Wrapping Everything Up!

Lets see I didn’t go to the daycare last week because I was getting ready to go home for break. – Break was wonderful I had a great Thanksgiving with my wonderful family! - So about two weeks ago when I was at the daycare was the week where there was the tornado watches. The daycare had that planned out very well. When the sirens went off the kids were having snack time. The teachers got the children to quietly line up at the door. Also, they brought the “Field Trip Bag” which is just a backpack with some activities and some things that might be needed in an emergency. All of the kids were very good they sat against a wall while they were read stories. When it was time to go back in the room it was a false alarm and we headed back into the hallway. Since the kids were missing snack time they were each given some crackers and water. This time we colored pictures and sang songs while we waited. By the time the warning was over it was time for the parents to pick up the children.

I just got done with my hours for this week. They had some great activities up in the room, one of them being a cardboard house that the kids got to help decorate using strips of cardboard. They also had many other play tools that they could use in the play construction site.

It was snowing a lot and many of the kids spent time just watching the snow fall on to the playground outside.

I am all finished with my hours now and Monday will probably be my last day at least for this semester. Also, this is my tenth and probably last blog.

Hope that everyone’s service hours are going well and almost finished up!

Burnt Out

I was only going to go in to the day care one day this week. On Sunday I emailed my supervisor to let her know that I would only be in on Monday this week because I had an exam in History class on Tuesday and I was going to take the extra time to make sure I was prepared.

Then there was a change in plans. On Monday I was making one of those instant lunch things. I boiled water in the microwave in a mug and as I was walking over to pour it into the cup I ended up spilling it on my hand. OUCH!!! Someone helped me get some ice on it. I just kind of stood there for a bit crying, because I didn’t know what to do. At one point I looked up and saw a tour group there, I think I might have scared them off. I went up to my room to a bit before I decided that I needed to go to PUSH. Right away the nurses got to me they asked a few general questions then got my hand wrapped up and gave me some pain killers. They sent me off with a prescription crème to heal my hand. After a few hours the burn calmed down to where I could handle it. Within the next day or so my hand felt fine. Just a little blistered. Ended up missing one math class, and the daycare of course.

I was very glad that I started taking pictures for my digital poster last week. If I hadn’t I would be feeling a bit behind right now.

I was supposed to take a history test on Tuesday but ended up waiting until today so it would be easier to write with. Even with the extra study time don’t feel like I did very well.

So, a little bit of an unplanned surprise and very glad that this week is almost over. 

Exciting Fall Week!

On Monday I asked the teacher what the policy is on pictures because I wanted to take some of the kids for my digital poster. She said that would be fine as long as none of them are used on the Internet.

This week part of the room was set up with pumpkins. The teacher read a book about carving pumpkins and then carved one so the kids could see it. They even put a candle in it for a minute to show the glowing! Then they made their own paper jack o’ lanterns. There was a stand set up where the kids could “sell” the pumpkins to each other. They even had the actual mini pumpkins for the kids to play with. Also, there was a place where they could rake up fake leaves. I am always amazed with the cool ways that they set the room up.

I also got some extra volunteering in this week as I went in on Wednesday because they were going on a field trip and needed some extra help. I was a little worried about it because I still had homework to be done and an exam later that day but I am very glad I went it was a fun and good experience. Some parents came in to pull wagons also. We put all of the children in wagons and pulled them over to Squirrel Park. On they way they got to stop a few times and pick up a pine cone, some leaves, walnuts and other nature things that they found interesting. Once they were there they got to play on both of the play grounds for a little bit before having a snack and heading back to the daycare. On the way back one of the children whose parent had come along decided that they were not ready to go back. The boy jumped out of the wagon and was not going to get back in. It took about 10 minutes of his mom and the teacher coaxing him to get him to come back with us. Over all a very good day for all of the children! 

Make a Wish!

I was so glad to get the Editorial turned in. I had a tough time writing it. Not only am I not a very strong writer I also have never had to write something like that. Even though is suppose to be difficult to make it short enough, I had trouble getting it to be long enough. I ended up about 50 words short, but I felt like if added anything after that it would have been worse not better.

This week at the day care the theme was Nursery Rhymes. The room was decorated with a pretend house, castles and other things to pretend. The children loved playing house, stacking blocks, and Legos during free play. They also had the chance to play with the biggest amount of Floam that I have seen in one spot, and make magic wands!

On Monday the story was The Gingerbread Man, the kids got to help read the story because they could remember to use the phrase “Run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man.” Then they had the chance to decorate their own gingerbread man at the craft table.

On Tuesday at free play there was a table set up where they could draw letters in shaving cream. I remember doing this in school and loving playing in the white, fluffy stuff, but it had changed a little bit. They found a way to make it a no mess area. (A little disappointing but probably a good thing with such young children.) They put plastic on the table and then shaving cream then another sheet of plastic over that. So they could draw then wipe it away or change it, all while staying clean.

The story that day was Humpty Dumpty. After the story the teacher had a project for the children. First they had to work together to build up a “brick wall” with blocks. Then the teacher dropped an egg into a bucket of straw, sand, water and an empty bucket. Each time before it was dropped the children had to guess whether they thought the egg would break or not. They really enjoyed this project and were very interested. Very cool first view of a science project and a hypothesis – even though they don’t understand either of those things yet.  

When I Grow Up...

Daycare is over for the week and I thought I would get something written down before I forget some of the specifics. There were many exciting activities that I got to help out with! This week the theme is jobs. The children went over many different types of jobs on Monday. They helped read the story by guessing what person did each job. With such a span of ages (2.5-4 years), backgrounds, and learning levels some of the children sit and watch occasionally joining in, while others are very on top of everything giving out all of the answers. One child was answering everything the teacher said,” Jasper, you are doing such a wonderful job, lets see if the other kids can answer the next one.” When the next job came up he waited about ten seconds before whispering the answer. It was so funny because he wanted to tell them so badly.

The main job that they discussed was a firefighter. They had a pop up fire truck in the room that the children could pretend to drive around. Accompanying this were pretend firemen hats, water hoses and pretend houses that the kids could find to put the fires out.

Along with the fireman job the children learned about fire safety, like having an escape route in case of a fire. The teachers went over what the escape route was at school, then sent a paper home so that the families could talk about having a plan in case of a fire at home. Also, they practiced the “stop, drop and roll” method of getting fire out of your clothes.

The talked about calling 911 whenever there was any kind of an emergency – but only in a real emergency!

The other safety issue they d

When I left today the kids were going to get to a special visit from a firefighter. Also they hoped the rain would stop so they could see a real fire truck!

A Small Mix Up

FALL BREAK was wonderful! It was great to see my family and relax at home for a few days.

At the end of last week I had finally turned in all of my paperwork and testing to the daycare center.

Service wise this week started way easy. Since I usually do my service on Monday’s and Tuesday’s I didn’t have any days this week to go in to the center. I thought maybe if I was going to have extra time I would go in Thursday but would wait until Wednesday to decide. When I got up Wednesday morning for class I checked my email. I had one from the director of the center. She was informing me that she had received all of my paperwork. Also wondering when I would like to start and with what group of students I would like to work with. I was confused because I have been volunteering all along. Apparently I wasn’t supposed to be.

I was worried because I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble. I had been told with two groups combining this year there were some communication issues. This was obviously the case here. I was turning in paperwork to one person and setting up service time with another. Before replying I got advice from Cody on how to proceed.

I ended up saying that there must have been some communication issues because I had been volunteering while the paperwork was being filled out and that I was sorry for any miscommunication on my part. Today the director emailed me back saying “Thank you for connecting the dots for me. I hope your time is going well.” Even had a smiley face with it. I was very relieved to find no one upset and the problem was easily fixed.