Easter Club 2012 - Part 4

In der vierten und letzten Woche der OsterAG besuchten wir einen Seniorenheim in der Nähe von unserer Schule um ein bisschen Osterfreude weiterzugeben. Das gemeinsame Lachen und Spielen von den Kindern und Einwohnern sorgte für eine zauberhafte Stimmung. For our last week of Easter Club we visited a Senior Citizen's Home not far from our school to spread a little Easter joy. Watching the residents and children play and laugh together was absolutely magical. 


Ich muss zugeben, dass ich wenig Erfahrung mit Gruppen von Kindern im Seniorenheim habe. Aber meine Kollegin, Christina-Maria ist oft unterwegs mit Kindern in solche Einrichtungen und wusste, genau was zu tun war. Sie half den Kindern ein schönes Programm auszudenken, das den Einwohnern und Pflegern genossen haben. I must admit that I have no prior experience with groups of children in this setting, but my colleague, Christina-Maria, does this each week with a group of kindergarten children, so she knew just what to do. She helped the kids plan a wonderful program that really blessed the residents and staff.

Zum Anfang hat ein Kind die Christus-Kerze angezündet, die unter den Geschenken auf dem Boden lag. To start things off, a child lit the Christ Candle surrounded by our gifts . . . 

Zunächst haben wir ein Kennenlernen Spiel gespielt. Einer wurf einen Ball und der Empfänger musste seinen Namen erzählen. Einige von den Einwohnern haben auch ihren ehemailigen Beruf genannt. Es war hoch interessant zu wissen, dass wir z.B. eine Kinderzahnärztin und eine Horterzieherin unter uns hatten. Next, we played a "get-to-know-you" game, in which we threw a ball to each other and the person who caught it had to tell us his/her name. Some of the residents also shared with us their former professions and it was interesting to find out that we had a children's dentist and school child care worker among us. 

Danach haben wir die Lieder beigebracht, die wir in der AG gesungen haben. Das Lied im Foto unten geht darum, wie Gott uns umgibt und seine Hand über uns hielt. We also taught the residents the songs we'd been singing at Easter Club. This one talks about how God surrounds us and has his hand over us.

Ein paar tapfere Kinder haben ein Gedicht vorgetragen. 

A couple of brave children recited an Easter poem . . . 

Und ein Mädchen spielte ein paar fröhliche Lieder auf der Blockflöte.

and another played some cheery songs on her recorder . . . 

Unten kann man die Geschenke, die wir die letzten 3 Wochen gebastelt haben, genauer anschauen. Es gab 2 Grußkarten, Ostergras, und Bienenwachskerzen in Eierschalen. Here's a closer look at our gifts: two greeting cards, Easter grass in the shape of a cross, and beeswax candles in painted eggshells.

 

Unten schenkten 2 Jungs die gemeinsame Grußkarte und erklärten, was wir darauf gemalt haben. Below two of our boys present an Easter card on behalf of our entire group and explain the pictures that we drew. . . 

Das Ostergras wuchs schnell und wurde diese Woche zum Dschungel geworden. Wir mussten kurz vorher ein bisschen abschneiden, damit es immer noch schön aussah. Unten im Foto hielt ein Mädchen das Gras auf, damit man die Form des Kreuzes sieht. The Easter grass had turned into a jungle after four weeks and we had to trim it a little beforehand to make it presentable. Here, one of our girls holds it up to show the residents . . . 

Und jeder Einwohner dürfte die sanfte, grüne Gras berühren.

 . . . and she lets each resident feel the cool, green grass. 

Hier verteilen wir die Bienenwachskerzen.

Passing out the beeswax candles . . .

Nach dem Schenken erzählte Christina-Maria die Auferstehungs-Geschichte von Jesu und den Jüngern beim Tiberias See. Die Kinder fanden's toll den See zu "halten". Christina-Maria then shared the post-resurrection story of Jesus appearing to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. The kids loved "holding" the sea . . . 

 Sie haben auch gern die "Fische" (Knabberzeug) verteilt und gegessen.  . . . and got a little tied up with this great story of the miraculous catch of fish. They also had a great time helping pass around and eat the "fish" - fish crackers!

Zum Schluss spielten wir Memory mit den Kärtchen, die wir bastelten. Unten stellen die Kinder das Spiel auf. Last but not least, we played Memory with our homemade cards that we made last week. Below the kids are setting up the game.

Die Kinder spielten gegen 2 Frauen vom Seniorenheim, die würdigen Gegnerinnen waren. Leider (oder vielleicht zum Glück!) haben wir nicht genug Zeit gehabt zu spielen bis jemand gewonnen hat. Ich glaube, alle hätten aber stundenlang spielen können. The kids played against two ladies from the Center who were worthy opponents. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!), our time came to an end before we had a clear-cut winner. I think everyone could have played for hours if we had had more time. 

Nachdem wir ein kleines Snack zusammen aßen, haben die Mitarbeiter vom Seniorenheim uns die Räumlichkeiten gezeigt. Die Kinder fanden es interessant zu sehen, wie das alltägliche Leben dort funktioniert. Then, we shared some refreshments with the residents and a staff member took several of the kids on a tour of the wing. Our kids really enjoyed seeing some of the residents' room and how life at the Senior Center works. 


Von all den Sozialprojekten, die ich bis jetzt mit den Kindern gemacht habe, fand ich dies am schönsten. Es war ein wunderbarer Weg unsere Zeit zusammen zu schliessen und die Osterfreude weiterzugeben. Of all the social projects I have participated in with children from our school, this one might be my favorite. It was a wonderful way to end our time together and share the joy of Easter. 

(In case you missed the first three exciting episodes, 
here are Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3.)




This post is a part of 

and linked to The Magic Onions

Advent Club - Week 4

I’ve had the wonderful opportunity this December to co-lead an Advent Club at a local elementary school.  The theme of this year’s club is “Die Hoffnung von Weihnachten: an unsere Mitmenschen denken” (The Hope of Christmas: Thinking of Others). We have been discussing with our 1-3 graders what hope is, how we can find it in the biblical narrative of the Christmas story,  and then experimenting with how to pass it on to other people once we have it ourselves.  

As usual, we began with a Godly Play story.  If you will recall, in the first week, I told the children the entire Christmas story, emphasizing that just as God chose to send hope into the world through a small, helpless baby, hope often comes in unexpected forms.  In week two I told the story of the Good Samaritan and we stressed that giving hope to others often costs us something.  This week we wanted to get the point across that hope and learning to give hope to others is a process and usually starts with small steps. So this week I chose to tell two Godly Play stories that illustrate this beautifully, the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of the Leaven (Yeast). 

A Baby that grew up to change the world, a tiny seed that became a large tree, a little yeast that caused the entire dough to rise . . .   “Oh, I get it,” said one of the boys, “From little things come big things.”  Exactly.  I lit the Christ Candle again and reminded the children that if I blew out the flame, the physical light would be gone.  But the hope of Christmas, the hope that God will make the world a better place through His children,  is a light that does not have to go out.  We can carry this light in our hearts the whole year whereever we go.  And even though the children are small, they have an important role to play in this world. 

Here is a picture of my colleague and the children thinking over the two parables and how they relate to the Christmas story:

After the story, we planned our final project, which would be taking place the next morning.  We would be receiving a visit from a preschool in another part of Berlin and would be putting on a party for them at our school.  (This particular preschool caters to the needs of children with cardiac problems, although we did not tell our children this.) 

Because the group that we visited last week, Die Arche, had given us gift bags at the end of our visit to them, we got the idea to make gift bags for the preschoolers.  

Here are some pictures of our children filling the bags, tying the bows and painting decorative tags:

The next day, the preschoolers arrived at 10 am at our school.  Our kids got to miss some of their regular classes in order to help put on the party.  Our kids wanted to do a game room and a craft room again, very similar to what we had done at Die Arche last week.

We began the party by sitting in a circle and introducing ourselves.  The preschoolers led us in some Christmas songs, and then we ate Christmas goodies together.

The group dynamic was very different this week because the preschool children were younger than our kids. The preschoolers were far more interested in our facilities and the different toys in the rooms than in playing organized games!  Also, some of our older boys were rowdier than usual, perhaps because they were the big guys on the block this time.  The craft time went well and the older girls in our group did a great job of helping the preschoolers. 

Here you see one of the preschoolers absorbed in a new toy:

Here are some photos of our craft time. The woman in the picture is a teacher from the visiting kindergarten.

Because the preschoolers could only stay for a short time, I chose a craft that the kids could finish in a short amount of time.  It is called Stacking Trees and I found it through the Living Montessori Now website. Here is a child displaying her “matryoschka style” Christmas tree:  

When I asked our children later about how the experience had been, they answered that it had been easier to mix with the preschool children and play with them, because they were younger.  The drawback had been that the party had been too short and the preschoolers had to leave just as everyone was getting comfortable with one another. 

This party was another small step in learning how to be an agent of hope for others.  Like babies that take small steps before they can walk, our children are learning to find their balance in interacting with complete strangers.  The experiences with these children during Advent 2010 are priceless and I wouldn’t trade them for anything!  May the small seeds planted in their hearts flourish and may God use their lives to shine light into dark places.