Atidim - a smashing success

We finally had the Atidim program today. It was a smashing success. Me, Jen M, Jen R and Ruth organized a bunch of games for about ten 15-year-olds, which we played in English. We started off by simply introducing ourselves, having the kids ask us questions about outrselves, telling us about themselves, etc. Some were much better than English than others, so it took some time for them to warm up to us. But some warmed immediately. After this, we played our first game: we removed one of the chairs, and had someone stand in the middle of the circle and say something like: "I like chocolate," and then everyone who likes chocolate has to switch chairs. The person left in the middle then has to say something. This game worked really well, especially when Liad, a wonderful A.I.T- (Ars in training), who spoke the best English in the group, got to the middle of the circle and told Jen M that she has beautiful eyes. Am Yisrael Chai.

After this game, we took a brief recess, chatted with them, and then played the sentence completion game, which also went really well. Then finally, we had them fill out forms about their expectations of the program, and then played the Kelly Clarkson song "Behind These Hazel Eyes" and taught them the lyrics. They absolutely loved this, especially Liad. We took down lots of suggestions for more songs for next time. My favorite suggestion was "Don't Fuck With My Heart." They also got really excited when I suggested 50 Cent's "In Da Club." That should be interesting. Overall, it was really a great success, probably the best thing I've done here (or at least comparable to the chess) and I'm really happy with it.