For my action project, I returned to my elementary school, Ranch Park, to volunteer in Mrs. Menard’s class for the third time. This time, I assisted grade three students with their Daily 3 assignment again, which included reading, writing, and vocabulary activities on their iPads. We also watched an important video about the “5-second rule” when food drops on the floor and played an intense basketball game in gym class. Additionally, we also made fun cards out of design paper.
One success I had was educating the kids on the importance of not eating food that has been dropped on dirty ground. This is important because it helps the children develop healthy habits and understand the risks of consuming contaminated food since bacteria can attach to food as soon as it hits the floor making the “5-second rule” untrue. (1) By teaching them about germs and hygiene, I am promoting their well-being and encouraging them to make safer choices in the future. Another success I had was building a strong connection with the students. Since this was my third visit, they were all excited to see me. Furthermore, many of the students even had my unique name memorized which made the experience even more meaningful.
One challenge I faced was managing the basketball game, as the boys began pushing each other and arguing. I handled the situation by involving the teacher, who helped everyone stay calm and made sure the game was fairly played. Another challenge that occurred was cleaning the classroom at the end of the day because when we were making cards out of design paper a bunch of paper pieces fell to the ground. I overcame this by encouraging the students to help with the cleanup and providing them with a broom to make the process more efficient. Lastly, a challenge I faced was helping the kids log into their iPads to access their reading assignments, but it was glitching. I overcame this by informing the teacher and telling the students to try a different device.
Next, I plan on sharing this action project with others in my class, so they can learn more about my experiences and the obstacles I faced. Also, for my next action project, I might plan on going back to the same classroom or a different one to help out again because I enjoyed making a positive impact on the lives of young students.
(1) Is It Safe to Eat Food That’s Dropped to the Floor?- KidsHealth Medical Experts (n.d) https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/5-seconds.html
Hi,
I enjoyed reading your blog post, because I am interested in Early Childhood Development and besides my personal research, I like seeing real action being taken place for the importance of child development. As somebody that has worked with kids in classrooms before, I understand how many challenges that you face, and it seems like you overcame them very efficiently and effectively. I liked the structure of your blog post and it started with a nice introduction informing the readers about the activities that took place, then informed the benefits and challenges and finished with a good closure and hope for another action project. Your pictures corresponded really well with your writing and it was overall explained simply for understanding!
– Ariana
Hi Mahdiya,
This is such a wonderful and detailed post on your action project! I love that the kids remembered your name and were excited to see you, it shows how much of an impression you made!
The way you handled the challenges, you faced were great. It’s great that you involved the teacher when things got out of hand as well.
I would have loved to see you incorporating a creative activity like this again but maybe expanding it to involve more teamwork or a group project? Overall, I look forward to hearing your Celebration of Learning because it seems like you’ve done a lot with this class.
Perla
Hi Mahdiya,
Great work on this post! I loved reading it. You did a great job organizing and adding lots of detail in this post. You also added many images to which I like. I’m glad you were able to teach the kids not to eat food from the ground because most likely, so many of them probably do and they should know the risks of it. Anyway, hopefully you have the chance to attend more schools. Best of luck!
-Ciara