I had my first of four summer slide programs in Bethlehem today – one session at Marvine and one at Fountain Hill. As I found out each site has three of the local schools represented so the kids are mixing with other kids outside their home school. I’ll be working with new 1st graders in this program.
Marvine had about 15 kids and it’s interesting to see them warm up to me, the other kids and the situation. Eventually they loosened up as a group and as individuals. The teachers also got a slice of my tricks, too.
We did Bear Hunt and added a verse about a spidery forest, and we did All Around the Kitchen with their dance moves. I hope to graft their work with the kids at Fountain Hill. I didn’t get around to using the bag, but that’s not bad. Later.
Fountain Hill was a much larger group of about 30 kids so we met in the gym. I decided to to do one session with the big group and perhaps do two smaller sessions in a smaller space for the remainder of this residency. It was good to do the whole group to start off with and get a sense of a larger community. Again, some of the teachers were not aware of what I do, so that was cool.
We added a Red Tornado to Bear Hunt which was wonderfully peculiar. I will share this with Marvine next time. I opted to break out the bag and give the kids some jump time.
All in all, it was a good breakout session with both groups. We now have a relationship we can build on.