It went good — we got some of our students' interests covered, and got a bit more of knitting.

We got more of knitting practice but agreed to get back to crocheting next time — students liked it better and feel.more confident on making a big project with this technique.

It does look like I finally got some authority in this group, and some trust too. Some students are still acting silly, but most are excited to follow the recipe, and they responded quite well to "Waterfall-waterfall" and "Pam-param-pam" attention grabbers.

Today we did some "Pumpkin" Pizza Bites as a savory Halloween-y dish and a Date-Roach as a sweet Halloween-y dessert. Students were excited to work with pizza dough (I brought it from home) and making their own pizzas, but less excited to make the "cockroaches" out of dates, sunbutter and caramel sauce. They ate quite some caramel sauce, shredded cheese and pizza sauce, though.

It was quite a success, because the activity I prepared matched the dexterity the students have. I will look for other simpler but challenging projects for this age group for the next classes.

Today, we did the Yarn Turtles, sang a song about a Turtle named Tiny Tim, colored a bit, and per request of some students learned the first step on how to knit, close to the end of the class.

For me it was a delight to see this group again after a long pause (the school had a break), and seeing them so motivated and eager to learn. It looks like they loved knitting, but it is a bit confusing for them right now.

Today we started Knitting with our students. Some students were more motivated and even got the idea and grip on knitting by the end of the lesson, and I am very happy for them. Some were more into continuing to crochet, so I let them do more crocheting. We got the idea of what we want to do as a Big Project, so I think I need more yarn to make it happen.

For me, actually making something that they can do with little to no supervision and seeing that they are enjoying what they are doing was very fulfilling to see. I may need more utencils, specifically knives, for any further classes with "cut this or that with a knife" activity, as the number of knives we had (3) was not enough for the number of students present at the class (10 ).

today the students were working on two "spooky" salads: the Skull Cucumber salad and the Toadstool Caprese salad. They enjoyed cutting out "skulls" and "aliens" and "paw prints" out of cucumber slices, making tiny mushrooms on a toothpick out of mozarella, tomato and a leaf of basil, and actually eating the last ones. Some told me that they love mozarella, and asked for seconds/leftovers. At the end of the class some students draw pictures on their own, while others were creating more free-hand stuff out of the leftovers.

It was loud for me, but I used some more stern voice and warnings that I do not hear myself over their shouts and got them a bit more into the boundaries. In any case, the students got a lot of fun, and I was able to finish on time and walk them to their next location on time.

Today we got our creativity into Deviled Eggs with the Halloween twist. I brought one fresh egg and about 20 hardboiled eggs, so that we can learn a trick on how to tell a fresh egg from a hardboiled one without cracking it (I marked one fresh and one HB for this exercise). As a "curveball" we discussed if the egg yolk is the future chicken or not (one of the youngest students actually gave the correct answer that "we need a daddy for it to be a chicken, and this one has none"). Later the students peeled the eggs, mashed the yolks with mayo and mustard, added some food coloring and filled the rescued egg white halves with the mashed edd yolks+coloring. From all the decoration optoins we used only the sliced olives and the capers, but they got the idea quite well. At the end we had some time for coloring and clean-up, except two students who were exploring the possibilities of creating monsters out of egg pieces pretty much to the last minute of the class.

It was better than previous Friday, because when some students got too unruly we (with the said students) agreed to walk to the supervising teacher outside. We had some warnings before actual walking out, and I think next time I'd verbalize the amount of warnings I can issue before we actually step out (like "two warnings and then we go"). Also I have to prepare more moving and brain breaks that can be less supervized from my side as these students really need some more frequent breaks in this class.

Today we made some pompoms on a fork, using acrylic yarn. Students strengthened their counting skills when wrapped the yarn around the fork some fixed number of times, and practiced tying the string, also they expressed themselves in choosing different colors for their pompoms. Some student made as many as four pompoms total during the class.

To me it was a bit stressfull at the beginning, when an odd student coming by said "The Crazy Children are Coming!". One student of my group challenged another in kicking markers up to the ceiling, and after that I walked all the group to the Afterschool teacher / Supervisor, where the said student stayed and I, returning back with the group, finished our "visit to France" with much better attention and involvement from the rest of the students.

on Oct09, we "discovered" the South of France: Provence region and Corsica island. The students watched my micro-presentation on these to regions and listened to the Marsellaise, the anthem of France (because we "visited" Marseille). We also talked about the most famous Corsican man, Napoleon Bonaparte. The fact the students liked the most was the Louisiana purchase (they were really invested into drawing the territories that were under US control in late 18ct, and the rough sketch on how much Napoleon sold to the US). We also read a book "Little Wolf who didn't want to walk anymore", that has our old friend Little Wolf, the names of every month in French, and some interesting ways of transport/not walking in French too.

Again, chaotic. I will need to improve the engagement point, as this group is very easily distracted by each other to move around, the predicted structure of the class time (maybe with visual cues), and the restricions that may come if one is not interested in class but in messing with friends.

We tried to discover l'Occitanie, the southern part of France. Students were more interested in being children though. We had a book/song about Cadet Roussel, and learned to say "Mais vraiment, Cadet Roussel est bon enfant" -> "but really, Cadet Roussel is a good kid". We also listened and watched a song about three little piglets "Les trois petits cochons" by Henri Des — the familiar subject got their attention better, and we tried to do the redirected activity of "match the action verb" with written verbs from just learned songs to the moves these verbs are meaning.

For me it was easier but still a lot. The youngest students got their joy in creating some concoctions of their own, the older ones were actually cooking and learning by hands-on experience. They were very reasonable being around the hot plate, but still required supervision and some redirection to stay safe (which is expected). It took quite a while for me to clean the area afterwards, so besides managing the time and the students being on time for their next activity I will work on the faster clean-up as well.

Today, Monday Sept29, we cooked soup. We recalled a bit what techniques we used in our previous classes, then the students chopped the onion, peeled and chopped carrots, diced potatoes and cut the greens. Under my supervision they added all the ingredients in the pot and waited the in-between times, took turns stirring the vegetables in the pot, and enjoyed some coloring while we waited for the soup to be ready. At the end some students were so much into eating the soup they cooked that it was an issue to get them to their next place - I will work on it.