We had another successful trip to Sarah Chudnow! I wanted to share an e-mail from the director, who provided us with some feedback from the trip:
I thought the program went quite well. Your students definitely brought smiles to our seniors’ faces. The feedback from the residents was very positive. I asked them to describe their experience in 3 words. They responded with fun, happiness, love, wonderful, interesting and makes me young. Their comments about the children included that they were respectful and well-behaved. Residents said they would not change anything.
Let me know if there is anything you will need for the next visit. I will remind staff to put the wastebasket close to the area where we do the activity.
Thank you again!
This trip the kids prepared interview questions to ask the residents with the hope of getting to know them and their stories. They also brought along board games to play with the residents. We were happily surprised to have about 15 residents join us!
We have started planning for our third trip which we hope will include a tour of the facility as well as an opportunity to learn more from the people who work with the residents. In addition, I asked the students to reflect on our 2nd visit by answering two questions in the comment section of this blog post:
1: What went well?
2: Was there something you would have changed? Why?
We will visit Sarah Chudnow again on October 30th!
What went well: We talked to elders and played a tiny bit of our game.
Something We should Change: Do something more simple, they didn’t really follow along with the rules. They also didn’t really respond to our questions… maybe more simple questions?
I think the games and some of the questions were really good.
I would have changed some of the questions because they were kind of repeated questions.
I think the whole thing went well. I think it went better than last time. it was fun playing games with them. I wouldn’t change anything
I think the amount of seniors that showed up was very good compared to last time. I would have prepared a few more things to do though.
It was such a fun visit! We got to play cards with the residents, and we got to learn about them! It was just so fun!
what went well was we asked our questions and we played a game.
what could’ve gone better was we could have prepared more games
1. I really liked how we broke down into groups. It was more fun to be able to talk with them and hear their stories.
2. I maybe would’ve given us more time to play. It’s really hard to get everything done in half an hour. We couldn’t even finish one game of Yahtzee. I also wish we didn’t have 2 senior citizens in a group. It is harder to ask the same question twice.
I think it went super well. The seniors will be very happy to see us. I think our class should go see the seniors longer and work on explaining what we are doing
I think that the questions really got us to know each other as people.
I would have changed that we could be more creative with our stuff next time because ETC is really a time to do its name! Explore The Core!
1. We were bonding really well with the seniors
2. The way we asked the questions
1. WHat went well is everyone had great conversations with the citizens. Some of us may have made friends with the citizens. A lot of the citizens also want to see us again.
2. I would have wanted to explain the games better or play a game that would be easier for the citizens to understand because a lot of them needed a better explanation.
The resident were really nice and we had volenteers so it made it much easier to play the games.
I thought that it went well. We could’ve speaked more slowly and tell them our names.
What went well?
I had a bunch of fun playing the game with the resident and teaching her how to play the game.
Was there something you would have changed? Why?
I probably would have changed how I acted because now I kind of think that I should have talked and had more conversations with the resident.
Oren, I love your honesty here. Thank you! I’m looking forward to seeing these changes at our next visit.
The residents were fun to play with and liked playing with us.
I still would have changed the amount of communication between us and Sarah Chadnow because we still did not know what to expect.
Everything went well, the residents seemed to love the games we picked to play with them.
We should not change anything next time we go because everyone had fun and enjoyed are games and stuff to do with them.
I think what went well was that we were able to get the game going fast. what also went well was that we learned things about them. It was nice to meet them.
I think my group could have more card games in mind than just one card game.
I think what went well was that we were prapared with our games and questions. I think what could have been better is playing better games and playing them right. (That might have just been in my group)
What went well was the residents seem to like it.
What didn’t go well at least for me was we either didn’t explain the game well, or they didn’t make an effort to play,
but we were playing apples to apples and one resident put down thanks giving when the green card was smelly, and the other resident picked it.
Next time I think we should bring/prepare a lot of games so that we can figure out what they like to play!!
What went well was there was good teamwork for the most part and our resident liked our game and knew how to play. Another good thing was our resident had a smile on her face while playing and while we were asking her questions about her life.
If we could do this visit all over again I would tell the other people in my group not to fight and be respectful because some people in my group were fighting and being disrespectful.I would say this because we are represent our school and when we go outside of our school and do something with the people in our community our actions mean everything because that’s how people are going to
think of us and our school.
What went well: It was really fun to play with the residents and see them smile, we made them happy and less lonely. Also they said some pretty funny and/or interesting things. Overall it was amazing.
What I would Change: I wouldn’t change anything ecsept, the room we were in was really hot. By the end of it I (And I don’t know who else) was/were sweating.So maybe a different room would be better. This doesn’t have anything to do with the residents, but we need to quiet down a little. Otherwise we were mostly pretty respectful. I loved making the residents happy.
What went well is that it was fun but still we were doing a mitzvah at the same time.
I would have changed the activity because it was kind of boring to me. I liked the questions but the games were kind of plane.
When we played the games we had a lot of fun. I should of talk slower.
Hannah was really moved by this experience. She felt like she not only connected with one of the residents but also truly made her happy (which, in turn, made Hannah very happy).
Looking forward to hearing about the next trip/experience at Sarah Chudnow.