Short Group Activities.......

Last week in class we did a series of different innovative activities. The first activity that kicked off the night was innovative painting. We used various everyday things to paint with. The different materials ranged from wooden balls, feathers, cotton balls, leaves along with much more. This was a great activity that allowed everyone to express their individual self and is something that can easily be done with almost any population.

The second activity was "making magical music". Everyone was put into their groups and given a few minutes to create a beat/song with common household things. The benefits to this activity is that it is cheap, allows for a lot of creativity and expression and also allows people to work together. This was a great activity because it got everyone out of their comfort zone. I think everyone was a little shy to get in front of the class and show their musical talent but in the end everyone was laughing and having fun with it.

The third activity was done by my group. Everyone was split into their groups and each given a marker and piece of paper. We then played a 6 songs, each from a different genre. As the song played the students were instructed to close their eyes and draw on the paper how the music made them feel. As the song changed the papers got passes to another person. The goal of this activity was to have them mask their emotions with the music and show it on the paper. In the end it was interesting to see the patterns that correspond with each song.

The last group of the night did a few different activities. We started with an icebreaker which involved everyone sitting in a circle and throwing one of their shoes into the middle. We then had to pick out a random shoe, find the person it belonged to, find out something about them, and share what we learned about them to the class. It was a great icebreaker that allowed us to learn a little more about each other.

Chair Yoga was the next activity we did. I was very impressed by this activity because it is something so commonly known but it isn't something many people think of doing sitting down. Going through some of the exercises made me realize that this is very simple to teach and it is very effective.

Well the saying goes, "Save the best for last" The last event was an egg drop. We were placed into our groups and given straws, tape, newspaper and an egg. The goal of this activity was to create a strong environment for our egg to sit in so it could withstand being dropped from a second story balcony. Many of the eggs survived the fall, our groups did not :(

WiNgS.......

This week in class we met in the computer lab where we were given great instructions on how to successfully search for material to use for our upcoming paper. I wasn't expecting to learn much on account I received a class on successful searching in a prior class. Well it looks like I was wrong because I ended up learning some new things. I thought it was useful to learn that there is an option to copy the URL page where a certain article is found so you can easily find it later. It was also helpful to learn that you can put all of the articles you want to use in a convenient folder to access later. In the end I learned a lot of information that will make searching a much simpler process.

ABOUT ME......

Hello, I am a Junior at UW-L and my major is Therapeutic Recreation. I should let you know that I love to be active and travel. I was lucky enough to be stationed in Germany when I was in the active Army. After graduation I would really like to work with wounded warriors.