My first volunteering at Logan’s class finally happened on Monday; it was the first of six lessons for the year.  Logan was aware that I would volunteer in his class one day but did not show too much interest in it.  On Sunday when I told him that I would be there on Monday, his eyes got so large and he was beaming.  He actually said “I will be so excited that I will jump out of my chair”.  Wow! I never expected that kind of reaction from him and was happy to see that.

    On Monday when I arrived at school during their lunchtime to gather my materials/supplies, I passed by the outdoor eating area with a cart.  I scanned for Logan and found him eating and talking with two boys.  As soon as he noticed me, he looked surprised initially then changed into a goofy big smile.  As I walked past them, I turned back and made funny face at him a couple of times.  Logan was beaming and pretending to duck down.  He had the facial expression like “I can’t believe my mommy is here”.

   I set up quickly in the empty classroom, then the teacher came back from her lunch and my three recruited parent helpers arrived as well.  Just when I finished filling in the parents with the art project, we heard a three-bell rang.  It turned out that the rain started and the kids’ lunch got shorten by 10 minutes.  The teacher ran outside  right away and shortly after the whole class returned.  Logan was one of the four kids who carried in two big bins full of lunch boxes.  With the chaos of rain, the class calmed down quickly and back in their seats.  So the lesson began.  I introduced myself and the helper parents, and then started talking to the children with the materials I was given.  The lessons this year cover the different elements of art and this first lesson was about lines.  I shared three copies of famous paintings and utilized them to discuss different kinds of lines.  I tried to be interactive with the kids and asked them questions.  I was surprised with the overwhelming number of hands being raised.  I tried to go around the room and called on different kids.  Logan raised his hands too; I much later called on him as well.  His first question was asking when we could start our painting project, but the second question was sort of relevant to what I was talking about, so I used that to show the class another kind of lines.  All the kids had been great and attentive throughout the talking.  After the discussion, I demoed how to make the “Styrofoam printing” that we were doing.  Then their hands-on part began which was a bit more hectic.  We passed out the materials and reminded them to put their names on them.  The kids jumped in and started making their drawings.  Many of them raised their hands to ask questions, and some quickly suggested that they were done and ready for the ink stations.  The parents and I went around the room to help the kids and give them tips.  Then we had the kids going over to the ink stations one by one for printing.  Their art work came out quite nicely and the children were pleased.  Everyone finished and the lesson wrapped up within the hour time that we were given.  I talked with the class again and thanked them for doing a great job.  Then I was surprised and flattered by the class saying “Thank you Mrs. Brown” loudly to me.  The parents and I packed up our materials and left the classroom.  I was happy that the lesson went relatively well.