During our last time at BJM, Hannah and I wanted to do a fun activity with the students that they could later take home. We decided to have them make snowflakes and get them to decorate them. We provided them with an example snowflake and already cut out snowflakes. This was a fun but messy activity as using glitter can always be. However, the joy of the children and the teachers overcame anything else. I loved the different ways they were able to decorate the snowflakes and expanding on using certain decorations for things I wouldn’t have excepted to use them for. For instance, the pipe cleaners we had used in our example us a string to hang up the snowflakes, but some of the students stuck it on their snowflakes giving them an extra sparkle.

The BJM after school program has made me realize how creative our minds are as children. From playing pretend to dressing up and holding a suspense of disbelief, these are things I feel that I’ve let go as I have gotten older. During this week’s service, I got to experience it again as I joined some children in making things with play-doh. There were some cookie cutters they used with the play-doh to pretend to have baked cookies. Then they went around having me “taste” all their assortment of desserts. This made me reminisce of times I would use items around my house when playing I substitute for other things.

At BJM elementary school’s after school program, the students are given the options to do different activities. One of them is a dance class, but usually only do the older children partake in this activity.  The art room is next to where the dance class takes place, so there would be times where the younger children will be intrigued by the dance class. It was a great sight to see this children show off their dance moves and feel comfortable enough to join the older children. Some were a bit more timid, but after much encouragement from the teachers and me these children felt okay with joining. Sometimes a little push is necessary to help children see their potential.

During my third visit to BJM elementary school, I noticed the sense of community in the neighborhood. Ms. Sarah, who is a teacher that helps out in the Art Room, has been living in Ithaca for many years and has been part of these children’s lives even before they were born. Since she moved to Ithaca, she has always worked with children, so she has interacted with many of the parents when they were children and some are even her godchildren. Ms. Sarah exemplifies loyalty to these people’s families and does her best to get to know the parents of children she has not met before. It is great to see that she was able to make a home away from her home and contribute to its development.

Since I volunteer in the Art Room, I thought it would be interesting to do an arts and crafts project. Once again Ella joined me and I showed her how you can fold a paper in half and cut out a butterfly that way. This got a few other students’ attention and asked if they could also make one. They each had their own unique shape and once we began coloring them in the children were able to express themselves more with the patterns and colors they chose to use when decorating their butterflies. I chose to show them how to make paper butterflies since it was a project I enjoy

This is a butterfly I decorated with Ella.

ed working on as a kid. It is a simple project and can be fun to work in as a group.

To be frank I was nervous what to expect my first time visiting BJM elementary school and helping out in their after school program. Children are a lot of responsibility and getting them to participate in activities can be tough. However, the moment I walked into the Art Room I was welcomed by a bunch of curious children asking me who I am and bunch of other questions. This instantly reminded me of being around my younger sister, which helped ease up the nerves. This is where my friendship with a girl named Ella began as we worked on writing each others’ names repeatedly. This interaction showed me how patience is an important skill to have when working with children, since she kept on insisting I was writing her name wrong due to my different handwriting. Knowing that she wanted to be in control of what we did, I suggested she come up with a different thing to do. This led us to drawing, which helped us get out of the previous activity that seemed to be slightly frustrating her.