This Sunday, Little and Big sisters attended Arts With A Heart, Castilleja's annual dance show. The theme was "Confidance" and focused on celebrating the concept of body positivity. The show was a multimedia production, with spoken word performances, which shared powerful messages of how people learned to love themselves, as well as videos and dance. Everybody left with a smile on their face as the show's songs shared messages of self-love and embracing who you are despite your physical appearance.

Halford little and big sisters spent time and had fun together at Winter Lodge last week to go ice skating! Many of the sisters (big and little) were a little apprehensive and despite lots of stumbles, everyone was getting the hang of skating by the end. We all went to get pizza afterwards and connected over the time we had at dinner. It was a great outing and allowed for some mid-week fun for both little and big sisters.

This Saturday, we revisited some topics from previous sessions this year, including stereotypes in media and the concept of density. Sisters split into discussion groups again to watch a video about what it means to be "like a girl" and analyzed gender-stereotyping product ads. Each sister filled out a worksheet which asked them to think about their strengths, interests, and role models, allowing them to reflect about what being a girl and woman in society means to them. 
Science explored the concept of density even further this Saturday, as sisters made predictions of the density of certain liquids, like honey, dish soap, and rubbing alcohol. Each group were asked to think which liquid be in which layer (sinking = bottom layer = higher density, etc.). This activity brought a deeper understanding of density to the sisters, and was also an exciting visual activity!

Welcome back to Halford! The first day of Halford Sisters 2018-19 (10/13) was equally exciting for both big and little sisters. A mix of new and familiar faces arrived on the circle, and everybody created identity maps to introduce themselves and allow them to reflect on parts of their lives and themselves that are important to them. The scientific method was also introduced during our science activity and sisters were encouraged to ask any and all questions they had about plants in the Casti garden. 

The second session of the year (10/27) focused on Halloween themed activities and discussion topics. Sisters learned about the concepts of cultural appropriation and objectification of women in Halloween costumes, as well as in the larger world around them. A lighter activity followed during science, and Halloween candy was brought out to explore the concept of density. The Little Sisters made hypotheses about different candies, asking themselves if a particular treat would sink or float, and provided their thought process behind their claim. Each group tested their hypotheses, and after each trial, the concept of density began to make a little more sense in the real world context provided. 

     This Saturday we focused on human rights. Last Sunday, Halford Little and Big Sisters joined together to watch the Arts with a Heart 2018 production "Rights." The show focused on the declaration of human rights and educating the public on the importance of them, and securing one's rights. For our meeting this Saturday, Little Sisters made posters of human rights violations that they felt had been violated in their community. Big Sisters helped them understand the importance of advocacy, and how necessary it is to stick up for yourself or a peer when you feel one of their rights has been denied. 
     For our science activity, Little and Big Sisters were each given a small piece of tin foil and were asked to make a boat that they felt could hold as many weights as possible before sinking. We then placed the boats in bins of water, and placed different sized weights until the boat sank. We measured how much each boat could hold, and kept track of which group was the best "boat builder!"

​For our January 27th meeting, we talked about an extremely important recent event: the Women's March. Many members of our community have participated in ones in surrounding areas. The Little Sisters watched an informative video on the Women's March, and we held a conversation surrounding the different branches of the government and what each one does. Next, the Big Sisters helped their Little Sisters write letters to their congresswoman, Jackie Speier. We gave them some guidelines and prompts to lead them in the right direction:
       What change would you like to see in your community?
       How would you like to make change?

In mid-February, we took our Halford little sisters to see Castilleja’s annual dance performance Arts with a Heart (AwaH). Each year, the show selects a theme around which to raise awareness and an organization that the show’s proceeds will benefit. This year the theme was about mental health in partnership with Art Lifting, an organization that helps artists who are homeless or struggle with mental health issues sell their art. The show was a wonderful pretext to begin our discussion of mental health with our little sisters. We talked about different types of mental illnesses and the stigma associated with them, so they would have basic context for the issues discussed in the show. Between the dances in the show, the screen would project different pieces of art while a voiceover explained the artist’s inspiration. At the end of the description, a picture of the artist would appear along with a description of the mental illness they suffered from. These moments seemed to really resonate with the little sisters; they seemed to recognize that people who suffer from mental illness are still intelligent and capable and can contribute amazing things to the world. Overall, the little sisters really enjoyed the show, especially when they saw some of their big sisters or Halford little sisters from the year before, and they took away many important lessons about mental health.

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To celebrate a fun and successful first semester of our Halford program this year, the Big and Little Sisters went ice skating at Winter Lodge. For many Little Sisters, this was their first time ice skating and the Big Sisters loved teaching them! After many laps around the rink, we enjoyed pizza and hot chocolate around the fire. In order to celebrate the holidays, the Big Sisters gave their Little Sisters a goody bag with one of their favorite books, candy, snap bracelets, and some holiday themed school supplies. Each Big and Little Sister pair also exchanged holiday cards with each other, sharing some of their favorite activities from first semester and looking forward to more time together second semester.

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