger Hunt went much smoother, and we played on the basketball courts and in the parking lot instead of the soccer field which also boosted morale. We had a little extra time so we played the blue & pink drawing physical activity.

Groups 5&6 (7 year olds) Today actually went SURPRISINGLY well. It was kinda funny that they didn’t get as many This or That game answers correct as Groups 3&4, but they still really enjoyed it.

They enjoyed the Scavenger Hunt so much that we played it through twice. They were sweaty and tired afterward, but had a good time.

Groups 7&8 (8 year olds) The counselors were more involved today, which helped the smoothness. I’m trying to learn how to discipline and engage without using threats or taking something away.

Teen Extreme Tuesday The Portion Size Me, Too video did not load, so half of the class played games in the gym instead. The projector didn’t work either, so we did the Fast Food PowerPoint just off the laptop which worked fine. They seemed to like that game and learn from it, too.

Thursday The video worked today, so half the class watched it in the Family Center. I didn’t get a chance to hear how that went. The other half played the Fast Food PowerPoint game and really enjoyed it. Got into the exercises too, even when they answered correctly!

Week Nine Notes

SAC Groups 1&2 (5 year olds) Kids were CRAZY today because they were so excited to go on their field trip, and because it was raining. Plus they were missing their strongest counselor.

For the Going Screenless activity, each group attempted to create a game. It was slightly chaotic, but they seemed to have a good time at least.

From results of the poll, it seemed that there were 1 or 2 that watched an hour of less of TV per day, the majority were at 2 o3 hours per day, and a fourth were probably at 4 or more hours per day.

It was raining today, so we had to do the indoor scavenger hunt instead of the outdoor. They liked it a lot, although you could tell that their minds were not able to process the whole list of items and really needed to just here 1 or 2 items at a time. It will be interesting to see how the older kids handle it.

Groups 3&4 (6 year olds) Instead of creating a game, each group listed out the things they like to do more than TV and whoever could come up with the longest list won. My group had 30!

They had to leave at 11, so we only had a half hour. We quick did the Indoor Scavenger Hunt Bingo (huge hit), and I left the workbooks with them to do later in the day.

Groups 5&6 (7 year olds) We ended up doing the Indoor Scavenger Hunt too, so that the Outdoor Scavenger Hunt would be available for next week. They had a good time!

Groups 7&8 (8 year olds) We reviewed the summer, and they actually were able to list off 5 or 6 topics that we talked about and things they had learned. Yay!

Teen Extreme Tuesday The kids listened super well to Nicole when she showed the exercises. They were very interested, enjoyed going up to Studio C, and were into making the workouts.

Thursday One kids had “Pushups for 5 minutes.” They enjoyed today 