As I mentioned previously, I did quite a few outreaches in the last few weeks for the 500 Festival. Outreaches are classified as any time that a princess goes out and meets with the public basically in any form. I did some in the Indianapolis area, and I organized a few on my own in southern Indiana. This way I had something to get up and do while I was at home for a whole week…ha, like I needed to find something to do..
I was most excited about just going to schools in my hometown, because unlike in Indy, we don’t hear about it all the time, and the hype doesn’t extend all the way down to the southernmost part of the state. So, I kind of took it as my job to get the kids in the schools excited about it, and also to inform them of many of the things they just aren’t aware of. I met with two groups of fourth graders, and focused on the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the race itself with those groups. In Indiana, fourth grade is when you focus on Indiana history, so I gave those kids a taste of Indiana history…just in a different way. I also spoke with the third graders from my elementary school, the kindergarteners from the school my Mom teaches at, and a variety of different classes from another school. The biggest challenge of all was tailoring the material to each group, because they each have such different personalities, so they all respond to things very differently. So, with the third graders I let them ask lots of questions (which were very insightful), I made sashes and pit passes with the kindergarteners, and did short and fun lessons with the variety of classes. This way, I could switch things up quickly and easily whenever it was necessary.
Even though working with so many different groups of kids all in one week was rather overwhelming, it was so much fun to get to see how the kids reacted to the poster I had with the cars on it, or what they said when I told them that the Indy cars go over 200 miles per hour. Sometimes you forget what it felt like to be a kid….and I loved being able to be reminded of that!
The fourth graders from my elementary school...
