Wednesday, April 3 (Please scroll down to see our awesome slideshow!)
Lauren Lee, our Curriculum Director began with the floor discussion and going over where each child will be sitting for their Chapter Team. Lauren was able to get the workshop off on the right tone with some quick reminders and that we would be working in groups today.
Next a Kristina discussed the share for the day and reminded the children if they had something to share later in the afternoon to let her know. Quickly Shannon raised her hand and said she indeed had something special to share! We had all enjoyed Phoebe’s song “Put your records on”, the day before, which helped the other children to think about something special they would like to share. Kristina told Shannon we will all love to have her share later.
The presentation for that day was Kids Share in Vermont and India. Kristina briefly shared her experience with the first workshop in Vermont and India in 2008, which took place with the Tibetan Children’s village and the Union Elementary School. Kristina’s daughter Phoebe demonstrated the Tibetan Singing Bowl, which created absolute silence and focus with everyone in the room! It was something to see!
Everyone got into their teams and listened for instructions on how to get started and transport their minds. Each team had a box filled with objects to help them think about what to write and a word jar was created to give them pop words for writing. Kids Share Children were asked to also draw what they were writing about. What came about was wonderfully creative through each team helping each other come up with good chapter stories. Some children did very well with having an adult write down what they were thinking.
The last half hour of our workshop we moved into another room where children
began their creation of the Friendship Paper Portraits. before we got started we did not forget about little Shannon, a second grader from Sandy Hook Elementary who wanted to share her whistling song. We were so proud of her and how well she did! What a talent and we are excited to see who else will share with us!
Nearly circling the room with kid portraits, each child was traced and asked to start
filling in their portrait. Every afternoon the children will have the last half hour to go back to their portraits and work. Some children may need to go with an adult earlier if they need a different activity to focus on.
We love our Newtown kids and 16 of them are from Sandy Hook, the youngest and bravest! Stay tuned for another exciting afternoon with Kids Share Workshops!
Photographs on this website are courtesy of Keene Eye Photography
