After coming back from beautiful Finland, week six of my study abroad experience was filled with fun and laughter. Each person in my class were implementers and they were responsible of for the planning and setting up of their activity.
Implementers responsibility included showing engagement, being independent thinkers, showing leadership, showing structure, and accommodating attitudes toward children and peers. While implementers were participating in their activity, other classmates were in charge of being helpers. Helpers task included helping the group with their activity and setting up.
My partner (Kalie) and I implemented a multi-age partner relay that focuses on cooperation, communication, and trust. The 1st round was control trial: the teams simply complete each station together. The 2nd round includes a blindfold for one of the partners. After the 2nd round is complete, the children and pedagogues will come together to see which team won.
After the partner relay race was completed, the children and pedagogues will have a discussion about how having a blindfold changed the game. After the partner relay was over, we wanted the children to have a better understanding about cooperation, communication, trust, and fairness. From participating in this fun partner relay race, we hoped that the children gain social awareness, self-confidence, large and fine motor skills, and concentration skills.
Since Kalie and I activity wasn’t until Friday, we were able to help our other classmates out with activities, as well as play some football with the kids. At first, I was so nervous to interact with the children because of the language barrier as well as not knowing what the best way is to interact with Danish children. Once I actually started to interact and play with the children, I started having fun and reminiscing about my own childhood. The kids were so fun to play with and surprisingly their English was perfect.
On Friday, I was so nervous because I didn’t know how our activity would turned out. Once our activity was in motion, my anxiety start decreasing and I felt so good seeing the children have fun and enjoy the company of their peers and fellow helpers. After our activity was over, it felt good knowing that my partner and I could plan a successful fun activity for children of all age groups to
enjoy.
After our activity over, we had a post-discussion with the children about we were able to experience what it is like to have different abilities. Now the children learned how important it is to receive help and be accommodated for. Throughout their life, the children will meet people of different abilities and know how important it is to help and cooperate with others that are different from them.
In our activity, the children experienced blindness. In their life they will see very old people, very weak people, people who have missing arms and legs, people who can’t hear, people who can’t speak, people who express emotions differently than you, people who can’t stop feeling sad, and people who just need extra time. We hope from our activity that the children learned the importance of cooperation, communication, and trust in creating a community that supports everyone.Blog photo #6 Blog photo #6
