September 28

I and 3 other students visited the Ark Community Charter School for the first day of the program. We stopped on the way to get 2 pizza pies. When we arrived at the school, we handed out the pre-tests to the entire 4^th grade class. After the school day ended, we collected the tests. There were 15 students present for the program and after giving them pizza, we began our activities.

It started with just introductions. We had all the students split up into pairs and interview each other to gain an understanding of their cultural background. While they were interviewing each other, we would suggest questions and expansions on those questions to the kids to provide deeper explanations for their answers. For one pair, this led to a discussion about their thanksgiving dinners and immigrant parents. This activity succeeded in creating friendly relations between the two who had not interacted much previously. We then had them read the interviews out loud to the class and sometimes we had to ask them to speak louder, probably due to their shyness. This would help them get along better during group activities throughout the rest of the program.

At 4 pm, the children were taken by bus to the Boys and Girls Club. We did not have time to do activities there because we arrived at 4:15 and the children would have to leave at 4:30 pm. We are hoping to extend that time to 5pm.