Day 11

Today was S.H.A.R.E. Day, which is the equivalent to Project Period for Proctor, but it's only one day at AEMS. The 3rd grade students and on sign up for different activities and projects to do in the morning, then the whole school eats a catered lunch together, then the Proctor Chamber Choir came to sing, and after groups instructors shared with the school what they did in their group. There were many projects to choose from including fly fishing and sushi making. I was with all the 1st and 2nd graders who don't actually get to choose what they do. All the 1st and 2nd graders did tie-dying and mask making. I was only one of the many helpers for this project. The students were each given a spot at a table and a brown cardboard mask to paint. I went around with the other chaperones to squeeze paint for the students. The rule was that they could only use three colors, but a few students managed to not follow directions and use their neighbors paint. It was interesting to see how some students blended all their colors together and then painted their mask, some didn't fully cover their mask with paint and only made designs, some took their time and were very precise and careful with their paint, and some painted it so quickly and sloppy because they wanted to be the first. After painting the masks the kids played outside and had snack while the chaperones, teachers, and i cleaned up the mess. After painting it was time for tie-dying. The students all watched an instructional movie on how to tie-dye. Every time the woman would show what one of the techniques looks like the kids would ALL cheer and scream, "Ahhhhhh!!! I want to make that one!!!" It was so funny! I helped many of the kids twist up their T-shirts the way they wanted and put on rubber bands. This was tough for the students to remember how to do each of the techniques that the woman on the movie showed, so it was helpful that there were many adult to assist. The dying was by far the most exciting and chaotic part for the kids. The kids would yell out the color that they wanted, and there was lots of colors being sprayed on the table and not on the T-shirts. Overall, i was very impressed with how smoothly this project went with 50 1st and 2nd graders. The students had so much fun picking their colors and designs to use on their shirts. Once the tie-dying was done and the shirts were put into labeled bags it was time for decorating the masks. There were jewels, feathers, fake hair, and glitter clue that the kids could decorate their masks with. This was really funny to see because it was obvious that the kids just wanted to be able to use all of the materials offered, and they not necessarily conscious of how their mask looked at the time. Most of the students had jewels glued all over their mask, glitter glue everywhere, and either feathers, hair or both! Once they covered their masks with all the accessories it was difficult to see the paint on some of them, but they sure did look colorful! I helped the teachers cary the mask upstairs to the cafeteria where they were going on display and they really did look so colorful and great next to each other. The students had a blast making them and were disappointed to hear that they have to wait until tomorrow to take them home. SHARE Day went very well and the students all had so much fun in their groups! I enjoyed watching the 1st and 2nd graders interact with each other and noticed that they meshed really well. There was no bullying or problems between the two grades and you really couldn't tell who was in what grade based on the art work. The kids were a little more wild and hyper than usual because they were not sitting in a classroom with the same students and the same routine that they are used to. The students and I had so much fun today; i think tomorrow might be hard to adjust back to the normal schedule and school work.