A New Way to Food

Kids love sugar. Kids at the CCWCC Kids' Group are no exception. Every activity, they get pizza to eat since we hold the group during normal dinner time. That won't stop us from bringing more food to the party.

Since I was delayed in posting due to moving apartments, this post includes the two most recent activities. The first was planned by two other volunteers: animal cracker comic books. They pulled the idea off of Pinterest. Using printable comic book templates, glue, animal crackers, and gold fish, the kids got to create their own comic book stories.

This was a great, cute idea that encouraged their creativity. Unfortunately, a much younger crowd showed up than was expected. One girl, instead of gluing cracker to paper and leaving them be, glued cracker to cracker and ate them together. I guess it is a good thing that glue is edible!

I think encouraging positive outlets for creativity with kids is essential to growth. Not only do schools increasingly limit kids' experience with the arts, but these kids who come from homes victim to domestic violence may have even less opportunity. Even though the activity didn't turn out as planned, they had a great time. That, ultimately, is the goal.

My activity was last week: the first week of school for these kids. To celebrate the start of the year and the end of the summer, we taught them how to make ice cream. I loved making ice cream in science class back when I was younger. I have also found it to be a great way to encourage an interest in science and cooking.

The process is pretty simple: You fill a bag with ice and ice cream salt, then place a bag inside that one with the cream mixture. We added vanilla extract to give it some flavor. And then you shake! Only girls were in attendance last week, and it was so great to see these girls dancing around and jumping and shaking the ice cream.

It really is a beautiful thing to see the light in their eyes and the pride that they got to eat something that they made. Activities at Kids' Group aren't meant to just be fun. The goal, my goal, is to teach them as well as entertain them.

#activityplan #reflection #snacks