My 5th Visit

Well today started out pretty good, except the fact that I was late again. I couldn't find my umbrella anywhere, its such a bummer because it was so nice out last week, but anyway..other than that my morning went well.

We met someone new today, her name was Ms. Pretty, she was on maternity leave and just recently came back to school. She is the person in charge of the VIPs program at the school I tutor at, and Ms. Dalomba was filling in for her. She introduced herself and let us know how to get in contact with her. She seemed very nice, and for someone who just had a baby, she looked amazing. But she let us know that other than the sight words and the poem, we were allowed to play games as well. This was very exciting news, because my kids always get bored of the sight word game and the poem very fast. Usually, they are able to finish it within 15-20 minutes, and I don't want to waste the remaining time with just idle talk so we end up playing the sight word game again. With the addition of a new game, I thought it'd keep their attention more and gain more excitment.

After I got all my materials ready, and got myself situated, I went to meet the kids. Cindy and Tom were both very excited to see me, with my absense the week before they told me they missed me but were glad they got to play on the computers while I was away. I told them that I had a new game to share with them and they were excited, but I said we would only play it if they were good, and got through the rest of the materials for the day. Sophia was running late again (she has gym before she meets with us, which makes her late) so we started the sight word game with out her.

We got through the sight word game relatively fast, surprisingly both Tom and Cindy were paying attention and were making sentences quickly. After about 5 minutes we were done and moved on to the poem. The poem I picked was "Winter Snow" they both took turns reading the lines then I made them point out a few of the words that rhymed, and some words that had the same beginning and ending sound.

Sophia still hadn't showed up by the time we finished the poem, so I started to explain the rules of the game without her. We were playing "picture dominos" Each piece of paper had two pictures on it, each with a different sounding word (i.e. cat and piano, dog and moon). Each of the kids got 6 papers (dominos) there were enough so that only one domino was left to start the game. After I started to distribute the dominos Sophia joined the group so I briefy told her what I was doing. After I passed out all the dominos (I was also playing) I told them that the object of the game was very similar to the real game of dominos. We had to match up the pictures with other pictures that had the same beginning sounds (i.e. cat and car, dog and doll). The kids did very well, I was surprised that everyone didn't fight against me while playing this game, usually they are constantly asking me to go to the bathroom, to get drinks, and just to join their friends in playing different games.

About three quarters of the way through the game, the dominos were starting to not have matching pairs, so we had to start a mini domino game to the side. We played this game for the rest of the time session, and we finished just in time. I was glad that I had a new game to offer the kids, after all of the sight words they had to do I think they deserved it. Although I noticed that the kids were being alot more easy to deal with, I found that I missed it when they were sort of all excited and jumpy. I asked them if they were feeling well, and they all stated that they were just tired, so hopefully they will be back to their normal selves next week.

I didn't give them any feathers today because everyone seemed to be in a foul mood. They did listen to me, but they kind of seemed reluctant to talk to me. I would have to ask a question several times before I got an answer, and the kids just seemed to not care much about the activities. I wanted to give them feathers, but I was still upset with myself for two weeks ago when I gave Cindy a feather when she didn't deserve it. I held out on this one and kept telling myself that they will get feathers when they truly deserve it. Oh and I forgot to mention, the school was having a themed day where students could dress up in their favorite characters, and Sophia was dressed as Tinker bell! It was about the cutest thing I had ever seen and made me miss my elementary school days. But anyway, after I walked the kids back to class, I went to the VIPs classroom to fill out paperwork.

I made note of the game that I played with the kids today, and filled out all the other paperwork, then put away the materials that I used for the session. After that I made my way to RIC.