We had a heart filler of a day at Garden View Village
today! We had taken some time before going up on the bus to brainstorm some of
the things that the students love/things that fill their hearts. They came up
with a great list (as you can see in the picture below!).
After having our snack at Garden View Village, we revisited this list and talked more about the things that fill our hearts. We talked about how to cut out a heart shape and how to create a heart map, filling the heart with all of the things that are special to us. The students did a great job making sure that our senior friends, Dianne and Helen, had everything they needed to participate in our project. It was amazing to walk around hearing the students explain their heart pictures to each other, and the time they took to complete these projects reflected how important the students thought they were. It was really neat to hear the kids talking to our senior friends about what they like to do and what their family was like growing up. One of our students befriended Helen right away and helped her cut and draw her pictures. She asked questions about her family so that she could colour them in appropriately, and they were heard laughing together from across the room. What a marvelous sound!
Mrs. McLean and I wrote descriptions for each picture and were so impressed by the thought and detail they had put into these projects.
Once all of the students were finished, the put them on the ledge to be displayed, and then we took a picture of them with all of the hearts.
We then took our hearts downstairs and showed all of the senior friends that were having coffee. The students did a great job introducing themselves and explaining their hearts to our friends. We overheard a lot of praise and excitement from our senior friends. Many were very impressed by how artistic our students are!
After talking to a few senior friends each, it was time to go back upstairs for a story read by Peggy (Ms. Kinsey’s mom!) before leaving. I told the kids a few times throughout the day how amazed I was by their efforts and Mrs. McLean came by later in the day purposely to tell us that it was one of her favourite days at Garden View Village so far. The connections that the students are beginning to make, and their increased level of comfort with our senior friends, are truly incredible to be a part of.
