HeArts Trip 2

On Wednesday, October 15th, I had my second HeArts trip. Emilia was away on this trip so Hally and a couple of others took charge. The kids were already there when we arrived, and they all sat outside while we prepared. We didn't have the materials to do friendship bracelet making this time, but we set up for origami, mosaic making, painting and dance.

We started out the day with another cinnamon bun hug activity, which I think they all enjoyed. However, I'm not sure all of them really understood what we were doing, and I was a little concerned by the fact that we forgot to ask them to introduce themselves. After these initial activities were done we split into groups and moved inside for the games. I decided to be a part of the origami team to start of with, which was a nice change. There were two other ISK students there with me, and we taught the kids how to make snowflakes with us. It was a bit tricky, but they got the hang of it and were able to decorate them and hang them up. We also introduced some other origami tricks as the day progressed. However, after a while I moved to the painting group.

In the painting group we decided to introduce a halloween theme. They had printed out a few pictures of jack-o-lanterns, cats and witches and had them on the table for the kids to look at. I thought that this was a nice idea, but I was a little worried because, as a result, none of the children created anything unique. I noticed that all the art pieces that were created were based on the images that we'd printed out for them. I think this kind of goes against the entire aim of HeArts; its goal. We're meant to be pushing these kids to be expressive, not to be mundane and restricted in what they create. I did painting for the majority of the time, and was able to talk to the kids while I worked.

We ended the day as before, with a dance performance. The kids were performing Thriller, and they were all extremely enthusiastic about what they were doing. It was really quite wonderful to watch. We did a dancing game again, in which we stood in a circle and nominated people to come into it and share their moves, and then we finished. We gave all the kids their paintings and said goodbye.

I thought this was a very fun day, and I liked the focus on Halloween that we had. However, it was a new group of kids that had come (the ones from our first trip stayed behind) and so it was a lot harder to speak to them. We had to try and develop completely new relationships, and it was really difficult to make connections. I feel that it would be a lot better if the same group of people came everytime - that way, we'll be able to make more of a difference for these kids.

I had a few more ideas for games we could play in HeArts:
- face painting
- the folding game
- charades