Posts Tagged ‘Miss Sue’

Footprints in Time

Sunday, August 5th, 2012

Miss Sue Came into the crafts class at camp and announced that a new path was going to be created from the back entrance of the community center to the lake, which is about a 1/2 mile distance. She asked that the “Can Dos” think about a way to make the path special. The “Can Dos” all nodded their heads yes, and Miss Hattie, who was leading the crafts session that day, smiled and said they would.

After Miss Sue left, the class got very quiet as they thought about ways of making the path special. Miss Hattie sat thinking to herself. All of a sudden she burst out with a big “AHA”and the kids all looked up hoping she had thought of something.

“Footprints, let’s make stones for the path with our footprints,” said Miss Hattie. “Huh?” answered some of the kids.

Hector wanted to know how they would get there footprints on stone. Maria was afraid it would cost a lot of money, and they were just kids and didn’t have any money. Willie wanted to know if he would have to take his socks off to make the footprint. He didn’t want to get clay or whatever material they would make the stones out of to get between his toes.

Miss Hattie said, “Not to worry, we can make the footprints stones out of baked dough, right here in crafts class.”

Another”Huh” from the class.

“It’s easy,” said Miss Hattie. “We just mix 1 cup of salt with 1 cup of flour and add 1/2 cup water for each stone. We knead it the mixture together then we roll out, with a rolling pin, on a piece of parchment paper on the floor. When it is the right size for a footprint, we take off our right shoe and sock and step right in the middle of the dough. Then we use a stick to carve our name and the year in the stone. Then it is ready for baking at 200 degrees for 2-3 hours, just until it is hard, but not browned.”

The “Can Dos” loved the idea! Now they just had to convince Miss Sue that footprints stones would be a great way to decorate the new path.

Tags: bake, community center, dough art, flour, footprints, Good Choices, Hector, Maria, Miss hattie, Miss Sue, path, salt, water, Willie
Posted in "Can Do" Kids, community center, dough art, footprints, Good Choices, Miss Hattie, Miss Sue, path, summer camp, Willie | No Comments »

Camp Manners

Thursday, July 12th, 2012

Miss Sue, the Director of the “Can Do” Community Center Camp, came into the crafts room and asked permission from the art teacher to address the “Can Dos”.

The “Can Dos” knew it was often not a good thing when Miss Sue asked to talk to them. It must mean that one or more of them were doing things, in camp, that needed to be corrected.

After Miss Sue said good morning, she said,”Boys and girls, I have received complaints from the camp janitor on the state of the girls and boys bathrooms.

I have also received complaints from the ladies who work in the cafeteria about the mess on the floor under the tables, and the food and wrappers left on the tables.

Let’s take time now to review how we are supposed to behave in both these areas. Let’s talk about bathroom manners and cafeteria manners. If we are not old enough to practice good manners in both these areas, maybe we are not old enough to be in camp.”

Then Miss Sue handed out two camp manners lists and said,”Let’s review these lists together.

Let’s start with the cafeteria list:

1. Don’t run in the cafeteria.

2. Say please and thank you when you order and receive your food.

3. Don’t cut in line while waiting to order on the cafeteria line.

4. Do not sit on the tables and don’t stand on the seats.

5. After you finish eating, clean off your place at the table and pick up anything you dropped on the floor.

6. Put your trash from the table and the floor in the trash can.”

Then Miss Sue turned to the bathroom manners list:

1. When you use the stall, close the door.

2. Flush the toilet when you are finished using it.

3. Take a piece of toilet paper, and use it to protect your hand from germs as you flush. Don’t flush with your foot!

4. As the toilet is flushing, throw the piece of toilet tissue into the toilet to be flushed away.

5. Make sure your clothes are properly zipped or buttoned or pulled up before you leave the stall.

6. Wash your hands with warm water and soap. Wash for at least 10 seconds (count to ten slowly).

7. Dry your hands with a paper towel.

8. Throw the towel in the waste basket after you use it.”

Miss Sue looked up from reading and asked,”Does everyone promise to practice these camp manners”?

The “Can Dos” all nodded, “We promise,” they all said.

Miss Sue smiled, thanked the art teacher, and went on to speak to the campers in the next room.

Tags: bathroom manners, cafeteria manners, camp, camp manners, Can Do Kids, community center, Good Choices, life skills, manners, Miss Sue
Posted in "Can Do" Kids, bathroom, bathroom manners, cafeteria, cafeteria manners, camp, Camp manners, camp safety, community center, good behavior, Good Choices, good manners, Miss Sue, responsibilites, summer camp | No Comments »

Annie Tunes Out Teasing

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

Miss Sue was comforting Nellie in the crafts room at the community center when Annie walked in the room. Annie is a good friend of Nellie’s; she wanted to know right away why Nellie was crying.

Nellie stopped crying long enough to say, “Some girls were teasing me in the play area behind the center. They called me names and made fun of the way I dress and wear my hair.”

Annie answered, “Tell me who they are. I’ll go talk to them and they’ll be sorry they teased you.”

Miss Sue shook her head, saying, “Annie, it is nice of you to want to stick up for your friend, but Nellie has to learn how to handle it when others start teasing her.” Nellie nodded her head in agreement.

“Well,” said Miss Sue,”There is good teasing that your family and friends do just for fun. You probably do it too. Then there is the kind of teasing that hurts, that’s mean and makes you feel bad. That’s the kind of teasing you have to learn how to handle. Here are some ways you can do that:

Remember that words cannot hurt you unless you let them.
Don’t stand around and let other kids tease or make fun of you; walk away.
If you can’t walk away, pretend you aren’t listening to what they say.
Don’t let them see that they are hurting your feelings or upsetting you. That is what they want.

Then Annie said, “Let me tell you what I do. This works every time.

You know that I like to shoot hoops whenever I can. Sometimes kids will come along and start making fun of my hearing aid. They’ll say, “Do you know you got a wire sticking out of your ear? Bet if you took that out of your ear you couldn’t play.”

I just stop, walk over to them and say, “This is my hearing aid. It helps me hear what I want to hear and I don’t want to hear what you have to say. With that I turn down my hearing aid, give the teasers a big smile and go back to shooting hoops.

The teasers don’t know what to do. All of a sudden I can’t hear the stupid things they are saying and teasing me just isn’t any fun anymore. “

Nellie and Miss Sue looked impressed. Nellie said, “What a cool idea!” She thought for a minute, then said, “But that won’t work for me; I don’t wear a hearing aid.”

Miss Sue smiled and said,”Annie’s point is …you don’t have to listen. You don’t have to let teasers hurt you. You can ignore them. They are just being mean and acting stupid. Why pay attention to kids who are being mean and stupid?

Boys and girls at home….What do you do when someone is teasing you in ways that are mean? What can you do?

Tags: Annie, Can Do Kids, Good Choices, hearing aid, mean, Miss Sue, Nellie, stupid, teaser, teasing
Posted in "Can Do" Kids, Annie, community center, crying, Good Choices, Nellie, teaser, Teasing | No Comments »

Volunteering: A Time to Help

Thursday, May 24th, 2012

Grandma Sue visited the “Can Do”Kids in their classroom the other day. Miss Pat invited her to come and speak about volunteering.

“Good Morning, boys and girls,” said Grandma Sue, “Most of you know me as Miss Sue, the Director of the “Can Do” Community Center. I am here today to ask you to think about volunteering with senior citizens in our neighborhood.”

Before she could continue speaking, Eulyn raised her hand. Miss Sue called on her and Eulyn said, “What’s volunteering?” Miss Sue could see by the looks on some of the other children’s faces that she needed to explain volunteering. Eulyn was not the only one who wasn’t sure what volunteering was all about.

“Volunteering is when you offer to do something for someone that needs help. You don’t have to do it, you choose to help because you want to help. You don’t get paid to help. You help during your free time,” said Miss Sue.

Willie raised his hand and said,”My grandma is a senior citizen and I help her all the time. Does that count?” Miss Sue smiled, ” It is nice that you help your grandma, and I am sure she appreciates it, but I am talking about helping those seniors who are not your relatives, you may or may not know them. “

Anne raised her hand next,”I don’t think my mom will let me go to a stranger’s house to help them out.” Miss Sue nodded, “Yes, we need to be safe. That is why we have come up with ways for children to be safe while volunteering.

Here are some of the volunteering activities you can do as a group, with a staff person from the Center as your group leader or at the Center with senior citizens:

You can be part of a group that visits seniors at the local senior residence. You can do friendly visiting. Seniors get lonely and would love a visit from a young person for an hour or so once a month.
There are seniors who want to learn the computer, but don’t have family to teach them and can’t afford to take lessons. If you can spare 45 minutes, once a week, you can sit with at senior at one of the Center computers and teach him or her computer basics, maybe even how to email and use the Internet.
You can join a yard work group, led by Mr. Dooley. Once a month you will go as a group to a senior’s house to help with yard work chores during the spring and fall.

If you think you are interesting in volunteering, please see me after class and I will tell you more about volunteer opportunities with seniors.” With that, Miss Sue thanked the children for paying attention and thanked Miss Pat for allowing her to speak with the class. Then she went outside the class to sit at a desk that had a big sign on it that read, “Sign up here for volunteering at the Community Center.”

Miss Pat gave the children some time to discuss the idea of volunteering. After class some of the “Can Dos” signed up for volunteering. Anne and Kathy, Nellie and Maria, Jay and Yundi signed up for friendly visiting at the senior residence.

Orrie signed up to teach seniors how to use computers and so did Arthur J. Hector, Willie, Eulyn and Bobby signed up to be on Mr. Dooley’s team and do yard work.

After their first volunteering session, each of the “Can Dos”who participated, gave a report to the class. It seems that each of the volunteers felt good about volunteering. The seniors really appreciated having them and the “Can Dos” got to see just how much they could help people by volunteering.

Tags: Can Do Kids, community center, Good Choices, helping others, Miss Sue, senior center, volunteering
Posted in "Can Do" Kids, Anne, Arthur J, can do kids in school, computer, Good Choices, Grandpa Dooley, Miss Pat, Miss Sue, Nellie, school, senior center, seniors, Teacher Pat, volunteering, What Can a "Can Do" Do? | No Comments »

The Kitchen Surprise

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

It was the monthly meeting of the “Can Do” Kids Cooking Club and all the members were lined up outside the small kitchen behind the cafeteria in the “Can Do” Street Community Center.

It wasn’t much of a kitchen but it was all they had to work in. It really was a kitchen for adults. The counters were too high for them. They needed to stand on stools to reach the counter tops and do their preparations. The oven and refrigerator doors were too heavy for them, so Miss Hattie, the club moderator, always had to open these doors for them.

They brought all the ingredients they would need to make sandwiches and flower cupcakes to serve at the “Spring Luncheon” for the seniors club. Every year the “Can Do” Kids Cooking Club made and served sandwiches and a special dessert. They looked forward to the event and so did the seniors, especially since their grandmas were in the seniors club.

The “Can Do”s were getting nervous. Why was the kitchen door locked? Where was Miss Sue, the center director, to let them in to the kitchen? Where was Miss Hattie? It was getting late. If they didn’t get started soon they would be late getting the food to the luncheon.

Just then the kitchen door opened and there was Miss Hattie who told the “Can Dos” that she had a surprise for them. Then she led them into the kitchen where all the seniors were standing in front of the work areas. The Seniors all yelled, “Surprise!”

When the seniors stepped away from where the cabinets were, the “Can Do” Kids Cooking Club members couldn’t believe their eyes!

The kitchen was all new with cabinets and cupboards and counter tops that were just the right height for kids. Why, there was even a stove and refrigerator that was just the right height for them that had easy to open doors.

Miss Hattie stepped forward and said, “You children are always doing nice things for us. So, we decided to take some of the money from our treasury and pay to have the kitchen made “Kid Size” for your club.”

The “Can Do” kids were so happy. They hugged each and every senior as each senior headed upstairs to their meeting room.

Then they got busy in the new kitchen, making sandwiches and the prettiest flower cupcakes!

Tags: Can Do Kids, Can Do Kids Cooking Club, community center, cupcakes, Good Choices, kitchen, Miss hattie, Miss Sue, sandwiches, seniors, spring luncheon
Posted in "Can Do" Cooking Club, community center, Do You Know?, Good Choices, grandmas, Just for fun, senior center, sharing | No Comments »