Uptown Students On Stage

Location: Brennemann (Joseph) Elementary School

Date: Saturday, January 12, 2013; 10:00 am-12:00 pm

By far, my previous visit for this program had been the most enjoyable experience of my Chicago Cares career.  I arrived this Saturday morning to find the cafeteria full of students and volunteers for all the programs being offered that day.  I checked in with Natasha, our volunteer leader who was filling in for today and after all the others had left for other rooms, we were left with 4 children and 5 volunteers, including myself.

Brennemann Elementary

Two of the kids from my last session, Yasmin and Adam were there along with two other girls, Dahlia and Jaclyn.  Before we began, I chatted with Yasmin and asked how her Christmas had been and if she had gotten the gifts that she had wanted.  She said that she had received an iPad and was very happy for that.  Natasha asked the volunteers if there was a particular game or activity that they wanted to lead, and I chose the ‘Party Game’.  We started by standing around in a circle and introduced ourselves, and also stated what we like doing.  The idea was that the next person in the circle repeats what they heard before and by the time we reach the last person; they have to remember everyone’s name and thing they like. 

Adam went first and he is a very shy boy. However, he makes up for that in enthusiasm and participated readily, albeit with a meek voice.  When it was my turn, I said that I like to write.  Others had interesting things like playing outside, watching TV and exercising.  Through this process I learned that besides Natasha, other volunteers were Ashley, Ben and David.  I also noticed that while Yasmin was a model participant, Dahlia was a bit cocky and Jaclyn was stubborn.  But they participated nevertheless.  We did another pass at the game, this time with actions, where we mimed what we liked.  For this round I said that I liked ice cream, something which almost everyone could identify with. 

The next game was called ‘Zip Zap Boing’, something that I had no clue about, but is apparently quite well known.  Ashley was going to lead this game where we were all to stand in a circle and send out ‘energy’ to another by calling either “Zip”, “Zap” or “Boing”.  A ‘Zip’ could only be passed to the person next to you, a ‘Zap’ could be passed to someone other than one next to you and ‘Boing’ was to return the energy back to the sender.  This was to be accompanied by a vigorous action of your hands.  Since it was going to be a fast paced game, Natasha had us do some loosen up exercises.  This was followed up by a non-stop game which had us panting at the end.  Despite making several blunders saying “Zip” instead of “Zap” and vice versa, we had thoroughly enjoyed this, kids and volunteers alike.

The next game was ‘Honey Walk’ and led by Ben.  This involved all of us walking across the floor assuming we were passing through increasingly viscous substances like air, rain, honey, Jell-O and wet cement.  This is always fun with the kids who get to do the most outrageous actions as they navigate through the imaginary mediums.  After this we had other games lined up, but Jaclyn was insisting on playing a game of her choice.  Seeing that we were going to lose her otherwise, Natasha agreed and we all sat down to play a game of ‘Duck Duck Goose’.  For whatever reasons, all the kids had identified me to be their target and so for the next several minutes, I was running around in circles.  Every now and then I got a breather as others were made to run as well.  Finally, after 20 minutes Jaclyn seemed satisfied and we moved on to the next game.

David led the game of ‘Fortunately, Unfortunately’, where we make up a story alternating between a fortunate and an unfortunate event.  This is always a good way to get the creative juices flowing with the kids and such was the case here.  We did two stories and interestingly, each one of them took a very grizzly turn with aliens attacking people and animals.  But it was all in good fun.  Next we played a game called ‘Obstacles’, which required one of the kids to go outside the room and be blindfolded.  Then the rest of us would arrange obstacles around the staging area, including chairs, props and ourselves.  One of the volunteers would be responsible for guiding the kid, by telling them where to turn and how to proceed.  I did my part by playing a different obstacle each of the three times that we played this. 

The yodeling sheep

Finally, the time had come for the final game ‘Party’, to be led by me.  Throughout our session today Dahlia and Jaclyn had been playing with the props, which led to Natasha scolding them occasionally.  I told them that if they played this game well, they could use all the props they wanted.  The idea was to take the children outside, let them chose which characters they wanted to play and what props they wanted to use.  Then we would come back into the room, the children would act out their characters while the volunteers would guess.  Adam and Yasmin had enjoyed this game a lot when we played it previously and they did so today as well.  But the best part was seeing Dahlia make most of the available props and dress flamboyantly.  While the rest chose props based on what character they were playing, Dahlia was tailoring her character to fit her props.  After several turns, including one by the volunteers, we called it a day.  The best prop of the day was a yodeling sheep that sang ‘Lonely Goatherd’ from ‘The Sound Of Music’ every time you squeezed it.  Being a song from my favorite movie, I couldn’t get enough of the sheep and probably played with it more than any of the kids.  Who said they were the only ones who could have fun.

Before leaving, Natasha sat us all down and asked what the best part of the day was.  Everyone had a game and I mentioned ‘Fortunately Unfortunately’ since it was a game about stories, something that I liked a lot.  But the best response was from David who said that for him it was making new friends.  Natasha and I cleaned up after everyone had gone, including finding the room and the closet where the props were to be stored.  That gave me an opportunity to see the school and its various playrooms.  As we walked back to the station, David’s words rang true.  I have met so many people over the past few months, and some of them only once.  But each of my sessions with them has been a wonderful experience.  The camaraderie of all my fellow volunteers has been incredible and while it may have been only for that one project, we had all indeed operated as friends. 


*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy