Day three!

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 5:54 am

Today was day 3 of the summer reading program. The local vet tech came to talk about dogs and small pets. She brought a guinea pig with her. She gave the children small books about safety around animals, a bookmark and a pencil. They ask and answered a lot of questions. Then, we made magnets out of sheet foam, peel off strip magnet and stickers and markers. Then, we played a team game. We assigned teams the first day. We told the children they would remain on the same team the whole seven weeks and the more team members that showed up, the more chances they had of winning the games. So, today some children were out and there were a couple new ones. But, out of four teams, none had all the members.One team had only four and one had six but two were under three years old. Some teams had mostly older children so it was rather mixed. So, todays game: Each team got a ball of yarn, approximately the same size. They had to make a line or circle and pass the yarn around until the ball was unwound. Then, they had to wind it up again. It was so funny. One little girl organized her team and kept them on task. As the ball unwound each team member held on to it as it went around so, no snarls. The team next to them saw what she was doing and tried to copy it. It was not as organized. The other two teams were mostly older children and I have to say, boys. They were tossing the ball of yarn to each other and team D ended up losing their ball of yarn and it went under the table. Instead of going under after it, they just kept pulling on the yarn. It unwound of course which was what it should have done, but with no one controlling it they soon had this pile of yarn and it became a big snarl. After it was totally unwound they tried to wind it again and there was total chaos. The third team didn't do much better than Team D. Sisters headed team B and team D. They both had snarls and couldn't get they yarn untangled to wind it. Team A headed by the girl with all younger boys and the two little ones unwound their yarn and calmly rewound it. They were done way before the others. Team C was on the right track, they were just slow. It was all girls.
I told the teams that what they should have done when they had too many snarls to wind the yarn was to make a ball of the snarls and wind around it. No one said it had to be wound neatly. They all groaned and said, "Now you tell us." Well, I couldn't give hints during the game, could I?
They all got their tickets for the drawing boxes, kids and helpers. I will wait to see who wins the children's books and which adult wins the $25.00 gift certificate to the book store. The animals on parade go almost around the children's room. Next week is a holiday so no program. Kids can still read and check out books and return books during the next two weeks. We'll be back on July 11th. There should be lots of animals up by then. There were 31 kids and 9 helpers today. One homeschool family didn't come today. That lowered our total. That mother has 5 children under seven years old, the youngest being two months. All girls. Poor dad! He's surrounded. Wait until they are in the giggly stage. My uncle had 5 girls out of 7 children and said if he could can giggles and sell them he'd be a rich man.
So, today the director from the children's boys and girls club had those children clean up the room before they left. They did a remarkably good job. I came home and had a nap before we went to dinner and then to work. DR did manage to get a few pictures between rain drops and I will try to get them downloaded tomorrow. Dooley

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eileen wrote on Wed Jun 28, 2006 10:31 am:

I would love to have seen all the children with their balls of yarn - it must have been soooo funny.

Gardenstew wrote on Wed Jun 28, 2006 11:35 am:

What a great exercise in team-building. I bet the girl who headed up the winning team grows up to be CEO of a huge multinational, heh!

dooley wrote on Wed Jun 28, 2006 3:07 pm:

They were funny and I think they all had fun. That one team took it so seriously. They had a job and did what it took to get it done. The boys on the two teams who got so tangles were just playing around which didn't please the girls at all. Dooley