After school I again had the pleasure of taking the PHS French Club to the South Haven Boys and Girls Club for a fun filled, gluey, glittery afternoon of making Christmas ornaments with about 100 members of the BGC! The PHS students involved were: Jesus Peña, Sarah Russ, Aaron Parrett, Dakota Wolters, Jeremiah Nelson, Elizabeth Walczak, James Lane, Megan Proffer, Krysten Rebeck, and Ashley Weller. These students are amazing! They contributed ornaments, glitter, glue, and a wide variety of other crafts materials to ensure that we would be able to give each student in all grades the chance to decorate as many ornaments as they wanted to make. When you first walk into the club, you feel like a rock star, because the little ones are so excited to see you and especially the high school kids! They just love spending time with the big kids!
We began by working with the 5-7 year old group. The high school kids once again took the reins from me (Madame Flynn), as I am just the sponsor, not a member of the French Club. They set up the tables with all the materials, from googly eyes to glitter glue to Pom pons. Each child picked out an ornament, and we sat down to decorate. It is exhilarating for me as an educator to watch my high schoolers demonstrate leadership and friendship with the little ones. All that's left for me to do is sit down at a table full of little ones and make ornaments! The little kids are so excited from the attention they get from the high schoolers! I myself enjoy asking the little ones about the best parts of their day at school! They tell me how much they love their teachers at Paul Saylor and South Haven Elementary! They are always most excited about their time in the computer lab, the library, in PE, art, and music! Kudos to each and every single one of their teachers, as well as to the staff at the BGC, For all of their hard work with these little people! I'm also always impressed by the good manners and friendly behavior these kids demonstrate! I'm also thankful to these kids' families for sharing their little ones with us! It is such a humbling experience as an adult to observe the interactions between the little kids and the high school kids.
While we transitioned to working with the 8 and older kids, some of the high school kids went into the gyms to play parachutes with the club kids. The 8 and up kids had just as much fun, and we're equally a joy to talk to and spend time with.
In October the French Club went to the club where we painted pumpkins and decorated treat bags with about 20 kids K-5. We also got to have a candy hunt and play sports with the kids. It was as amazing a time as today's outing. But we felt we wanted to be able to give every single child the opportunity to participate, so we went all out and bought over 350 ornaments.
As a high school teacher, I love all aspects of my job, but getting out of the classroom and into the community brings me joys that they never tell you in college that you will get to experience. The joy of seeing high schoolers blossoming into real leaders. The joy of watching them interact kindly with five year olds. The joy of hearing elementary kids tell me about their days. It's truly a season of joy that we are entering, but you don't have to wait til the holidays to experience this joy. You can get your hearts full of joy by spending 2 hours any given afternoon with these young people!
The French Clubs next activity will be our 13th annual bell-ringing for the Salvation Army on 12/10 at the Portage Walmart. You don't have to be in French to join French Club. You just have to want to spend time helping others and have a desire to learn and share a little bit of French culture with the community. Any students interested in joining should see Madame Flynn in Room B22 any day after school.
We will be returning to the BGC in January for K-5 story time beside the (fake) fire place and chocolate milk! We will also be teaching the K-5 kids some traditional French songs such as Au Clair de la lune, Frère Jacques, and Tous les oiseaux.
Sincerely, Andrea Flynn