Last Visit To St.Mary's

I have really learned a lot about young children through my experiences at St. Mary’s. These young children are very funny and very unexpectable. One second they can have something hurting which causes them to sit out but once a fun game comes around, that has all disappeared and they are fine. I have witnessed this many times. Some activities that I felt were appropriate were ones that involved props and using imaginations to add something extra to the games. It’s amazing how the children respond to these sorts of things. Some activities that were not as appropriate were ones that resembled drills. Most of these games that were similar to drills were not very fun for the children. There was no imagination or creativity and that is what the children love about games.

With the PRE K program the children were much easier to work with because they weren’t as hyper as the older children. It was different with the older children because they would just want to go crazy, and it was hard to keep them organized. I really enjoyed working with the younger children. They listened very well to what you had to say and they had a greater sense of appreciation towards the activities. I also felt that there were many more activities to come up with when you are working with the PRE K.

In the Cafeteria some fine motor skills that I observed were building with the leggos, and drawing pictures. These were the two most creative fine motor skills that I had observed. The children would draw many different things and create many different objects with the leggos. Having children work on these fine motor skills is something that should definitely be worked on in Physical Education. It is very important for children to do activities involving this because it forces them to use their imagination and to strategize what they want to do. These are aspects that carry over into physical activity. Using your imagination and being creative come in handy when playing sports.

From this experience I have been given insight on my individual teaching style. I have found that I like to put myself in the shoes of the students, or simply think like an elementary school student would. I take the activity that I plan on doing and see if I would enjoy from an elementary school students point of view. My teaching style has definitely emerged through my experiences at St. Mary’s. I realized that the most successful games are ones in which the children can relate to, like super heroes or the Easter bunny. So by thinking like a child helps me to see what games will be best. This is how my teaching style has been developed through my experiences and interactions at St. Mary’s Elementary School.

Dribble and Kick

I feel that the activities and games that we have been utilizing so far at St. Mary’s have been for the most part appropriate for the student’s. Every game and activity that we have done with the children in the labs has been very successful. They have made the children interested in playing and also made them move around and get a good workout in. The hardest activity came last week in lab 5 when we had to get the children dribbling and kicking. It is very hard to have a game where you can see these skills being done correctly by the children. It seemed more of a drill than anything but we were able to assess the children easily with the zig-zag soccer. It may not have been the best game but it helped our class in assessing the movements.

Some limitations to games involve taking the movement in the game and having the students perform them where that is the only thing they are doing. For instance if you have a game that involves the movement of dribbling, you may want to have the student dribble stationary instead of on the run. This allows the people assessing to get a clear look at what is being performed. It may not be as fun for the children but like I said before it helps the observers get a good understanding of the movements being performed.

Can You Catch and Throw?

At St. Mary’s I have definitely faced some challenges and difficulties. What I am proud of is how I have found ways to overcome them. One challenge or difficulty that I have faced was working with children that didn’t want to cooperate with the activities. Not every child wants to play the game that we have chosen. Most children do enjoy the games but there are always those few kids who must be difficult. Not that this is good but it does help you get a feel for it because I feel as a future teacher we will undoubtedly come across some children like this. Another difficulty that I have faced is the issue of having enough space. One of our activities had to be moved to the cafeteria because there wasn’t enough room. This wasn’t a big deal because we just adjusted a few things and continued on with our activity in a different location. It wasn’t the environment we wanted but it worked out fine.

Some ideas or suggestions that I have to resolve these difficulties are to: manage my games according to space and time, and to also find games that seem suitable for children of all skills levels. This will help to keep more children into the activities and eager to play the games. Managing the games according to time and space would consist of keeping the movements of the game more controlled so that you determine where the children will move compared to having them running all over gym.

Leap over, Jump on, Slide across

On Monday I observed 6 year old Anthony and 6 year old Rowan, who are both in Kindergarten. Anthony is a male and Rowan is a female who both had differences in their ability levels. Both of these students were able to perform the locomotor skills but each had different forms while doing them. There were things that Anthony did better than Rowan, and Rowan performed other things better than Anthony. We observed these two students perform the locomotor skills of leaping, jumping horizontally, and sliding while attending the super hero training camp. It was interesting to see all of the different abilities within these children.

Since I worked with the older kids today some of the teaching strategies that I used were different then what I would use with the younger ones. We played kick ball and what I thought worked very well was to just be encouraging, partly participate, and just let the students play the game with minimal interruption. The kids really like kick ball and enjoyed having us participate as well. Overall the activity went very well and it was a great day.

There were many strategies that I have used these past couple of weeks to capture the children’s attention and keep them on task for the activity. Acting parts out and dressing to the role always had a great response for the children. I also enjoyed doing demonstrations because I fell like the students enjoy watching us participate as well. The last one is to always be encouraging no matter how bad things are going. As long as you are 100% into it, then chances are that the will be as well.

Watch and Learn

At St. Mary’s I observed a six year old boy named Shamus who is in first grade. I also observed a five year old girl named Kasey who is in kindergarten. These two individuals were both able to perform the locomotor skills of running, galloping, and hopping. Even though Shamus was only one year older than Kasey it seemed to have a very big impact on the differences in ability. It seemed like Shamus was able to perform the locomotor skills more consistently and for a longer period of time. Kasey on the other hand would start out doing well but her movements started to break up after a little while. Shamus was overall more coordinated with his steps throughout the three locomotor skills. I also saw that both of the students were making mistakes similar to one another. For instance, on the Gallop, the foot trailing was not always at a position adjacent to or behind the lead foot. But overall both students performed well.

The effective teaching strategies that I observed on Monday were using music, dressing up, acting out all the different parts, and just being really enthusiastic with all of the activities. It seemed like the more excited we were to explain the game, the more they wanted to play it. I used music and being really enthusiastic towards all of the children playing our game. These teaching strategies made all of the children really want to play and be a part of the Stink Letter Stew Game. We also had the chefs that were stirring the stew wearing aprons so the kids felt that they were giving ingredients for the stew. This really made the kids feel like they were all helping to create the end product of the stinky letter stew. I felt like each game had different strategies that worked better than others but one teaching strategy that always must be present, in all games, is just being very enthusiastic and eager for the children to be playing the games. This will make them want to play that much more and by the end of the class you want them to be excited for the next time we play.

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.

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.