ZsofiKaretkaHawkenProjects2021

Wednesday, June 1st started our final weekly theme at the treehouse, which was camping. The sensory bin looked different than usual today- there were bins of flashlights and crates of firewood (paper towel rolls). There was also a big tent which the kids could play in. Red tissue paper acted as a successful fire. The kids had a lot of fun making shadow puppets with the flashlights and pretending to build fires. The craft this week was more of a skill-based one. The kids had to practice cutting out paper that has different prints of objects you would find while camping- mud piles, sticks, waterfalls. The kids glued them in order on the map printout they were given. This craft practiced their fine motor skills. Then, we took the maps and acted out what we would do at each landmark as if we were going on the camping trip. After, we made an obstacle course consisting of a pool noodle which they used throughout the course, traffic cones, a scooter, and colorful plastic rings. They used th...

Today, Friday, May 27th, two preschool and one toddler playgroup. Claire and Lauren, who usually facilitated the groups, weren't here today, so Brooke and Kathy were in charge. They mentioned that the first group was going to have some extra kids that were new to the Treehouse , which we later found out would be a big adjustment. One kid came in early that had been homeschooled and wasn’t used to being away from his parents. It was very difficult for him to engage with other kids and only wanted to leave- he wouldn't stop crying. Brooke and Kathy recommended we try different activities like painting, drawing, and playing with a marble tower to try and distract him from the idea of leaving, but none of them seemed to work. Finally, towards the end of the playgroup, he started to play with the other kids, sliding cards and balls down a ramp. Once the playgroup left, Arya and I got to work on our individual assignments. Today, we spent time on the Inspired Treehouse website. We m...

On  Monday, May 23rd, we started the pirate theme. As the preschool group came in, they went straight to the sensory bin, which today was filled with sand, shells, gems, and cups to search and dig up treasure. The kids had a lot of fun with this activity. They were able to keep most of the sand in the bin, but some spilled sand was inevitable. I was happy to see how excited some of the kids were to pick up a broom and dustpan and clean u-p their mess. For the craft, the preschoolers worked on a pirate ship made of a paper plate, popsicle stick, and construction paper. They colored the plates brown and folded them in half to create a rocking pirate ship base. Some needed help with coloring while others were able to make full shapes and even marks with a crayon. Next came a popsicle stick as the mast, and a sail made of construction paper. For the movement activity, we created an obstacle course in which they would take a colored ball (treasure), jump on dots, climb up stairs, and ba...

  Today, Friday, May 20th, we helped out with two preschool playgroups and one toddler playgroup. The safari theme activities were the same as the playgroups earlier this week because we had kids that had not done them yet. When the kids arrived, we started with taking pictures of siblings. Earlier in the week we noticed that the siblings that were in the same group together were listed under one name, so we fixed that issue by putting them under separate names for separate days in the attendance system. The preschool-age children were all between the ages of 3 and 5 but had different levels of basic developmental skills, for example, some were able to more confidently interact while others took more time to open up. This was interesting to observe. Through these playgroups, Arya and I have both learned a lot about how to approach helping the kids in their activities. We pick up on queues on when to intervene in their struggles or help them resolve disputes. When the preschool pl...

Wednesday was spent with a playgroup of 5 toddlers. The activities we did with them were similar to what we did with the preschool group on Monday, but there were apparent differences in how we approached certain activities and how successful they were.  We started off the day with the same sensory bin that the preschoolers has, the difference being how they interacted with it. The playgroup of toddlers we were with were born during the pandemic. While they were isolated from other kids and the general public, most of their developmental speaking, communication, and gross motor skills are quite underdeveloped. Sensory bin time with preschoolers was loud and busy while sensory time with the toddlers was fairly quiet- a few kids were able to name zoo animals or verbally express themselves. The toddlers were especially distracted by pretty much anything-they would run around and had trouble staying focused for long periods of time. I had to adjust how I interacted with them to encoura...

Today was our first set of playgroups where we worked more closely with kids. We were helping to facilitate a playgroup of 9 preschoolers. Arya and I spent the beginning of the playgroup going around and gathering pictures of kids that we could use for the attendance system. We would take the picture and upload them in an app that would help the playgroup facilitators avoid confusion when differentiating all the kids. While most kids were excited to smile for a picture, some took a bit more effort. We used different methods of drawing their attention to a point of interest at the camera to capture their attention in that instance.  Our first activity with the kids was a sensory bin that has been put together by our mentors. The sensory bin is meant to engage the children while helping them to learn through hands-on play. The Treehouse has weekly themes for the kids, this week was a zoo week. The sensory bin was filled with little toy animals and blocks for the kids to build their z...