South Hebron Hills, Thu 1.12.11, Morning
Aim: Art activity in Gan Huda for the 5th time this year, with the assistance of Eid & Huda according to the plan we made with Suha.
Road 317
Palestinians are working on the roads on the way to Tawani. We picked up Eid at Um El Kheir, who told us that on Sat. settler children came down from Carmel and uprooted olive seedlings belonging to a resident of Um El Kheir. There were soldiers, but they didn't intervene. There were also adult settlers including one who is particularly aggressive. In the end Eid called on a "nice settler" who managed to chase away the kids. According to Eid, there were similar incidents in Susiya.
Hashem Al-Darj: The kindergarten has 25 youngsters. There was much less crying than in previous visits. It seems that the kids are getting used to us and happily shake our hands.
Workshop topic: The winter. Huda drew elements of winter on the blackboard: rain, winds, children dressed in winter clothes.
Workshop plan: Reading a story on the subject, and pasting objects on a picture depicting "winter". Each child gets a page that is filled-in with cut-out elements and, then is colored.
Eid and Huda told a story, which kept the kids attentive, though less than the last time. Perhaps because the story was more abstract. Some of the children asked questions. We'd prefer it if Huda read directly from the book.
They need to be taught in stages and to work together.
1. Eid and Huda demonstrated the whole project. But it was difficult for the kids to understand the explanation, so we just started directly with the work.
2. We helped them cut out the pictures, some of the children knew how to use scissors, and others found this a difficult task. It was also hard to get the kids to decide by themselves where to put the pasted item. In other words, to think. But we saw that they were learning how to paste, without dumping all the glue onto the page. (Those of us who re psychologists will understand the importance of learning these skills.)
3. We collected the scissors and the glue and put the crayons. We also saw the same problem in choosing colors, Some, seem to work automatically, without expressing a conscious decision for a color or for an item.
4. Finally, we hung up the pictures.
5. We opened a garbage bag, and we all, including the kids, collected the left over from the floor. Cleanup is something that will take time to absorb.
6. Muhammed distributed candies that MW women left in his vehicle, and the children threw the wrappings into the garbage bag.
We felt that some friendly connections with the kids have been forned.
Photos (Nurit, Muhammad, Mira):
https://picasaweb.google.com/115469912026094971633/WinterWorkshopDecember12011#
“Staff” meeting:
After the kids went home we stayed on to discuss the project and the next workshop which will be on Thurs. Dec. 15 – showing emotions according to music.
In summary: satisfactory – have to work on the idea of how to choose and communications between the children.