Honors Community Volunteer Project: Day 1

**Back in the Day: Tales of the 5th Grade Nothing**

On my first day of volunteering for the Honors Volunteer Project as a classroom volunteer at a local elementary school in my neighborhood, I had arrived in time to find that the kindergarten class I was to volunteer for was out on a field trip. Therefore, I waited for about 2o minutes for the office make as schedule to fit the time I was to help out with that day and check in to receive my visitor's pass.

My first destination was the class of my former kindergarten teacher, who now teaches 5th grade. The time I spent in this class for the first day was mostly observation, due to the fact the students were working in groups filling out a work sheet on a reading about "How Electricity Works", practicing reading comprehension and study skills. Two students had greeted me with "Hi stranger", as I walked in the classroom towards the teacher. I introduced my self as a sociology student working on a project for class, pausing for the comments and gasps about how old I am and what grade I am in. Not surprised at their curiosity, I answered their questions about whether I had my work permit, my favorite subject (sociology of course!) and if I was a "good student".

I observed a class of about 35 students, more boys than girls as they articulated answers in their groups. The girls seemed more engaged in communicating answers and participating with their group members than the boys, while the boys preferred to looking the textbooks for their answers.

The second class I visited was the 3rd grade class of another teacher who's class I had not been, in but was acquainted with. They were working on an art project for Mother's Day in which they had to write a short "poem" about there moms, and place their hands in paint to press upon paper hearts to decorate them with. I went around to each table to keep the kids on task and assist with spelling and various inquires while the teacher called up each child one-by-one to do their hand prints.

I helped one student spell "Sunnyvale" in a line of their poem about where their mom lived, and another think of a title for their poem. Curious glances followed me (I seemed to towered over the small desks) as I went around I complemented their work and commented on neat handwriting and cute sentiments in their poems. Meanwhile, one girl who was a primarily Spanish speaker asked me how to spell a word in Spanish. Having taken Spanish two, I had some ideal of how the phonetics of spelling worked and helped her to spell the word.

When this class went off to lunch, I decided to observe the playground and cafeteria for interactions of kids outside of the classroom. I was greeted by the jury duty as I watched, and noticed the older kids participating in more organized games (in gender separated groups) while the younger ones engaged in simple freeplay.

I approached the cafeteria and sat down for a time, taking in the familiar smell of formerly frozen chicken patties and government mac & cheese. Meanwhile, most kids simply carried on eating (mostly less interested in food and lunchables in general) , talking, or socializing while a few pretended to gasp and point at me playfully saying "stranger" (a learned appropriate response) then would giggle and turn away. I presume playfully do to my non-threatning stature as a 5 ft 1" female. There were a few stragglers and some early birds who rushed out to play eating 1/4 of their lunches (which was me back in the day).

Overall, the first day went pretty well and was a nostalgic experience being reintroduced into the simple world that is childhood, a nice break from the fast pace stress of a high school senior.