Charleston, SC 1 - Children (Post 3)

TUESDAY

Rise and shine at 7 AM! Hello, Food Bank at 9:00. Today, we bagged buddy packs. Buddy packs are bags filled with small snacks to give students something to eat over the course of a weekend to prevent hunger. These packs consisted of two milks, two cereals, a small can pasta, a small Chef Boyardee, two fruit cups, and a granola bar. We worked in an efficient assembly line to pack these bags for three awesome hours. As we progressed, we made it our goal to open and use all of the Chef Boyardee since it seemed those were running low. As our third hour approached, we began doubling up—doing two bags per person. We raced through the line, all in the zone. The minutes ticked past, until finally noon arrived all too soon, and we had not reached our goal. However, we kept packing until we met our goal.

At the end of the day, we packaged a total of 2,025 buddy packs! That's 2,025 children that won't go hungry for a weekend! To put that into perspective, the Charleston food bank distributes between 12,000-13,000 buddy packs each month! So while we accomplished a lot, it was still only a small fraction of the whole. It's crazy to think how many kids are in need.

After the food bank, we napped and then headed over to WINGS. Today was fantastic! The second those Kindergartners walked in, they all hugged me! We danced together and sang and held hands. In addition to being loved by them, they also saw me as a figure of authority. They did well listening to my instructions. For example, during academic center, I reminded them to use kind words, so they did. They also stayed on task while working on their homework.

Today was a "choice" day, which means the kids were allowed to pick an activity to go to. I chose to go to painting, and four of my kindergartners came with me to painting, too. While we were getting set up, Laura and I did read-alouds to the kids. I read Green Eggs and Ham to the kids, and they loved it! They were all so engaged! Towards the end of choice, we had a couple minutes of extra time. As a teacher, I've learned that it's crucial to keep kids occupied during every minute. So, I jumped up and said, "Let's do the hokey pokey!" This turned out to be such a great idea! Almost all of the kids enjoyed singing and doing the dance. It ended on just the right moment because the kids then lined up to go to dinner. I was so proud of myself for making a smooth transition. On our way to dinner, my kindergarten girls were amazing in keeping their level zero voices. They faced forward, didn't talk, and kept their hands to their selves. I was SO proud! Especially since one of the girls was normally super talkative and unable to stand still. She did a stunning job! I was so proud and so happy!

During dinner, we had a hoola hoop contest between Mizzou students, WINGS kids, and WINGS leaders. This was priceless. Watching my peers try to hoola hoop against these talented kids was too funny. The kids ended up winning—congrats, WINGS kids!

After WINGS, we headed on home. It was my turn to cook dinner tonight with my partner, Zach. We planned to make homemade pizza. This proved to be more challenging that we thought… two hours later! TWO. HOURS. Of cooking. Our problems revolved around gooey dough, especially in the center of the pizza. It did not help that we had to bake the pizza on cookie sheets, and we could only cook two pizzas at a time. Since we were cooking for eleven, we thought four pizzas would be ideal. After our two hours, we finally finished and we all greatly enjoyed the pizza.

We closed the night by playing games late into the night. Spoons got competitive and then we played Signs, which I found particularly difficult. At one point, we were all so slap happy that we just could not stop laughing. It was such a great day. I can't believe tomorrow is Wednesday. The time is going by so quickly! But I'm having a blast and I would not change a thing.