April 20, 2016

Today we set up the Wii bowling in Mr. Parker's classroom for the fourth graders at El Sol Academy. Setting up the Wii was very easy with the help of the librarians and extra batteries from the admin office.

Around 10:30, once everything was set up and ready, we recruited a couple of girls to come in and start playing Wii bowling. A few of them didn't know how to play at so we taught them and they picked it up easily. After a few rounds of bowling, a couple other groups joined in the fun! By popular demand, we switched the game to Mariokart. This was really engaging and fun to watch as everyone cheered their classmates and friends on. The kids were great at taking turns and were very polite. They organized themselves in the order they would take turns and posed minimal issues. We also brought an assortment of candy which at first incentivized and later delighted the kids even more.

Overall, this year has gone great at Heritage Point and the service has been extremely rewarding. Today, we even had some sophomores interested in the concept of our service learning as they participated in the fun. Hopefully our project will be continued on in the future and that our legacy  will last beyond our years at Sage. We can only hope that someone down the road will be able to benefit in the rewarding experience that we have been a part of this year.

March 2, 2016

So today, we used our service learning day more as a planning day. We were not able to actually go to Heritage Point this week, but we have some future dates scheduled to make up for it. We have been wanting to get the Sage singers into Heritage Point to perform, so today we finally set a date to do so.

Today, we were able to meet with the Sage singers and listen to them practice and rehearse their songs. Fortunately we were able to get some videos to send to the activities coordinator at Heritage Point to approve of!

Next service learning date, we are excited to bring wii bowling home to Sage and share it with the fourth graders that will be coming to sage. We are hoping by doing so, other Sage students will be able to become inspired by the activities that we put on, and maybe want to continue the Heritage Point legacy!

 

Wii Bowling 2/3

  Today we set up Wii Bowling for the familiar group at Heritage Point. Arriving at 3pm, we already had several people excitedly waiting.  The setup was easy so we were able to start right on time. As usual, they paired up to make four "teams", alternating between two remotes.

 

Their competitive nature made for an exhilirating game. Since we had last been there, Morris had been "coaching" his wife, Florence, and their combined skills almost beat returning champions Marilyn and Marsha. At the end of the first game, however, Marilyn and Marsha won first place, at an impressive 194 points.

Maddie and I took turns, alternating between the scoreboard and rotating the remotes among the players. Of course, we were also cheering them on, offering up moral support and admiration. They played their hearts out, a few players even had to take a nap or two between turns. 

A couple teams remained for a second game, this time with Maddie and I alternating for one player. To our embarrassment, we scored the lowest. I noticed that the winning players managed to swing the ball in a way that required the least amount of movement and exerted minimal energy(As seen by Sally below). 

After the second game, we said our goodbyes and put away the game and scoreboard. Overall, it was fun time for both us and the seniors. We look forward to seeing them in the near future, whether through Wii Bowling or an artistic activity.

January 13

So today was a more mellow day than usual. We had planned to go to Heritage Point and do the Wii bowling but at last minute we were notified that they had to cancel it for some reason. Instead, we decided to use today as a day to plan and organize.

We went to Micheal's, the craft supply store, and decided to stock up on some things for our next visits to Heritage Point. We bought a little over a dozen plywood boxes to decorate. We also got some tempra paint and stickers to decorate the boxes with, in addition to the supplies that Heritage Point already has. We figured that the boxes are pretty gender neutral and could be decorated for various purposes.

In addition to our trip to Micheal's, we sat down and did some research about other senior living homes which we could potentially expand in to. We found a facility called Vintage Mission Viejo and it is only 0.6 miles from Heritage Point! They have similar activities as Heritage Point provides such as games, painting, and daily outings, which is why we thought that Vintage Mission Viejo would be the perfect place to expand!

We are trying to find an additional date to go to Heritage Point because we missed out on today, but as of now we have all of our dates lined up for the rest of the year!

Wii Bowling 12/2

Today we brought back an old favorite, Wii Bowling.

 Arriving about ten minutes before our time slot began, we already had a group of eight seniors waiting in the room. They expressed their excitement over the game as we set up the game and the scoreboard. We then set up four pairs for each "player" on the game and wrote down the names on the scoreboard.

For two full ten-round games, we helped pass around the only two remotes, accommodated a few late comers, filled in for those who left, and offered vocal support. The players themselves were very enthusiastic and even competitive at times, poking innocent jabs at other teams and throwing around jokes to redeem their missed spares. We were both impressed with the group's skill, scoring strikes and spares frequently. When we subbed in for empty spots, we couldn't even compete. We even noticed that some of them were so calculating that they had their own special method when it came to the swing, as demonstrated by Rita, below.

At the end of the two games we added up the points on the scoreboard. Matilda and Rita won first place, with a cumulative score of 333, while Diana/Rita and Paul came in a close second, with 330 points.

After we offered to do another game most of the group got up and left, except for two ladies in the front row and a man in the back deeply asleep. So we carried on with a third game, this time both of us playing along with the two ladies, competing separately. With fewer people, we were able to hold a conversation throughout the game with them. They were very interested in our studies and potential colleges. At the end, just as we expected, both Matilda and Rita topped the rankings with us far behind. 

Their enthusiasm and excitement reminded us that it would be wise to come back to this activity as consistently as possible. Their competitive egos were entertaining to watch while frustrating to compete against, and we look forward to hosting this activity in the future.

11/18/15- Picture Frames!

Yay! We are back doing activities at Heritage Point!

Today, we decided to switch it up instead of just always doing the Wii bowling, we decided to do a craft. We decorated wooden picture frames that the residents are able to either hang or prop up back in their rooms.

We got there about 20 minutes early which gave us more than enough time to set up the activities room with all of the picture frames, glue bottles, stickers, markers, and accessories that the residents were able to decorate the frames with.

Exactly at 3 o'clock, a whole wave of residents flooded into the activities room. We were so excited for there to be such an huge turnout, as it has been a few months since we have been active at Heritage Point. The residents kept saying they felt like little kindergarteners because they were so excited to be doing such a fun and easy craft.

Some of the residents who had vision problems had a hard time finding some of the tools they wanted, but we were more than welcome to help. The residents also loved us helping them with the design and orientation of their frames.

All of the frames turned out so good and the residents were so happy to see their finished outcome. They praised us and thanked us so much for coming and asked when we were coming back. We also got great feedback as to which crafts they would like to do in the future.

We can't wait till December 2nd when we get to be do Wii Bowling again!

Today was the first day of the school year where we went on site to Heritage Point for service learning. We have been trying to come up with new ideas to bring and implement in to Heritage Point, and today we met with the activities director to propose and talk about some of our ideas.

Our main proposal was to bring in musical performances by other Sage students who are involved in another group focused on singing for the elder community. They loved this idea and so we are trying to now figure out a good time slot that would work as well as a time for the staff to hear the singers before bringing them to the home.

We are going to start off by changing the bowling activity to a different sport on the Wii Games. Some of these include golfing,baseball, and tennis. We are also going to start an arts and crafts activity, making picture frames. Heritage Point has a lot of great resources and supplies that we can use for the time being.

We are excited to get this program back up and running and develop it over the next year!