Children's Discovery Museum Week 4

With only two days left interning at the Children's Discovery Museum, I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. So much has happened since my first day working, and each week somehow managed to take both a second and an eternity to pass. 

For my last full week here, I traveled with a woman in the Educational Department, Vera, along with another staff member, Gianna, and helped host story times at the local libraries. Some of these story times were bilingual, so as we read "Pete the Cat", colors, numbers, and more were translated into Spanish to help incorporate native languages of both parents and kids present. The three of us even made an effort to learn numbers in three other languages to create a better community for the families that attend these outreaches.

Conducting story times this week was perfect practice seeing as I had my own to host through the library working in collaboration with the Latino Center. Working with Vera, I was able to learn how to best keep an audience's attention and maximize learning in the short period of time that I had. When the time came for me to begin reading, despite having a very small audience, I put into action what I had observed. My chosen book was "Drum Dream Girl", and I had chosen to bring along a small drum, using it to keep rhythm with the book. I incorporated a musical song to introduce the book, and following the reading there was an activity for each child to create their own drum. I knew from the beginning that my story time was not in the most ideal circumstances, but if there is anything I've learned from this month, it's that it is important to always put in 100% in the work you are doing for others.

Gianna and Vera before story time with the kids.

Gianna playing a game post reading.
In this game, the kids guess behind which
colored shoe a strawberry is hidden, and for
bilingual audiences, the colors are
repeatedin other languages.

This past Saturday, San Jose hosted a veggie fest for the community and the museum was invited to host a booth at the park. I helped work at this booth, which was entitled "A Seat at the Table", and was a really interactive way to get kids of all ages to come and learn about the different materials cultures across the world use to prepare food. 

Visitors chose scented play dough, a seat, and any materials available to create their favorite foods while simultaneously learning about the culture that these materials came from. 

 

In helping teach culture, I was also able to help create one. A large part of what was important in this booth was to help incorporate different perspectives of life, and to do this we had people fill out little cards answering one of three questions. "I am...", "I am from...", or "I dream...". Watching the net wall get filled with more color as more people contributed with their story was amazing. (The photos are of some of my favorites).

This event brought to my eyes the importance in the difference we as people have. Being able to take part in teaching kids about the beauty in different cultures was an amazing experience, but encouraging families to talk together about who they are, where they are from, and what they believe in was an even more incredible feat. Interacting with the community in the way the museum does I believe is so incredibly important and I am so proud that I was able to be a part of their outreaches this past week.