Group2

=//**__M.A.C.S ~ Making A Child Smile :D__**// =

Maddison Attard, Stephanie Peronace, Bianca Molina and Lexie Greedy. Here is a picture of the four of us at Keilor Views Primary School.... And here is a picture of the 'Visitor' stickers that we were given on our arrival, how cute! = Organisation and Shared Values =

Sunshine Hospital/Western General
 * Health
 * Care
 * Happiness
 * Hope
 * Knowledge.

Aim and Purpose:
The aim we have as a group is to be able to brighten up the childrens ward, as it is currently out-dated. In-conjunction with helping with the children's ward waiting room, we would like to run a program of a variety of activities that are simple and easy and enjoyable that involve the children, to help make their day interesting and fun. With any remaining money we will donate to the hospital to put towards buying new beds for the hospital (not raising extra money only if there is any leftover). The main purpose of our groups program is to help the children in the ward as they have been suffering and we if we are able to put a smile on their face, our program will have succeeded. We also want to make it more inviting and comforting for the children as they wait and that while they are in the hospital they are not bored and have a chance to do things like they would normally do which brings fun and excitement.

Desired Outcomes:
>
 * To help the children in the Sunshine Hospital in the Children's Ward that are suffering from many different illnesses, accidents and issues.
 * To runa successful program for the children that they will remember for years to come and to make a lasting difference and also when they are able to express themselves in different ways while they are going through a tough time in their lives.
 * To redecorate the waiting room of the children's ward as it is a dull room and we think it should be a safe and happy place so that children are not scared and can relax and calm down and have a place to play and have a good time before they have to face what is about to come.
 * We want to complete both of these actions so the Sunshine Hospital and its patients will remember us as a very charitable and giving students. And so it makes a lasting impression and it makes a real difference instead of just giving money.
 * Also, by doing these actions we will gain a feeling of self accomplishment but it is more important to us to succeed in putting a smile on people's faces.

Questions you need to ask and answer:

 * Will we able to hold a pizza day at school?
 * What other volunteer work will the hospital want us to do?
 * Will the hospital let us do the program with the children?
 * Will the hospital let us redecorate the children's room in the children's ward?
 * Will supermarkets sponsor us?
 * What will be the best person to contact?
 * What is our back-up plan if they say no?

Contact List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kRkxzzfEYNIdlew-d00rnA9TLiDVu0sRy90SxFRUo4Y/edit?hl=en_US Assessment Task: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T0jnAzExWioN9eXYSolygaWkEFLsy0z4RJjj52xGNRQ/edit?hl=en_US Evidence Booklet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vt1-vPYcDdGUfPYsjdKJZ8oQfcLnhCFe6PlqOTVK530/edit?pli=1&hl=en_GB Outreach booklet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vg8_Vj7uzhROa-XdkdewLpn7FUlww_hHWymbDzOC2tE/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1

**THIS IS ACCORDING TO WHAT WE HAVE BEEN UP TO DURING THE STAGE OF PLANNING AND ACTING ON WORKING**
**30/8 SP-** So far we have got a great and sound idea on what we what to do and what we want to achieve, and we are up to working out how to do things and how to go about some ideas.Thinking about the possibilities that we can do, is fun because we all have great ideas and most of them are pretty easy to do, the most hardest thing at this point is working out the best way of contact and finding out who is best to contact.

**30/8 LG-** Our group has been working really well together and achieving a great deal. We so far have written a letter to the organisation which we are waiting to email off. Also, we have planned different ways which we could raise funds to help to achieve what we want to and we have a strong plan of what we are willing to do and want to achieve. I think our group will be able to achieve great things and make a real difference. I am really looking forward to continue working with my group and to hopefully achieve our goals.:)

**30/8 MA -** We have now understood the program and the different aspects of it. Now we are in the middle of contacting our organisation so that we can begin the process of doing the actual program. We have also planned what we need to do for our ideas and so they are all ready for the organisation to handle and they hopefully will like our idea. I'm having lots of fun.

30/8 BM - This whole idea of giving of ourselves so far is great! I'm really enjoying coming up with new ideas, and planning how to approach the people who will make our program successful. It has been great working with the other girls in my group because we all share roughly the same values and have the same objectives when it comes to this project. We have come up with many idea's and plans that would be amazing if they were able to be put in place. I'm disappointed that I'm not going be able to do DEAL for the rest of the term due to other school commitments (sports teams etc), but I'm confident that the girls will come up with even more amazing objectives.

**6/9 SP-** The presentation was great and really opened my eyes and I was able to gain many points on how to go about this project. His idea on going with partnership was a great idea and would be a very helpful idea if we can find a partnership. There motto Football and more - So much more than football it captured everything they do and sums up how we should go about this project. Learning about how to send an email was very helpful because the email we had ready to send, even though Ms.Elmer said it was good, it is too long meaning the organisation might not read it so we might have to change a lot of it. Learning about teamwork and how we work as a team is what I expected because we have been working great as a team. Learning about how to speak and address people with disabilities was very helpful even though I knew the basics about how they can be offended but it was helpful to learn what to call them and what not to call them. When learning about how to meet and greet people and how to call people and learning that people may ask to do Skype conferences was very handy because we don't know yet, on how we will keep in contact after the first email/letter.

**6/9 LG -** Today we listened to a presentation from the General Manager of the Western Bulldogs Football Club. I found it extremely interesting and kind of surprising that a football club could be so interested in helping the community. I think it is amazing that an elite sporting club would be so interested in helping the community and its members. I also found the presentation inspiring as it opened my eyes to new ways that I can help to outreach to the community. I also learnt a lot of tips from the general manager about ways to succeed in our program such as going into a partnership. The other activities we did through the day I found extremely interesting and beneficial. The first masterclass we completed was about sending an official and acceptable email to the organisation we wish to help. I think it was a really great workshop as I was able to learn what I should include in my email and the certain criteria that I should ensure is included. The second masterclass we participated in was the meet and greet class. I think it was an amazing class as I was able to learn how I should react in different contact situations. I think what I learnt in this workshop will help me through my entire life as there will always be times when I must talk to businesses and employers in order to further my plans. The third class was about teamwork and I really enjoyed this workshop because it showed me that our team works really well together and will be able to accomplish great things if we set our minds to it. The final class we completed was about talking and communicating with different people we may encounter. Our group studied talking to people with disabilities. It was really good to no the different things to say and what not to say when talking to people who are handicapped. All in all, I had a really great day and found everything we did beneficial and relevant to our project we will be completing. I think that everything we learnt today will help our group to further our program and hopefully achieve our goals.:)

6/9 MA- Today the General Manager of the Western Bulldogs came to our school and explained the different things to take in when helping an organisation. We need to look at the different things to work on, what to do when we will work on it again and things to focus on. I learnt a lot from this as well. We also did orientation groups as well, from each group I learnt; E-mailing the organisations- what to do, what to say and how to say it. I also learnt what these people are looking for when reading the e-mails. Calling the organisations-When calling the organisation, you need to friendly, speak at a slow pace and explain yourself. Keep it short and sweet, not your life story. Team work and Skills- Together, my team and myself work quite well together, we problem solve and are very similar in our own way. We work well with our great ideas and support each other to do so.  What to say and what not to to our organisations- I learnt that we need to say the right thing, especially to the patients so that we don't upset them or offend them. During this we need to support them and help them to feel expected, not "different". Today, I learnt a lot about my group and the different things we as a group are capable of. I must admit, I am rather nervous about the whole organising part, but soon, I know I will be out of my comfort zone and ready to try new things!

13/9 MA- Today, we worked on our project and I got to do the beginning of my questions and answering them. I didn't really get to answer them though because my group aren't here today. I have decided to get the money and work organised so I will plan them out thoroughly from when we do plan fundraising. After that, we watched a movie called //Pay It Forward// which is about a boy named, Trevor and he was given a project in his Social Studies class. This project was to make a differences and change the world. He was only eleven years old when he was given this project but he still was about to achieve his goal of changing the world. He created a movement called //Pay It Forward// which is designed to show people that you can do something and you don't need to be given anything back. Trevor decided if he helped three people in need of help and support, they could help three and those three people would help others, etc. He accomplished this plan and created an idea that we actually take part in our world today. Now there is a movement called //Pay It Forward// because of this movie. This is also a National Pay It Forward day and so many people take part in this event to help and give to the community, this is then past on to help people that are in need of our help and support. After this we realised how much this resembles our project and work we are doing in DEAL. We then worked on our blogs and looked for different songs on the internet that help us to become inspired with the work we are doing. At the end, we recorded ourselves singing "We Are The World", it was one of the best DEAL lessons I have participated in.

**20/9 SP-** Today we only had half a group Lexie and I and so far this morning we have been able to create a time plan on what needs to be done before the second week of school, and thought of ideas that need planning such as a fundraising idea that we need to raise money for our program and idea for the outreach program. While doing this we were looking on our idea of our Pizza day were we were going to sell slices of pizza for a few dollars to raise money for the hospital and when we were working out our numbers we worked out that we were going to need over 60 pizzas and that was a big ask so what we decided to do is look into another idea and we thought of the idea of having a bake sale were we make different cakes and we slice them into about 10 slices and we sell them for $1.50 each on a tuesday lunch time and we donate the money to by the items and that we can bake them at home and bring them to school to sell and all the funds raised were going straight to the hospital and we will take no money. When we were looking at our name we thought that it didn't capture all of what we wanted to do so we decide to change our name to M.A.C.S- Making A Child Smile. After Recess we had Three girls come in that were from CRC Sydnhem that came in and talked to us about there experience because they are on the social justice team and they have done amazing things such as helping out the flood victims by personally going there and helping the elderly and at the second hand shops. There stories were amazing and they gave me some inspiration to do good on this project and everything we want to do is a possibility. I really liked the girls speeches they were good and they helped us with some things on the projects like how to go about things and if we get knocked back to keep persisting and if they say your not the write age group to keep trying until you are and don't wait for them to call you, you call them. After they left we spoke with our Mentor Mrs.Saunders, while talking with our mentor she helped us pick up some mistakes that we have made and helped us with some ideas and we were able to find all the work we have done since the start. While talking to our mentor it was able to see actually how much work we have done, we have email the hospital and hopefully we will get a response by the end of the holidays or by next lesson. We have done a lot of planning and we have everything we have done so far know all we need to do is fill in the assessment for outreach program.

20/9 LG -Today half of our group was away so it was only Steph and I. Seeing as there was only two of us we achieved a lot today and have made a big step forward towards achieving our goals.In this morning’s session, Steph and I made a detailed plan of what we had to do next in order to get closer to achieving our goal. We planned exactly what our steps should be and what is involved in completing each step. We first did a brief plan on pages then a more detailed one on bubbl.us. I think this plan will help us greatly as we move forward with our project. Also, in the group time given this morning we revised our proposal to the Sunshine Hospital. We looked over the letter we had previously written and made a few minor changes that we thought improved the letters quality. Further on in the session, we all shared what our group was currently doing and what we planned to do next. I found this really interesting as there were so many different ideas being shared. I found it inspiring to hear how passionate people were about there causes and the different charities everyone is looking to work with. I think everyone has great ideas and I hope all the ideas work out. After recess, we had three year 12 students from Sydenham come and talk to us about their own community service and social justice programs at school. I extremely enjoyed listening to the amazing work they have all done and found them all very inspiring. I also found all their speeches very interesting as I am doing VET Community Service and liked knowing a bit about what was able to be completed in the future of community service. I think it is amazing how much work all three girls had done with the community and found them an inspiration as they are only a few years older then us. After listening to them I feel that we can achieve what we are planning to with our organisations. For the rest of the day we worked on our Community Outreach Program. Steph and I had our interview with Ms Saunders to discuss how we were going with the project. She helped us to perfect our proposal letter as well as helped us to see how we were going with the assessment rubric. I found our meeting with Ms Saunders very helpful to get our ideas out and discussed. For the rest of the time we had Steph and I finished our proposal and sent it off, began to plan what our program for the hospital would include, came up with a new fundraiser idea and began writing a proposal to Ms Dishon about our fundraiser. Also, we decided to change our name today as our previous name was not that great but we could not think of anything else. Our groups new name is M.A.C.S which is an acronym for Making A Child Smile. I think we worked really well today and know we worked very hard. We achieved a lot today and I feel as though we have made another large step towards achieving our goal. Today was a great day for finishing off loose end and really beginning to plan properly and efficiently. I cannot wait to continue next term. :)

**11/10 SP-** In our group today we had Lexie, Stephanie and Bianca and Maddie was away. We started out day we have our first meeting as a group and yet we still on't have full group. According to the teachers this was the most important part of the day. We had to talk about what we have done and what needs to be done and we also began writing up our transcript, which was for our phone call we were going to make to the Hospital because we had sent our email on the last deal day of the term and we had not heard from them so we decided to take the next step and try and get in contact with them through a phone call. We then had our meeting with our other mentor Ms.Costantino and because she hasn't been there and neither was Bianca it was lexie and I got the chance to explain what has been done up to the current date. After recess we came back in and we went to the office and tried to get in contact with the hospital he first number we tried just rang out and same with the second try, we then searched the internet for another number and they transferred us but when they did the automatic recording as for my mailbox number so we tried again and we got nowhere so then we tried Jo Spence again and her voice message cam up and we left a message in hope that she might contact us. When we went back to class we started working on our Assessment table and filling some of them in. We also came up with What If ideas and if they say no how are we going to handle it. We also finished our letter of proposal for the leadership team and Ms.Dishon and we looked out at fundraiser idea and how it is going to work and then we came up with the email to Ms.Swaljik in relation to using the food tech room to store stuff. After lunch the two classes went off to pack and we had the choice of continuing with our group work or watch the movie and both Bianca an I the remaining group members choose to watch the movie. I thought the movie was alright and was pretty sad aswell. Overall I think we had a successful day and we are still working well together as a group and our progress is moving along.

<span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">11/10 BM - Our group today consisted of Stephanie, Lexie and I as Maddison was away on an excursion. Being my first DEAL session back since what seemed like forever, I had to get filled in on what we were all up to as a group. As I understood, we had come to the conclusion that we were going to have a bake sale instead of a pizza day because of price issues, but we felt that we would make just as much money from this as the pizza would of. I also found out ,to my surprise that we have changed our group name from Sunshine Smiles, to MACS (Making a Child Smile). <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Anyway, our plan of action for this lesson was to contact the Sunshine Hospital. Before doing this though, our group consulted with Ms Constantino, and she suggested that we come up with alternate plans just incase plan A or B didn’t work out the way we had hoped. So after creating different plans of approach, we worked on our assessment table (that is accessible via the link further up the page) through Google Docs. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">When we finally got a free phone to call the Sunshine Hospital with, it went to message bank, so Steph left a message with contact details to get back to us with. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">This week I learnt that we need to have alternate plans when it comes to our main goal; making a child’s day better at the hospital. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">I look forward to hearing back from the hospital, and hopefully we can come to some sort of arrangement.

11/10 LG - Today once again we didnt have a full group. It was Steph, Bianca and I because Maddie was away. We started off the lesson explaining to Bianca what we had achieved and planned over the past few weeks as she has been away the past few lessons. With a solid idea of what we had achieved so far we were able to reflect on what still had to be done. We developed a plan that showed exactly what we hoped to achieve for the day and what steps we still needed to achieve. One of the first things we did today was consult with our mentor. Ms Costantino. She helped us to sort out our ideas a bit better and explained to us we should have a few plans in case the first and second do not work out. So this is what we then discussed, what we could do if our plans do not succeed. Throughout the day, we took many steps forward getting just that much closer to our goals. One of the first things we did today was call the hospital. Steph called many numbers at the hospital but all of them went through to the message bank. So, we left a message and hopefully they will contact us back so we can help them in some way. Also, Bianca and I worked on a proposal letter to Ms Dishon explaining our idea for a fundraising bake sale. The afternoon though was spent packing for camp and the other girls watched a movie. All in all though I think we had a very productive day and achieved a lot. I feel like I am a lot more aware of the fact that we may not be able to achieve our original idea but am still happy to do whatever we can to help the hospital as all we really wanted to achieve was to make a child smile :)

18/10 LG- Today we finally had a full group. This was awesome because we were able to fill everyone in on everything that had happened over the past few weeks and finally take bigger steps forward to achieve our goals. The absolute first thing we did today was call back the hospital as they had tried to get into contact with us during the week but due to communication issues we did not get to chat. When Steph came back from the call we discovered our main port of call was on annual leave. We saw this as a big problem in our project scheme but after talking to Ms Costantino we discovered it actually worked in our favour. Ms Costantino told us to use the time to create lesson plans for our program in order to look professional and organised. This took us the rest of the lesson as we searched for fun and creative activities that could be completed and wrote up plans for these activities. It was a lot of fun searching and discovering some of the amazing creative activities are around. After recess Steph and Biancca had to go and pack their bags or camp which left Maddie and I but instead of doing our project we had to help Ms Elmer set up for our special guest speakers. After lunch we sat in the hall to watch a presentation by "Motivational Media." I really enjoyed this presentation and found the stories that displayed and people they talked to very inspiring and interesting. All in all, I feel today although our time was limited we achieved a lot as a group and are ready for what next week has to bring :)

<span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">18/10 BM - This was the first lesson that everyone in our group was here. It was really good and interesting because all four of us were there. We sat there and filled each other in on what we thought was happening in our group. The first plan of action for this lesson was get Stephanie to re-call Joe Spence, the lady in charge of the volunteer work at Western Health. To our ‘great advantage’ she was on annual leave and she’ll be back next Monday. Steph will call her then, first thing on Tuesday morning. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Ms Constantino suggested that we create a lesson plan to do with our crafts, so that way if we’re accepted by Western Health we can go straight in there the week later organised. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">I only had the first two periods of the day to work on my Lesson Plan for Western Health. This was because in period three and four we were packing our packs for camp, which was commencing on Wednesday. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> I’m looking forward to next week because we are calling Joe Spence and proposing our idea.

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">18/1o MA- Today was the first time I was at school because of the many excursion I attended. The girls filled me in and told me about what I had missed. I was informed that the fundraising with the pizza wasn't a good idea, so we decided if we couldn't go to the hospital, we could organise to fundraise in other ways. We haven't looked at it in depth yet, but we do know that this is our back up if we need it. We called up a woman named Joe Spence who was director of volunteer work of the short term organising. But unfortunately, she is on annual leave until next Monday. We had a meeting with Miss Costantino and disscussed what to do before next tuesday and organisation. I must admit, with our very short dead line, and barely contacting the hospital, I was getting a little stressed out. She suggested that we should start creating lesson plans for each of our ideas when we do the activities with the children. We all decided on doing different themes, and I decided to do Christmas Ornaments by making one or two mobiles that they all take part in by colouring in a Christmas picture or make little ornaments for it. Next week, we will hopefully speak to Joe Spence and get a chance to start putting it all into action.

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">25/10 MA- Today was a little bit of a stressful day for me. After organising the swimming carnival and doing our goal setting, I felt that I was getting very eager to finally put some action into our plan. As soon as we finished, we started to discuss our conversation we would have with Joe Spence. Lexie pointed out to us that there was three DEAL classes left, so we decided that the 8th, 15th and 22nd will be days we can hopefully go out and do the actual project. Lexie also called Joe Spence and <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">her answering machine informed us that she is on bereavement leave and won't be back until next wednesday. We then decided to call the head office and I spoke to a woman in reception that tried to find someone to help me, but unfortunately, she was unable to and continually got everyone's voice mail. We were then getting quite frustrated and nervous, so we spoke to Miss. Costantino who suggested we go for another hospital. We decided to go for Broadmedows because they were quite close to us and it was just a quicker option as well. The receptionist put me through to the volunteer department and I left a brief message about what we were planning on doing at their hospital. I also thought that we might as well call Sunshine Hospital again and see if they weren't busy. Luckily, we did get through and I spoke to a woman named, Katrina Aspwode, who is apart of the volunteer department but works with the long term volunteer work. We spoke for a good 10 minutes about what our plans were for the project and how we would go about it. It seems as though it maybe possibly to do, but we need to wait and see what Joe Spence decides about it. She instructed me to send her a brief summary about what we were planning on doing with the children in the ward but she informed me that she didn't know if we were able to work in the children's ward as the children regularly don't stay in there for a long period of time. Now we have created back up ideas in case we are unable to do this at the children's ward, but we need to wait until Joe Spence comes back on Wednesday. <span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">This is the e-mail I sent her:

code Hi Katrina, It's Maddison Attard from Catholic Regional College Caroline Springs.

Our group is called M.A.C.S, Making A Child Smile, and in my group are Alexandra Greedy, Stephanie Peronace and Bianca Molinia.

Here is a brief summary of what we have planned to do for the activities:

- 8th of November: Complete any volunteer work that your hospital wishes us to do on request.

-15th and 22nd of November: We have organised lesson plans for activities we would like to run for the children if all goes well. These activities consist of:

Arts and crafts related to well-known children's cartoons. Bug craft in relation to The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Farm animal crafts. Door hangers with children's cartoon characters. Christmas ornaments.

If none of these activities are suitable to your hospital, we would be more than happy to volunteer in any area your hospital needs help with at the current point in time.

If you are interested in learning more about our project, here is the link to the online 'Wikispace' that we have created. You can look at our project and keep track of what we have been doing this term in our DEAL subject (by the way DEAL stands for Deep Engaged Active Learning).

http://crccs-year9team.wikispaces.com/Group2 Thankyou for your time, we dearly appreciate it,

Maddison Attard.

code <span style="color: #e01ab8; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**25/10 LG - Today we all came to the realisation hospitals are very bad at returning calls and we are not having much luck despite our greatest efforts. Today when we began our outreach programs, the group was really eager to get started as we believed we would finally get somewhere because Jo Spence, our contact form the hospital was back from leave. The first thing we did was call the hospital and were extremely disappointed when Ms Spence's answering machine advised us she was on bereavement leave. Of course we felt for her but we were very disappointed that our project would once again be put on hold. We decided to ring the main office and on the second call finally got the chance to talk to someone who might be able to help us. The lady we talked to named Katrina was able to listen to our project and seemed as though she wanted us to come the only problem was she needs to run it past Jo who was not there. This aside we had to write her an email (shown above) that explained our project and what we wanted to do. Hopefully this will get passed onto Ms Spence and we will be able to go to the hospital even if it is not to run our program but instead help them in other ways. We also contacted Broadmeadows hospital as a back up plan in case we could not get a hold of Sunshine. We left a message on their machine. Today we also continued to fill out our assessment sheet and do a few more odd things to help our project. I think today was pretty successful, Im just getting very worried we will not complete our project which would disappoint us all. So, hopefully today we made a good impression on Katrina and she will pass the good word on to Ms Spence and it will only be brighter from there. I guess we just have to keep our heads up and keep on smiling :)**

<span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">25/10 BM - DEAL today was very eye opening as to how hard people actually have to work to achieve their goal. We had set this date to contact Jo Spence, the lady that was going to be able to make our program possible. When we called, sadly (but also inconveniently) she was away on bereavement leave. We decided the try another hospital, and when we called the Broadmeadows hospital we didn’t really have much luck. We tried Western Health again and managed to get through. Maddy was the one who called, so she used her good phone skills to get through to a lady named Katrina that was stepping in for Jo, and she was kind enough to say that she’d try and get us into the hospital. She wanted us to send her a proposal, so Maddision started working on that, and I did the final editing before we sent it off. After conferencing with Ms Costantino, we decided that we would plan every entire detail to do with our project to ensure that if we got through, and accepted by Western Health, that we were completely and utterly organsied and ready to go in and help. Right now it’s just a waiting game, so we’re hopefully going to get a reply from Jo. I can’t help but think that even if we don’t get into a hospital, that we should be proud of the amount of effort we as a group have put into this unit.

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">1/11 MA- Today is unfortunately a public holiday because of the Melbourne Cup, but through this weekend, I have been checking through my emails and unfortunately haven't received an email from Jo or Katrina. Hopefully this comes soon as we are all hoping as a group to be heading off to the hospitals next tuesday. If not, we will have to start working more on Plan B.

<span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">8/11 BM - Today we achieved more in the practical side of things than we have during this entire program. We have in the past been knocked down and kept back by various hospitals simply because they haven’t gotten back in touch with our group when we left messages. We came to the realisation that Maddison’s Mum works with disadvantaged children at Keilor Views Primary School. We thought that we could even try to get a volunteer placement there, seeing as we are still helping children and going towards our vision, which is helping children. Maddy called the school, and spoke to her Mum, and after her Mum also talking to Ms Costantino, we were pretty confident that we’ll be able to at least go into the school and help out. After Maddisons Mum spoke with the principal, it turns out that they wanted our help! We are going for the next Tuesday and we’re being the likes of a ‘parent helper’ in the Prep and Grade 1 classes! think that the fact that a primary school in more low-key and not as busy as lets say, a hospital, that it is more likely that they’ll answer our call. We are currently planning where we are going to get the materials for our crafts if it goes ahead, and we’re compiling a list of materials that we need, like paper, to bring in just incase we’re allowed to do our crafts. We are also thinking of giving the school something nice from Lexie, Maddy, Steph and myself, to really show them that we really appreciate them for letting us help out. This is one of the final steps to make our Outreach program a success!

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">8/11 MA- Today, so much was accomplished, I am so proud! Unfortunately, Stephanie was at an excursion but we still worked at as group to complete the project. Stephanie called Western Health but we still haven't gotten a call back. We called again today and Jo Spence hasn't answered so we decided to try somewhere else. I came up with the idea of going to my mum's work, Keilor Views Primary School where many children with disabilities attend. I called my mum's work and spoke to Marrica, the recepientist who informed me it was possible to go to the school and also told me she would go and talk to my mum and let her know. Mum called me back within minutes about it and spoke to me and Ms. Costantanio about it and asked questions so she would be able to have enough information to propose reasoning for going to her school and tell her boss. Charles, her boss, accepted the offer and mum informed us we would be with Preps and Grade 1's. We aren't entirely sure what activities we are going to do with them, whether we will read with them, or even do our own activities, mum still told us to bring them in incase. We will all be split up into different classes, and rotate between each class.We will need to buy our materials for the activities as well and mum is going to help us with the transport. Finally, we have gotten the opportunity to reach out outside of the class room!

8/11 LG - Today we had an extremely successful lesson. I was so happy with the things we did today. We started the lesson with a bit of a let-down as Maddie called the Sunshine Hospital and no one answered as usual. This was again another set back to our project but we decided instead to look at another option. While considering this Maddie came up with the brilliant idea of going to the primary school where her mum works. We then conferred with Ms Costantino and then continued on our mission and called the school. We were able to contact the lady in the office and she said we could definitely come and help. We proceeded to call Maddie’s mum to check with her what we would be able to do and how to help. We were then informed that the office lady had mixed up our request and thought we were enquiring about work experience. One this was smoothed out, Maddie’s mum talked to her boss about us helping and we were accepted YAY. There was a huge sense of relief across the group as we had finally found a place to go to volunteer. So, for the rest of the lesson we organised lesson plans, made material lists, filled in the necessary forms and completed more of the assessment sheet. Today was a great lesson and we actually made a step towards reaching our goals.

15/11 MA- Today, we went to Keilor Views Primary School and finally got the chance to actually put out plan into action. We arrived there and I saw many students and realised how terrible some diseases are that young children, younger than me suffer from. Bianca, Lexie and Stephanie worked in separate Prep classes and I was in my mum's class in grade one. I met the students my mum works with everyday, Ethan and Adam who suffer from Autism, although their cases are quite mild compared to various others. In the morning, I had fitness, so the children went to play skipping rope and I was introduced to and observed many students. Adam was playing with his friends when he began to get frustrated with the fact that the rope wasn't going fast enough, meaning he was unable to skip. He started yelled at him friends, and swinging his arms around in frustration. My mum ran up to him to calm him down and I realised what an inspirational person my mum really was. She slowly got him calmed down and he started skipping again. He was suddenly smiling and having fun with his friends, though he got angry again for not skipping long enough, as one boy tried to encourage him to do better next time, and rub his arm, Adam pushed him away and stormed off. I remember that Autistic students did not like affection as to why he pushed the other kid away. My mum told him to calm down and stop it and suddenly he was smiling again. We went back to class where the students wrote a letter to the polar bears and penguins in Antartica. I was asked to help them stretch out the words so that they could spell them properly. I also cut out letters for decorations in the classroom. Then it was time for lunch and so Lexie, Bianca, Stephanie and I took advantage of the canteen and hot food. We sat down to eat and before we knew it, it was time to go back in. In Period 3 and 4, I went into mum's classroom again and helped out more with the spelling. Then the students were colouring in flowers in which I helped them to cut out and stick on stems for their flowers. At 12:00, their teacher had a PD resulting in the students splitting up. My mum always had her eyes on Adam and Ethan because as autistic students, they are unable to cope with change, which would have resulted in a tantrum and rocking back and forth. Earlier in the day, Ethan asked me what colours where in the rainbow. I answered "red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple." He turned to his friend, Liem and said "see, there is no such thing as pink in the rainbow!" Liem, unable to realise that he was going to be in for it if he was going to argue back said "I'm telling you, it's the truth, THERE'S YELLOW IN THE RAINBOW!" I watching anxiously and I saw Ethan getting angry because he wasn't getting his way. "Stop" I said, "it doesn't matter what the colour's of the rainbow are, do your work." And they listened, because I wasn't willing to see Ethan's bad side. Ethan, Adam and many of his friends went together to another class that where doing art, and I was to stay with them until the period four bell went, where they would go back to their classroom they were split up into. Ethan was having trouble with his maths work so I helped him out. Adam then called me over to show me he had realised patterns in a square I though was worth telling Ethan, so as I walked back, I explained it to Ethan, but I was wrong for doing so. He yelled at me, told me I was wrong, and began to rock his body back and forth. He didn't seem to understand what I was telling him and so I decided to drop it and side with him. He seemed to get frustrated with making a mistake or even saying the wrong answer to me. I called mum over to assist me, but he really worked hard to get his questions done. As the bell went, I walked back to the prep block and helped Lexie, Bianca and Stephanie to wrap the prep's Christmas presents. Soon after, it lead to lunch, which we ate inside with the preps. There was a student my mum also looks after named Toh. Mum had spoken about him so much, about how cute and tiny he was, though unfortunately he suffered from down syndrome. As I fed myself my lunch order, I watched him be fed his rice because he was unable to do it for himself. He also need to be taken toilet, as he also wears nappies and is being toilet trained at the moment. Watching him made my eyes well up as I realised how selfish I was for being so negative on myself after how healthy I was compared to these students. After eating, we went back into the classroom to finish wrapping the presents. We were then asked to go and help the preps do a worksheet on adding. I gave the students answers as I was instructed and taught them how to answer the questions using blocks. Then the students did Show 'n' Tell in the other room and left Toh to play on the school's iPad because he was having a bad day. He played a game about animals, making them go to sleep and the noises they made. He was like a three year old, how he spoke singular words and didn't pronounce them properly. Today was one of the saddest day I have ever had, because I worked with autistic students, students with down syndrome and even met a blind girl. It helped me to realise, I am so lucky to be so healthy, because so many people aren't.

**15/11 SP-** So we have gotten along with our outreach program, since we have moved on from sunshine hospital because it was unable to be organized we decided that we would try something new. We choose Kelior Views Primary School. As the end of the project is finally approaching we began actually going out to the school on our two week plan. I was excited to go and I couldn't wait, this morning when we were assigned classes I was in prep G and the teacher I had was Mrs.Genis. She was so nice along with prep G, when I first was introduced to the class, they asked me a lot of questions like how old I was and what school I go to and what was I doing today. After the went through there morning procedures the began their day with a game of hang man and I enjoyed watching all the kids getting excited over choosing a letter and to see them get the word and betting hang man was funny. Their word was independent reading, which they didn't like. While they were reading I was to wander around and listen to a few of the children, I listen to one of the girls Monique and she was one of the first in the class to begin reading her first novel in grade prep. She read a few chapters to me and I helped her out with a few words. We then read a story and the children had to listen and use all there senses to imagine the book. After the book they were then asked to draw a scene from the book that they remembered and to describe different things they found with there five sense, after period one you could say they had computer class. I was amazed to learn that children in grade prep were learning to use the computers, but to see how much they really know and how well they could use the computers were great. WHile we were in computers there were a few students that wanted to walk over with me and sit next to me. By this part of the day before recess I had already made a few friends and got lots of hugs. In the morning I met this boy named Michela who loved fans he also loved vicky's red car. We got into a discussion about cars and he told me his favourite car was a honda and he loved silver ones and he was explaining many things to me. I also learnt that Michael has a disease but to see how well it can work it really shows how well he doesn't ;et anything stop him and how well his teachers really are. We then had recess and all the kids were asking me to play with them and sit with them. I spent recess with the rest of the girls and we saw so many cute faces and we saw how different things are compared to our school with kids running around and playing games. Recess didn't last for long but it was then once again class time. When they got back in they had to finish there work and it was cute to see the kids disputing over what colour something was and who's car was what. By this stage I had heaps of fun. When most of them finished they began to have free time on the computers and play until the other class came in to watch the movie togther. WHile we were waiting and Mrs.Genis got them all to sit down they told me about there friend charlie, who was a boy in there class but was away today and how he was such a good player at the game around the world and he always bet the other students and yesterday amy and annlise were able to bet him. When the other class came in we were asked to do a job for the students, which was wrapping up there christmas present that took us all afternoon. We were giving more jobs throughout the day and it was heaps fun we even got a lunch order which I hadn't had since primary school. From today, I learnt that some of the kids at this school may have disabilities or may be blind, I even met this blind girl walking and it made me realise how lucky we really are but she didn't let that stop her because she was still with all her friends and was still outside. I also met this little boy, who was so tiny and he suffers from down syndrome, and I was sitting there watching him play on the ipad and I saw how hard he was trying, he was so cute and he made me laugh. I had a great day and I learnt heaps and I can't wait to see what next week brings.

15/11 LG - Today we finally got to put our outreach action to work. It took a lot of hard work, patience and let downs to get there but we did. YAY. So, today as a group we set off to Keilor Views Primary school where Maddie's mum works. We were supposed to go to the Sunshine Hospital but after a mass amount of miscommunication, we decided our efforts may be better appreciated somewhere else, so we contacted the primary school and decided that today we would go and help. So, when we arrived at the school Maddies mum assigned us each to a class... Steph, Bianca and I were assigned to grade preps and Maddie was with grade 1's. The teacher I worked with had a very hard last name to pronounce but her name was Cheryl. She was extremely nice and welcoming towards me and she made me feel useful and helpful throughout the course of the entire day. When I first entered the classroom, the children were all playing hangman using the name of others in their class. To introduce me to the class, Cheryl did the same thing with my name, it didn't take the children long to guess the letter that my name consisted of. Also, before the children started to do their work, Cheryl chose a student who would be the teacher of the day. This meant the child would have to say the roll in the morning and afternoon and be the teachers special assistant all day. The first activity I helped Cheryl to do, was call a little girl named Lily who was excelling at prep maths. I sat with her while she completed a booklet that contained maths equations that were more advanced then the current work that was being completed by the Prep class. She absolutely flew through all the questions without trouble. It was really amazing to see her work her way through the puzzles and questions an complete many of them in her head without the need to use paper to visually work out the problems. Also, she had no trouble reading any of the questions and never hesitates to answer them. It was really interesting to watch her complete the questions and amazing to see a child so young answer some more challenging questions. After Lily had completed her booklet, I was asked to help another child named Brian complete a very similar booklet. Brian was able to complete most of the questions as well but struggled with some. I had to read many of the questions with Brian and help him to understand him. He was also a very intelligent young boy who worked much of it out in his head just as Lily. I found it so interesting to see both of these children figuring out hard questions in their head. After Brian had finished I also helped a boy named Robbie to complete his booklet. Robbie was also able to work out many questions in his head but struggled more then the other two. I had to help Robbie to read most of his questions but he was still able to work many of them out. It was very interesting for me to see these three children be challenged in order to truly see what they were capable of doing. I completed these three tests at different stages between the morning session and after recess. For the other part of the morning session where I was not with Robbie, Lily or Brian, our Prep class joined with Ms Genis' class to read a story called the Magic Flying Donkey. After Ms Genis read the book to both prep classes they had to draw a picture about what they could see, hear, feel, taste and smell while reading the book. Each child then went back to their desks and were given the time to complete this task. As I walked around to observe the children, I found it very interesting to see the different interpretations the children had of the same book. I also found it very interesting to see the different level of skill the children had. After this we all went out to recess. The girls and I got something small from the canteen and just sat around until it was time to go back inside. Once back inside the children once again gathered into Ms Genis' classroom to watch the movie "The Gruffalo." All the children really enjoyed the movie. While the movie was playing, Cheryl asked me to help her do some testing that she has not had time to do. The testing required me to call each individual child to me and ask them to stand in front of me, next to me, behind me and beside me. Many of the children were able to follow these four simple instructions but there were also many who struggled with the phrase, "Can you stand beside me." This I found strange how many children of the same year level had different levels of understanding and reaction time when simple instructions were asked of them. Aside from following these phrases the children also had to count as high as they could starting from one. I am not quite sure how high they have been taught to count in class but there was an enormous scale between the person who counted to the lowest number and the person who counted to the highest. Doing this testing was an absolutely brilliant activity I was asked to do and I think I really learnt a lot from this. I thought it was extremely kind for Cheryl to let me do this as it required a lot of trust and I feel honoured she let me complete this. I think doing this test was the most interesting part of my day and I loved working with the children in this way. After I had completed this, my prep class went off to do computer while I stayed behind with the other girls and wrapped presents for all the children from the teachers. After the wrapping was finished we received our lunch orders which were delicious and went outside for what I think was a well deserved rest. In the afternoon, the children gathered together once more to do some singing and then complete another activity set to them. While they did this, Bianca and I cleaned Cheryl's book shelf and looked for books that were required to go to the library. At the end of the day, the children did some show and tell and then the day ended. Keilor Views Primary School was especially interesting to me as they had many children who suffered from disabilities. They were many children throughout the entire school who suffered from autism, a little boy in my class with Down Syndrome and a girl who was blind. It was very sad to see all these children with disabilities but also really good to see although they may be different, they are still given the same opportunities as other children to attend a mainstream school. There was a little boy in the prep class I was helping in called Tho and he suffers from Down Syndrome. Today, his aid said he was having a veyr bad day as he was unwilling to participate in activities and complete his work. They have a system for Tho that helps to show him, he does some work then gets to play on the ipad. It was intriguing to see that he was very uncooperative when it came to work but as soon as the ipad came out he was more then happy. I found it interesting that Tho knew exactly how to use the ipad and the different apps on it while he struggled with his work. I found Tho's case especially interesting as I at a stage aspired to be a teacher at a Special Education School. I had an absolutely amazing day today. I found it so rewarding when I was able to help children and inspired by the teachers and the amazing work they did. I also found it interesting to work with the children and see the way their personalities reflected their work and how they acted toward me compared to their usual teacher. I had a very interesting day but very tiring. :)

<span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">15/11 BM - We have finally gotten to the practical part of our project! I think that it’s amazing that after all of this time, we finally have gotten to go out to a community and make a difference. The day started when we all met each other at Maddisons place. We were really keen to get to Kelior View primary school, so we couldn’t stop talking and wondering what the day would bring. When everyone was at Maddys, we headed off. It was really good because Maddys Mum is part of the staff at the school, so we got there and left at school times. I think it was really good that we started early in the morning, because we experienced a full school day. The four of us got split into four different classes. I think initially we were all worrying that we were going to be alone basically, but that wasn’t the case because the three prep classes and the one grade one classes were in a square formation, all connecting at the centre. That area in the centre was the place that the kids would place their bags in the morning, and pick it up from in the afternoons. It consisted of lots of pigeon holes, and it was really cute to watch how organised these kids were; how they have gotten into a routine of placing their bag in the pigeon hole, getting our their reader and drink, and going to class. Anyway, we all met the teachers that were part of the prep classes, and got split up. I was in Miss Walski’s prep class. I’m pretty confident that I was in prep W. Well, when I first met her she was really nice and welcoming. I sat down on a chair in class as Miss Walski did the role, and they all said hello to myself and a parent helper. It was so cute watching them turn around and smile at me. The lady that was a parent teacher in my class was really nice, and she was organised and knew what she was doing as she had been a parent helper before. She showed me where the toilets were, and where the canteen was, and I felt that really helpful later on at lunch. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Anyway, my class started off with show and tell. Specific children were allocated to do show and tell on this day, so they grabbed their toys or whatever they were bringing and one at a time, sat on the teachers chair at the front of the classroom. I found it really cute how they all knew what to do, and even at one point when it was question time, a young girl asked “Can we sit in a circle and pass them around?”, and they all automatically assembled themselves into a circle! It was really cute because the young girl Emma had brought Pom Poms and as they passed them around, all the children of prep W were laughing as they shook them. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">As soon as show and tell was over, it was time to go to library. Prep W all grabbed their library bags, and headed off to the library which looked like it was on the other end of the school. They all lined up in pairs, and one pair at a time left the classroom, following Miss Walski. I was at the back, and held hands with the girl that was by herself at the back. The library that Keilor View Primary school has is amazing, and I think that they are gifted to have so many new books. I instantly remembered back to my primary school library, which was quite acceptable as well, and as I used to shelves the books at lunchtimes I felt right at home. Miss Walski read a book to the kids about a bear and a chicken going on a holiday to the beach. It was a cute story with a really strong theme of friendship, and I thought that it was a great example to show to the prep’s at that age. Then prep W went off as individuals in the library to borrow their books for the week. The children got to choose either one or two books, and they were constantly reminded by Miss Walski to go to the librarian to get them scanned. I got asked my Miss Walski to float around and help the kids; whether it be with decision making, or tiding the books after they had had a look at it and pulled it out. I read a young boy a book about a young bear going to bed, and then helped him place it in his bag. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">We went back to the classroom, and the teacher got up the projector on the whiteboard that she had connected to the MacBook that she had. Up came a work sheet on Eagles. She got out her pointing stick and went through what she had written about them, and as a class, they came up with a little summary on Eagles on the whiteboard. The children were then asked to go back and write their own report on Eagles. They all got out their pencils and their books, and began writing. Having a little sister of my own that’s in prep herself, I instantly knew how to help the children when they were having troubles spelling. I used my skills to help half of the class, while Miss Walski helped the other half. We wrote about what they were, where they lived, what they ate and what they looked like. I tried really hard to help those children who were having trouble more than others. When I reflect back on this activity, I think that I was really helpful to the children. It was then recess, and we went to the canteen to buy our food. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Next thing we knew it was third and fourth sessions, and we went back to class. Two of the classes teacher had to leave for the rest of the day, so they prepared their children for this. Prep W got told that they were going to watch a movie, called the Gruffalo, and so we read the book before Miss Walski had to leave. When the children went into the other prep class, I was asked by Lexie’s prep classes’ teacher if I wanted to help out. Of course I said yes enthusiastically, and to Steph and I started wrapping the Christmas presents that each prep teacher was giving their students. As we started wrapping each book, it felt really good to acknowledge that Christmas was coming, and I sort of got excited! <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Lexie was doing testing at the time, and Maddison was somewhere else, so we all contributed to the wrapping when they were done. Lexie and I got pulled aside, and we tidied and sorted a heap of books that needed to either stay in the classroom, or go back to the library. At this point in time the preps were doing colouring in Gruffalo activities, having finished watching the movie. Before we knew it, it was lunchtime and my lunch order that I had payed for and ordered in session one came, it was a chicken, lettuce, mayonnaise and cheese role, and it was really nice and totally worth the wait!! It was really good to be allowed to buy stuff from the canteen at lunch and sit in the atmosphere of the school yard. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">In session 5 and 6 I helped Lexie complete her testing, and then we finished off the remainder of the books that needed to be wrapped, as we finally had found wrapping paper. In the last 40 minutes before we left we wondered around and helped the children do some maths. They were really fun to work with, and I wasn’t out of my element when it came to working with the preps. I worked with a young girl named Sophie, who was having trouble counting. It was suggested by the teacher that I help her, and I loved every minute of it. I feel that I helped her come out of her shell a bit more as she was a bit shy towards everyone to begin with. I now have a little high-five thing going on with the children of prep W, and every time they do something good, that’s what I give them. In the last couple of minutes before Maddisons mum came to collect us to go home we worked with a little boy with down syndrome who was playing on an ipad. The four of us spoke to him and I felt really happy but sad at the same time because he didn’t deserve to be born like that. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">All in all it was a really productive day, and I was happy to come back next week. It is going to be emotional when we have to leave next week, because I really loved working with the children and making I difference. I feel that what we have done has contributed to our outreach program heaps, and we all learn from experience how to deal with different people in different social settings. I’ve decided that I may even want to be a prep teacher when I’m older, as I really do love working with primary school children. I feel that it’s a tiring job, but it’s really rewarding and enjoyable. I can’t wait to see what our next week at the school brings!

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">MA 22/11- As suspected, today was a great day! I had heaps of fun with the little kids and it made me realise how much I wanted to stay. When we arrived, Bianca decided to take a photo of us four girls out the front of the school as evidence, and then we signed into the log book at the school and went to the prep and grade one classes where we were split up into different classes and rearranged. I was in Prep S with Mrs. Sachurqi or however you spell it! And the other girls were right next door again. When I was in the class room, the bell rang and the students sat down to start. Mrs. S introduced me to the students, played some guessing games about what my name was and how old I was and we even played hang man. The students were really smart for preps and soon knew how to spell my name after three other guesses. After that, Mrs. S got me to go and work with the students on using blocks to find the area as she read the other students a book. I worked with each student indiviually and marked their work as well. Many of the little preps were really nice and open, telling me about their family and how there brother was 19 foot tall! It was so funny listening to what they had to say and how they were so interested in me because I was older than them. When I finished, I was assigned to go and help Lexie with the very fun job of slicing paper and photos, sticking them onto each other and then putting them into frames. This would then go into a letter and go to the students at the end of term. We worked together and created a sort of process for each to do something different and then together we continued to work. We had about 40 to do! But it was still fun talking and working together. Then it was time for recess, so the girls and myself went to the canteen as per usual and bought dim sims and potato gems. We sat down and ate, discussing what had happened during that morning and what work we had to do when we went back in. <span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">When we got inside, Lexie and I got back to work on the photo cards that we had been working on before hand. Bianca came to help us as well which was fun so we worked together as a team. I realised that Toh, the prep with down syndrome had arrived into his class with my mum and at that moment, Steph walked in. After being told by another teacher, Helen for us to do some more work, it was perfect timing when she asked if we needed help and so I decided to go into my class and she could take me place. I went into my class, hoping to spend sometime with Toh, so truly experience my work, but he was already with his carer. So I was assigned to help a boy who was having trouble with creating a graph. I explained and cut out things for him so that he could go to the computer lab with his class that had already left. He finally finished and after cleaning up, we walked over to the computer lab. Mrs. S greeted me, informing me I had free time as she was taking the young boy to work with him one-on-one. I was going to go to computers, when I found my mum at the court yard and decided to help her out. She met up with a few teachers in some discussions and then went back to class where she decorated the classrooms. I helped her decorate as Lexie and Bianca where in Lexie's class helping out students and Steph went to sport. I helped my mum with pinning up pictures and work the students had done and helped photocopy some pictures she wanted to put on the board as well. As we got to the photo copier, I saw Mrs. S there who told me she found some more photos needed for the photo cards. So I went and made for more. I went to my mum's class where a teacher needed help with slicing pictures for art so I finished that off. I then went and did some more work for Helen and Mrs. S walked in, showing me another job I had to complete after lunch. I worked really hard at that time and of course, my mum walked in to see if I was free. She had some things she needed me to cut out, but I was too busy to. I decided I would do it by the time I was done the jobs I had, but Bianca had already finished it. At the perfect timing, the lunch orders came in and I was given my lunch, it was very perfect. At lunch we decided to go to the spot my mum was supervising a child at. All the preps were allocated to stay there with the grade ones. I sat watching my mum chace an autistic boy that she was supervising. Some students came to dob to me about how their friend kicked their other friend in the thigh by accident. I fixed the problem and went back to my lunch. I met one of mum's students named Kelly and Micheal, one of mum's students. The preps kept coming up to us girls, playing with us and making little jokes, they were so cute. Some of them were actually being mean to me and teasing me which was really surprising. When we were eating, a prep named Tyler stole Steph's purse so Steph and I chaced him until my mum told him to stop running and give it back with an apology, which he did do. Tyler had come from a very trouble family and didn't exactly realise what he was doing wrong. We all hung out for a bit, and then it was time for class. Three different students asked me to be their partners so we all went into class together. <span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Lexie and I worked together to draw spider webs in glitter into the student's books and that took us till the end of the day. It was actually really difficult for me, as I'm sure Lexie realised. We also gave the teachers a thank you present for the help and support in our project which they appreciated. They really wanted us there longer, which was a good sign. Then we said goodbye to the kids, and were on our way. I defiantly will be going back, but who knows, maybe I will have a few other volunteers with me next time... ;)

**22/11 SP-** Wow today, was really amazing I learnt so many things about so many different topics and today was a real eye opener. Today was a second day of outreach but also our last. I knew I was going to miss going in on tuesdays and see all the preps and having lot's of people say hi that remember me. After last week I was pretty excited to go today. I knew what we did last week and it was fun and I was prepared. We all meet up at Madison's house again, when I got there Maddy told me to quickly fill in my lunch order. it was pretty funny because I wasn't expecting it. When I got to Kelior Views Primary School this morning with the rest of the girls, we took a photo out the front of the school for a memory and as evidence for our project. We were already to get in the classroom and help. When we signed in the lady's in the front office remembered us, and we got our visitors stickers (which we were pretty happy about). We were then given a new prep class to work in we swapped class around. Instead of being in prep G with Mrs.Genis, I was in prep W with Ms.Walski. When I went into the class room this morning and saw all the happy smiling preps, it kind of reminded me, when I was happy to go to school in prep and school was fun and easy and I think how hard it is now. The student teacher of the day was chosen before they began which a new one is chosen every day, and today it was yesterdays best friend. the children were all amazed that he picked his best friend with out looking and they all laughed about it. In prep W we started the day of with a book and we read a book and the kids were all excited. It was a cute little picture book but I can't remember the name, all the kids were sitting still, and neatly ready for the book to begin. Once the book was finished and they discussed it, it was session two and now time for library. When we were walking over to the library, the preps were talking loud and screaming so Ms.Walski had to tell them to be quiet so many times. When we got to the library, we read a book written by mem fox and I forgot the name but it was about all these different animals going to sleep and there were two lines per page and the end to words rhymed. While we were reading the book, the lady from the office came in with a little girl that was going to be starting at the school next year and her name was Keisha. She was going to be in grade one and she came from a school in St.Albans I think and she was so cute, she had her bag and was straight away excited to read the book. She sat down next to Sophie and the class all began to listen to the rest of the book. Once the book was finished Ms.Walski and the children what there parents do before they go to sleep, there answers were like They read me a story, they tuck me in and one kid was so cute and he said I say goodnight to them. After we talked as a class the had time to look through the library for two books they wanted to take home. During this time I was told I could go around and help them choose a book. I help this little girl and I asked her what she wanted a book on she already had cinderella, she said she wanted a book like that the little mermaid. So together we walked over to the D section to look for all the Disney books and while we were looking we couldn't find it we found the emperors new groove, and snow white and we looked through all the books. Just as we were about to walk away I looked over to the other sections to find another Disney book. It happened to be Aladdin when we picked it up she said she wanted that one because she hadn't read it. I then went over and helped some of the boys. It was then time to go back to class for snack time. And every time we would go back into the classroom one or two preps would ask Ms.Walski the same Question. They had a board next to the white board with two columns and on one side it would say the session number wether it was one,two,three,four or five and the other side would say would they would have if it was library or reading whatever. Ms.Walski began to change it and forgot and the question that was repeatedly asked was is that all the classes we have today because the were three labeled, or where are the rest Ms.Walski and I thought it was cute how they all wanted to know and what they had for the day. It was then recess time and me and the girls went to the canteen. The lady's that were working in the canteen were really nice. For recess we all bought something and we went and sat in this area under a tree that had chairs, which was in between the prep and 1,2 area and the older area. While we were sitting there this cute little prep that was in my class came running past, his name was Jehad. He was so little and small and so cute. He ran past so many times that we were wondering how he could continue running. While we were talking Lexie said music to us and I don't know how she heard it, but it was time to go in. When they got in the class, session three began and they were doing writing. For writing they were studying information reports and how to write them. On monday they did there first information report and it was on the topic of birds I think and Ms.Walski said that she was very proud of them and they were all smiling. Today’s information report was on Sharks, so they began on the small white board filling in five categories: What are they, what do they look like, other interesting facts, where do they live and what do they eat. As a class they read information and added it to it. They were then sent back to there tables to begin their information reports. Ms.Walski asked me to go around and help some of them. Then they began something else and Ms.Walski asked me to do something for her in the back room, which was to create and stick together these calendar things for the students on different coloured cardboard. I was sitting in the back room with all the other girls and I was doing all the work. Session four was going to begin in 20 minutes and I was nearly done the calendars. When I was done I went back to the classroom and along with the preps got ready to go to Sport. When we were walking over to the gym, I was talking to some of the preps and some of the grade ones who were split up in their grade for the day. I was talking to Jehad, Sophie, Laijla and more of them. We were talking about what they do in sport and what there favourite games are. When I mentioned what’s the time mister wolf they all got excited because it was one of their favourite games. In sport class they began the lesson of with playing a game where there were two teams, one team on either side of the hall and they had to lie down on there stomachs and they were given a number, that when it was called out the person that had the number (one from each team) would run out and pick up a ball run to there bucket that either me or Ms was standing around and try from the green line to roll it in. The winners were the first team to get to 10 points. When one of the teams one, they got to choose another game as a class and they all decided on what’s the time mister wolf. I was playing along with them down on one end. It was heaps of fun and the kids had fun with me, they were holding my hand and running with me it was fun. They had some more time after the game to play another one and they choose Ship,Shark,Shore. But before they got to choose the last game Ms had a game already chosen which was brick soccer and when they all heard it they all went ohhh because they said with their sport teacher who was away today they always play it so then the teacher said they could choose a game. I didn’t know how to play Ship,Shark,Shore but they explained it. It is a game that there are three lines the first one being shore, the second one being shark and the last one being ship. And when one of them was called out they were to run to the one that was called out. The last one to get to the line was out. We played it until the end of class. It was pretty fun and throughout the whole thing of sport all the preppy’s would give me high five’s which was so cute and little Jehad kept giving me high five’s and his hand was so small. When we got back to the classroom it was lunch time and all our lunch orders came. At lunch we outside today and we were sitting in the prep area and michela and piper came to sit with use. Once we had finished we went to the canteen and we got icy-poles and slurpee’s. When we went back to sit down I was sitting with the girls and the preps and our little friend tyler came up to me and hugged me and then he saw my wallet and he took it and me and Maddie had to chase him and we were running for a while until Vicky told him to stop and give it back. It was funny because I wasn’t expecting it and I dropped my icy-pole when I got up. Then when we got back we were sitting down and we were watching Vicky she was watching/ looking after Michael and she had to chase him because she had to be with him at all times. When it was time to go in I went to my classroom and got the whole class of prep W to line up and when Ms.Walski came out she was so happy to see them in two lines and ready to learn. When we went to class, we read a book called franklin wants a pet it was about Franklin the turtle wants a pet and by the end his parents say yes. Then for the last bit of the day I went into the back room and did some work for the buddy’s in grade 6 presents from the preps. At 3:00pm we left Kelior Views for the last time for our DEAL outreach program. From this program I have learnt heaps. It was a great experience and when I was talking to the girls I realized all the stuff we did they would have needed to find time to do it. So I realized about how much we have actually helped someone in our community by donating time and not money. I am so glad with the turn out of our project. I have had heaps of fun and I think we got the whole message of this program and we achieved what we wanted to achieve. I would defiantly go back and help them because it was so much fun and greatly appreciated.

<span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">22/11 BM - Today would of had to have been one of the best days ever when it comes to our Outreach program. We all knew that we were going to help out at Keilor Views primary school again, so we assembled at Maddison’s place early in the morning, so that Vicki could drive us there (as she works at Keilor Views Primary School). We arrived with nothing but good intentions, and as we signed in, were given visitor stickers. It was really cute to receive a visitor sticker upon our arrival because it made our entire group feel special. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Be sure to notice the picture of Lexie, Steph, Maddy and myself at the front of Keilor Views Primary School, and the picture of the visitor sticker we all got given upon arrival. They are at the top of our WikiSpace. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">In continuation to our day, we worked in the same classrooms that we did last week. This week though, we decided to change it up a little. We rotated around the classrooms, so we were in a different one than last week. In my case, this week I was in Prep 1K, which was run by Miss Kokoulis. I missed my class last week, but I wasn’t that far away from them, and they still remembered me. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Well, once I was welcomed into Prep 1K, it was time for us to go to our morning gym. Vicki was helping out in 1K today, and so as the children ran around, she explained some more about the school that we were helping out at. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The principal of Keilor Views Primary School has this philosophy that each class should do 20 minutes of exercise at the beginning of each day. This, in my opinion, is a really good thing as each student should be encouraged to lead a fit, healthy life. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">We walked back to the classroom that 1K was in, and we welcomed a new student that was having an orientation morning in 1K, as she would be in grade 2 next year. Her name was Charlotte, and the class made sure that they welcomed her, as she was joining in with their morning activities before going back to her other school that she was at. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Prep 1K read a book on wind. They read about soft wind, heavy wind, what sort of activities run with wind (for example, kites), and in particular how Windmills run. The children loved this book and to make it more practical they were asked to blow on their hands a hard wind and a soft wind. This was so cute! Anyway, our next activity was to make a Pinwheel of our own. The teacher bought out one that she originally made, and explained that each of the students of 1K were going to make one of their own. They went back to their tables and started colouring their Pinwheel piece, and Vicki and I were pulled to the side to get told by Miss Kokoulis that we were going to help the children assemble them, as it involved a couple of technicalities that the children weren’t capable of overcoming. Once the children were done, Miss Kokoulis showed them how to assemble one of these Pinwheels, but they were told that their job was to only to the cutting element of it, and that herself, Vicki and I were going to come around to attach the florist wire to the Pinwheel, so that they had something to hold on to when using them. As Miss Kokoulis explained how to complete these final steps, I made sure that I payed close attention as I needed to remember how to do it. I’m lucky it wasn’t that complex after all, so I made a lot of children happy by completing their Pinwheel for them! <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Next thing I knew, I was getting pulled to the side, so that I could help out by cutting out work that the children had done, and cutting out snowflakes to contribute towards their ‘Winter Blizzards’ display on the felt wall at the back of the room. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Next thing I knew, it was recess and I was told that I could either go to gym, or help out with some tasks that the teachers had for us. I decided that it was best if I stay in the classroom and help out, because my attendance to 1K’s gym class wouldn’t have a mass affect. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">It was fair enough that I didn’t go in the end because there were big tasks that the Prep teachers wanted us to get done for them. We had to make buddy cards, as the Preps had Grade 6 buddies this year. Once they were done (and it took a while), I went back into my classroom and began helping out in there. The students of 1K were watching The Magic School Bus on their projector and the topic was weather. I met Tracy, one of the parent helpers at the school. She was colouring in some of the children’s work, and I helped her with this as some of these children were not going to get their colouring work done if we didn’t boost it for them. I then started to cut out more snowflakes for the display, when I was approached by Vicki, who had bus cut-outs on them. It was my job to cut out the busses, and because it was fast approaching lunchtime I would continue them after. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Lunch was good, and my lunch order came as suspected, and it tasted really nice! At lunch the four of us sat on a bench, and were just watching the children go by when we were approached by two Prep girls: Mikayla and Piper. They were so cute, and we gave them some of our attention. It was funny though because by the end of lunch many more children had surrounded us, and we were trying to talk to all of them! <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">When I got back inside, us four girls prepared ourselves for the last little part of the day, as the third block after lunch ran much shorter than the others. Stephanie helped me cut out the remainder of the busses, and then we both went and began making more buddy cards for Prep W. Lexie and Maddy were busy making spider webs out of PVA glue, and covering them in glitter, and we were all running behind a tight schedule. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Steph and I got majority of the buddy cards done, and Lexie and Maddy finished their spiderwebs. It was time for us to leave, and we gave the teachers of Prep W, Prep S, Prep G and 1K the card and the big box of chocolates that we had all pitched in for, so show our appreciation. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The ride back home was a really big reflection on what we had just done. We had helped out at a school that could of really used some more volunteer workers, and it was evident that we had made an affect on them. <span style="color: #f16704; font-family: Georgia,serif;">I am really going to miss Keilor Views Primary School and all of the lovely people that it holds, but this may not be the last time that I go there. Our group is thinking of extending our Outreach by going to help out there on the days that Vick works during the two last weeks of their term (as CRCCS finishes school two weeks earlier). This is a great experience and there definitely has been a change in my, and my reflection elaborates on what I thought of myself, my group and my resources around me throughout this program.

22/11 LG - Today once again we went out to Keilor View Primary School to complete our Outreach action. As anticipated today was a great day where I again learnt a lot about the children and the different ways in which the same subjects can be taught. The four of us gathered together early at Maddies place so her mum, Vicki could take us to school. When we arrived at Keilor Views, Vicki took a picture of us so we could use it as evidence for our assessment task. When we entered the office, we were greeted warmly by the office ladies and got special visitor stickers which we were required to wear all day. Today, we were all in different classrooms as it was beneficial for us to see how different classrooms work and how the teachers techniques vary from person to person. So, today I was in Ms Genis' classroom. All the children were very welcoming as was Ms Genis. Once I was introduced to the class I helped Tyler to order his lunch for later on in the day and helped to get the children settled. The first thing the class did was pick the teacher of the day. Today teacher of the day was Michael. Michael was very excited to be teacher of the day and I think it was great that he got a go as he had a special need. He suffered from autism. Being the teacher of the day means the child gets to do the roll in the morning and the afternoon and help the teacher all throughout he day. I think this is a great idea as the children each get a chance to feel special. The first activity of the day was to read a book called 'The Great, Gray Owl.' The front cover of the book had no words just a picture of the owls face. Ms Genis asked teh children to make a prediction of what the book would be about. A boy named Charlie predicted the book would be about an owl. All the children agreed with him. Then another boy made an interesting prediction that the book would have no words in it as well because there were no words on the front cover. I found this prediction interesting as Ms Genis had not asked a question about the words and yet this child still made a very good prediction about it. The book was indeed about an owl but did have words in it. The book described an owls day and what sorts of things they do. On each page there was a word which Ms Genis asked the children if they could give her the definition for. I found it interesting the completely different meanings the children could give each word. After the children had read the book, they split into their reading groups. I sat with Michael, Andrew and Heng in the big book group. They took turns in using the easel to read their books. Each one chose a different book to read. I found it interesting to see that Michael pretty much knew the books he read by heart without even looking at the words and he used a lot of expression while reading. Whereas Heng and Andrew made up their own stories even though the book was right there. I also found this interesting as the book with words was there yet they chose to make up their own stories. Seeing the three different boys read and interpret the book they had chosen gave me an insight how three children of the same year level can be very different. Once we had finished reading groups, Ms Genis asked Maddie and I to start a job for her. We had to use the paper slicer to cut out photos of two prep classes and their buddies, cut out red paper squares to mount the pictures on. We had about 40 to do!! Then sticky tape the red paper to a photo frame and the photo frame to a card. This took a lot of time. Maddie and I wanted to do the cutting as perfectly as we could. So, it took us a little while to get the paper and pictures exactly the way we wanted it but ended up finishing the cutting before it was recess. When recess came, the four of us visited the canteen to get some delicious snacks. It was good to have a break as we knew we had a long afternoon ahead of us. At recess, there were so many children running around playing different game and eating different thing. It was good to see most children were playing with someone and there was close to no one by themselves. After recess, Maddie and I went back to our card making. Thankfully Steph and Bianca came out of their classes to help us. As they always say many hand make light work and this was definitely the case. With all of us working together, we were able to complete all the cards easily in very little time. The cards were from teh preps to their year 6 buddies. When we had only a few cards left, Ms Kokoulis asked if we could help her by cutting out 40 January pages and 40 February pages and stick them on coloured paper. The four of us decided Steph and I would do this while Bianca and Maddie finished the cards. Steph sorted out the paper to enure there was an even amount of each colour as Ms Kokoulis asked while I sliced the paper using the slicer. We made an effective team and worked well together. As I was cutting Steph was sticking the February pages onto the coloured paper and then stapling the January on top. Before she was finished her class, Prep W, went off to gym and Steph decided to go so I finished off the stapling. There wasn't much so that was fine but by the end my arm was sore. Once we had handed the cards and calenders to the teachers, there wasn't a lot of time until lunch so we stayed in our classrooms and helped the children. The children in my class, Prep G, were doing an activity regarding the book we read this morning. They each had to draw pictures of the owl completing the different actions described in the book. Some children did a fantastic job of drawing the owl completing its daily activites, whereas others had a lot more trouble and needed a lot of support. It was intriguing to see the different perceptions of the same actions that varied from child to child and also the different level of drawing skill they had. Some of the drawings I was able to see were amazing and I dont think I could have drawn that well. There were many children in the class who required a lot of support to stay on track and focused with their work. I found that Tyler needed a lot of support but Ms Genis said to me that I should let him do it by himself because he needs to learn to be more independent. Finally lunch had arrived. I was very tired by this time but was looking forward to the break. I had a delicious lasagne for lunch and a slurpee. As we sat around at lunch we were able to see Vicki running around chasing the child she was supervising. It was very funny to see as the child was full of energy. We also had two of the girls in prep classes sit with us for most of lunch. Their names were Piper and Mikayla. Piper was in my class today and Mikayla was in my class last week. They were very cute and it was really fun to muck around with them and make them laugh. They seemed to really enjoy themselves and I found it good to be in their company. It was ridiculously funny when Tyler came along, took Stephs wallet and ran away. Steph went running after him but luckily Vicki was around to stop him. After lunch, Ms Genis asked if Maddie and I would be happy to complete another job for her which of course we were. Maddie and I had to use PVA glue to make a spider web in the children's booklet then cover it in glitter. We decided that Maddie would do the PVA and I would do the glitter. Maddies webs looked great. I ended up with glitter all over me, it was crazy. I think in the end the webs all looked really great. At the same time as we were doing this, Bianca and Steph were first cutting out buses and then making Prep W's buddy cards. It was a lot of fun using the glitter to make the spider webs. Towards the end of the day, we gave the teachers a present that we had all pitched in for to saw our gratitude. We were very thankful of them allowing us into their classrooms and being so welcoming towards us all. We bought then a large box of chocolate. At 3:00 we left Keilor Views Primary School to head back home. I felt sad that we would not be coming back as I have learned so much by spending just two days in the primary school and feel that if we had more time I would have learnt so much more. I enjoyed my time at Keilor Views so much and am really greatful towards the teachers for allowing us to have such a great experience and open our eyes to the way a school runs and the challenges that have to be faced. I feel I have gained a lot of experience from these two days. I think the Outreach program was a great one to run. I feel that everyone has gained something different from this and have all gained new experiences. Although we may have had a major setback in our program, all in all I had a great time throughout it all. The setback allowed us to think outside the box and problem solve in a way we never had before. I was so proud of my group and the amazing effort we have made throughout the entire program. I have loved working with my group and would do it all again without a problem. I think we achieved our goal to MAKE A CHILD SMILE :) :)