Breakfast with Santa was a very informative event where we went to St. Brigid School and helped at a holiday bash. There was food that Ryann helped dish out and a arts and crafts table where Sophie, Reggi, Elisabeth and I settled in at. There were four areas, one for coloring, one for candy cane ornament making, one for cutting out snowflakes and one for making chains. At the coloring station, there were crayons and outlines of snowmen and other Christmas themed pictures for the kids to color in. The chain table consisted of pieces of green and red paper the could have it’s tips dampened and then stuck together like the sealing of an envelope. You could then string them together to create a chain. At the candy cane ornament making table there were little packets with a pipe cleaner and red and white beads. They were to string the beads onto the pipe cleaner and then bend the top over into a candy can shape and then hang it on your christmas tree. I helped a three year old string beads onto a pipe cleaner which proved to be much more difficult than anticipated. I spent most of my time at the snowflake table where I found a new talent of mine.
For the rest of the time I helped an array of small children learn how to cut shaped into folded paper. One girl I helped was a 5 year old named Bella (Isabella). She didn’t go to St. Brigid but her cousin Jay Jay did. Bella stayed with me for a long time making snowflake after snowflake right up until Santa arrived. Within that time, her Grandma yelled at her and left her crying. Her 9 year old cousin Nya was right be her side to comfort her. Nya told her that she could come home with them instead of with her Grandma and they could have a sleepover and her mom (Bella’s aunt) could make them yummy food. This brought to my attention how caring Nya was and how much she really wanted to make Bella feel safe, loved, and happy. With Nya’s help she soon cheered up and she and Nya sat down together to make snowflakes. Bella and I worked together to make a snowflake like the heart one shown above for her Grandma. She cut the strait lines of the heart with my help to get the angles right and then I cut the curved part. It ended up looking beautiful and her grandma was thrilled to receive it. Her Grandma then made me teach her how to make a heart snowflakes which ended up being harder than teaching Bella.
After this I chatted a bit with Nya. Jay Jay was the only one in the family who went to St. Brigid. Nya went to Success Academy in Williamsburg and Bella went to Success Academy in Hells Kitchen. Success Academy is a Charter School that we had learned about in Waiting for Superman. This made me think how lucky their family must but that through the raffle, all their children got spots in nice Charter Schools.
Once Jay Jay (Jackson) came over, I moved my attention to him. His mom mentioned that his teacher said that he could work on cutting with scissors at home but his mom had been too nervous to let him handle the scissors. I decided to help Jay Jay with his cutting. We got a fresh sheet of paper and I gave him a pair of scissors. He help one finger hole of the scissors in one hand and the other in the other hand and with a full arm movement made a slice into the paper. I urged him to cut further into his first cut. After a few attempts that had led him to cut the air, he was able to make his first cut a little deeper. We went on like this more a while till he had cut the paper right down the center. I then help up both sheets of paper and let him pick which one he wanted to cut next. We kept this up until the paper was more of less an inch^2. By this time he was holding the scissors in one hand which for some reason made me extremely proud. One may think that you should not trust a 3 year old with scissors that you’re stretching between your hands to add tension which makes it easier to cut, but instead I challenged him by saying something along the lines of “do you think you could cut this piece” or “this piece is really small but I think you can do it.” And so he did until it was pretty much imposable to continue and we would move on to another piece. I cut with Jay Jay for probably an hour total. He went through a small phase of his cutting where he used his new swift cutting skills to try to cut through the paper and onto my finger. I would have to move my finger at the last minute and he would giggle while I told in a friendly manner that you must not cut fingers. At times he tried cutting the paper before I had a tight grip or when he was holding it but I made sure to stop him quickly so not to achieve his moms great fear of having him cut himself.
In this photo is Jay Jay cutting and on his side are many more small pieces of paper that he had already cut. Behind Jay Jay is Bella embarking on a new snowflake and Jay Jay and Nya’s mothers elbow rests on the table shown just below my face.
A couple moment throughout the day stood out to me. At one point Jay Jay crawled under the table for some reason only a 3 year old could explain. His mother, Grandmother, Nya, and Bella all encouraged him in a subtle yell to come out from under the table because the floor was dirty. I stuck my head under that table and nicely told Jay Jay that he should come up so he could keep cutting. I told him that if he wanted he could come and sit next to me on the side for the helpers. Jay Jay came and sat by my side and cut with me. Something about that moment stuck with me. Another moment that stuck with me was when I told Bella that she could take some paper how so she could make more snowflakes at home. She told me that she couldn’t make snowflakes at home because she didn’t have and kid scissors, only adult scissors. I wanted to offer her one of the pairs of scissors at the event but that was beyond my power. The last moment that I will never forget is when Nya cut out a spiral and was very proud of it and Bella admired it and instead of taking it home to hang up, she gave to to me to keep.
Even though this Fieldwork was less related to education that other events we have done, I learned so many valuable things and leaving me with so many powerful messages I will be sure never to forget.
