Community Experience: My Experience At A Summer Camp

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This summer I completed my 300 hour internship at the O’Fallon YMCA. During this time I was able to use the skills I learned in previous health education, as well as, gain new skills that I was unaware I possessed. While interning at the YMCA I worked closely with the summer camp kids and helped different YMCA staffs with certain projects they needed assistance with along the way. Reflecting on the time I spent with the YMCA I realized I used numerous health education responsibilities. While interning with the YMCA summer camp, I was mostly placed with group (ages 2-5 year), so I was able to get to know all kids and see any health concerns within this population. Since I was able to work so closely with this specific group, …show more content…

It was important for me to stay in close contact with these people so I could prioritize the needs of the campers and get involved in new volunteer opportunities that aroused. Using Area of Responsibility II, I was able to understand how the head coordinator of the YMCA summer camp wanted me to carry out certain tasks and programs. For example, the head camp coordinator asked me weeks before summer camp started to plan and organize the first four weeks of summer camp. Using the skills I learned in prior health education classes, I effectively produced several lesson plans that consisted of daily crafts, reading programs, and unique activities to get the campers active. Every lesson plan I created had to be tailored to a certain age group. For example, the material I used in kinder cares group would not be effective or engaging to those campers in group six (campers going into the 6th …show more content…

One example of a health education program I did with group K was learning about fruits and vegetables. Trying to engage and keep the attention of three to five year olds is challenging, so I always had to keep this in mind when planning any type of activity or lesson plan. On ‘water day’ at the YMCA, each group had different water stations to play. At group K’s station there was two baby pools. I brought colored changes pebbles to put in the pool. I would mix certain pebbles together and ask the kids what color it would make and ask them to each share their favorite fruits or veggies are the same color with the group. We talked about the benefits of eating the right about of fruits and vegetables while splashing around in the pool. Once I gave them some time to play in the water I would gatherer the kids and mixed more pebbles and had group discussion’s about healthy foods until all the pebbles were gone. This health education program was simple, yet effective. It caught the attention of the young audience while teaching them about colors and healthy foods. I did health lessons on oral health, germs and how to properly wash your hands, the My Plate, as well as, getting the kids active for at least 40 minutes a

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