Poetry, Soldering & Bravery

Happy Holidays from everyone at SOHO!

 This week was the last week before our long holiday break. We started Girl Talk by writing our names and drawing a picture or writing how we were feeling when we came in on the white board. Then everyone sat in a circle and chatted about everyone was doing and feeling. This opening circle time is a place where big and little sisters can talk about what's going on in their lives - whether its funny, interesting or stressful. 

This time, Girl Talk was all about ourselves! Tesni started off the night by reading them a poem she wrote - something Tesni doesn't normally do. The only parameters for the "poem" were that each line had to start with "I am..."  After this the line could branch off and talk about all sorts of things things: family members, favorite things, activities, hobbies, friends, qualities, adjectives, objects, etc. The poem was meant to be free and talk about who we are as a person; it didn't have to be grammatically correct or rhyme.

Everyone split up, got comfy, and wrote their own poem. Tesni was sure to tell them we would share at least one line of our poem with the group. After about 15-20 minutes everyone came back into circle and read either one line or the whole poem. To our surprise, every girl read their whole poem! After they were all read, Tesni came around and gave everyone a "word bubble" where each girl wrote their favorite line. After class we all took photos with our bubbles! 

We'll talk more about photography after the break and what exciting things are happening in the darkroom!

After snack, all the big and little sisters came together and headed down to the VisArts metal and jewelry studio.  Everyone was able to learn how to solder necklaces with an image of their choosing! This activity is always really fun because it feels a little more dangerous, and we get to work in a fun professional studio (don't worry-

we take all the necessary safety precautions-of course!). Everyone watched out for each other, trusted each other, and learned how to use these crazy tools! Everyone stayed safe and everyone was able to try out the soldering practicing - even if they were a little timid or scare at first.

The group had closing circle in the jewelry studio tonight so that everyone would have time to finish their necklaces. Everyone said goodbye to each other - for three whole weeks! It was a big, loud, excited goodbye. Everyone's excited for the holidays...

See you in the new year!

PS. Bill Moretz from Pro Camera in Charlottesville gave us a great deal on 10 film cameras for SOHO! A big thank you to Bill for this generosity!