Coleman's Camp - Weekly Journal Entry: 4/15/2013

Week of 4/15: The Thursday group started this week talking about Open House, which would be just an hour after the end of our session.  Kids shared some of the things they have been working on in their classrooms.  The Thursday group did a "pass-along story."  This setup was a unique way to challenge kids' writing and narrative skills.  Each kid started with their own piece of paper, writing a character introduction.  Next, we all folded our papers back to hide what we had just written, except for the last sentence, which was left visible.  We then passed our papers clockwise to the person next to us.  That kid then had to read the little bit of information left available and write about the setting of the story.  The paper was folded back again, hiding all but the last sentence.  Kids passed papers again.  We continued this process through different aspects of crafting a narrative, including introducing another character, creating a conflict, and finally having the story reach some type of resolution.  In the end we unfolded the accordion-like piece of paper and read the stories aloud.  The final product was exactly as bizarre and humorous as you might imagine, especially considering the surreal, unique, and sharp sense of humor this group exhibits.  The Thursday and Saturday groups both reviewed a packet of information received from the Omaha Zoo about the endangered animals we selected for a symbolic adoption.  The zoo had sent photographs of the actual animals we adopted, informational cards on each of the animals, a letter from the zoo about the program, and adoption certificates.  The Saturday group finished their session with game playing, allowing for some practice in sportsmanship and dealing with the frustrations of losing in games.

Coleman's Camp - Weekly Journal Entry: 4/8/2013

Week of 4-8: With the library room unavailable at Corinth, the Thursday group met in my classroom this week.  We started by learning about my new classroom pet, Lightning Bolt, a baby bearded dragon.  Kids learned how to properly hold a bearded dragon and passed him around the group.  We then created a voice-overdub project where we selected a Disney video with a number of characters.  We watched the video several times, the volume muted, and created a new narrative to match the images.  Kids selected characters, worked up voices, and practiced improvisational skills while the video segment played.  The challenge was to create a (somewhat) coherent narrative with a beginning, middle, and end that we filmed.  The Saturday group was back at the Corinth Library for a LEGO themed challenge.  Some of the session time was spent in cooperative play, imagining and building various LEGO creations.  The second part of the session involved a challenge where kids were put into two member teams.  Team members were then separated from each other while one member created a LEGO build with 5 or 6 pieces.  The team members would then rejoin and would have to guide their partners through selecting pieces, assembling, and trying to duplicate the original piece as closely as possible.

Coleman's Camp - Weekly Journal Entry: 4/1/2013

Week of 4-1: The Thursday and Saturday group watched several short video segments on Endangered animals from National Geographic as we planned to work with Violet and Hazel's grandfather to "adopt" four of the animals through an impressive program with the Omaha Zoo.  The kids in each session read about the animals and made choices based primarily on cuteness and familiarity with the animals.  The Thursday group again enjoyed the outside weather and played their second game of psychiatrist with a few new students who had not experienced the problem-solving and high abstract reasoning process before as they were absent.  The Saturday set off on an outdoors adventure, exploring well past the Corinth Library parking lot they knew well.  They were able to find spring blooms, interesting drainage areas, fossils in the rocks, landscaping structures, and even (thanks to Violet's keen eye) discovering a secret passage between seemingly solid bushes and a security wall!

Coleman's Camp - Weekly Journal Entry: 3/25/2013

Week of 3-25: The absolutely beautiful weather allowed the Thursday group to be outside for half their time, playing a game called "Psychiatrist" (based off of a game I learned at Avila University during my undergraduate years).  In this game, several players have to develop lines of questioning and sort through answers that may appear contradictory or inaccurate as they face a circle of "patients" who all have the same issue.  The psychiatrist faces a circle of these patients and is given a few rules and guidelines they must keep in mind while they play, such as "every patient is being truthful and you cannot ask the patients' names."  This game allowed for intensive social skills rehearsal and practice, problem solving, and higher level/abstract reasoning.  The Thursday group also participated in a game I developed some years ago called "Tim's Toy Store."  In Tim's Toy Store, the students are provided with dozens of collectibles, toys, stuffed animals, or household items that they are largely unfamiliar with.  They are initially provided a nominal amount of start-up money (usually around $5 in actual cash) and allowed time to examine the toys and other items.  The goal is for each student to choose the item that has the most actual value; the team who selects the items worth the most money (cumulatively) wins and is allowed to select any of the items to keep, while the other teams receive nothing (or so they believe, until the end of the game).  Assigned to teams, they have some business and strategy decisions to make.  I provide them with a few "free" pieces of information that can help them sort through the toys and other items and begin determining/deducing relative value.  Then I offer levels of information for sale at leveled prices, but purchasing this information will decrease actual money (on hand).  There is a balancing act on what resources to use, when, and how much to acquire these resources.  There are a variety of other factors that can be brought in depending upon how the students are doing, their interest level, frustrations, and even individual versus group decisions.  The motivating factor is that the winners will actually win valuable items while the non-winners will not have anything.  Of course, after a review of the lessons learned and reflection on decisions, consequences, group dynamics, and use of resources, I have a reveal where everyone is allowed to take an item, with the winning team having first choice.

The Saturday group finished creating mouths and eyeballs for play-acting faces and we took a few photos of the results. They then spent the majority of their time participating in a scaled down version of the Scavenger Hunt the older Thursday kids had helped invent last week.  The scavenger hunt used the descriptive hints, the ability to blend into crowds, and decision making/problem solving skills.  Each student selected unique items from a box and then spread throughout the library in teams to hide the items.  Back in the main meeting room, Violet worked with one team while I worked with the other, brainstorming puns, riddles, clues, symbols, and even metaphors that we wrote down.  We then read the clues to the other team and set off to find the items and earn points for our team.