Tuesday, February 10, 2009

1st day at St. Mary's

On Monday we had our first real experience with the children at St. Mary's Elementary School. I was with the group that was put in the gym to start out. I had an idea of what to expect, because I have worked with younger kids in lacrosse before, but I had no idea what kids were like after being in a classroom all day. The first game we played was freeze tag, or temple tag as I was quickly reminded by the children. When we said go to start the game it was a total yelling and running festival. I'm not even sure if all of the kids were playing tag, I think they just enjoyed running around yelling. At the end the game it turned out to be very successful. We continued on to play team rock, paper, scissors using your body. This activity also went well and everyone had fun with it. It was then snack time. The children ate and we played board games, card games, and many other fun games. To wrap it up at the end we had an open gym time where the children got to pick what they wanted to do. I was playing basketball with these two very talented 1st graders. They both had a really great shot for their age, I was shocked. We then circled up and closed the lab with a small game and a cheer. It was a lot of fun for both the children and the instructors and I am looking forward to the next lab.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

In With Dodge Ball

For schools to do away with dodge ball is just a bad idea on many accounts. Sure it can be viewed as this violent game where you are aiming to hit people with a ball, throwing it as fast as you can, to get them out. However, there is more to this game then what it is usually portrayed to be. This is a great game for kids because it teaches them to aim, which is used in many sports such as pitching in baseball. It also shows a student how to dodge balls being thrown at them which is similar to dodging a tackler in football. To get a player out in dodge ball you can catch a ball being thrown from the opposing side. This action of catching will carry over to sports such as football, basketball, and many others as well. The movements in dodge ball are very similar to other movements in sport. So by playing this game maturely and responsibly it can undoubtedly be a great game to teach children. It will teach them the importance of sport movements and being able to hold their own no matter what sport they are playing.