A feast for St. Mary's

Today in lab we started out in the cafeteria playing board games; the two most popular were the roll out checkers and the connect four. Luckily I was fortunate enough to play against Justin who was about nine years old. According to Justin he had never lost in a game of checkers. To my surprise he was pretty good i had begun to think he hadn't ever lost until i found out that he has some small variation in his way of playing checkers. As soon as we stopped playing by Justin's rules and started playing by the right rules Justin had begin to show his weaknesses, Justin wasn't very happy at first but then he realized that it was only fair to play by the right rules. After we cleaned up the board games we went upstairs where we played a game that focused on accuracy and control of a soccer ball. We set up targets all around the gym, the targets were all components of what goes into a thanksgiving dinner. Once a pair hit a target they then acquired food. The teams that hit a food item then told one of us and we put it on the table for it to be eaten. The kids liked the game a lot it involved everyone at all times and it got everyone in the mood for thanksgiving dinner which was right around the corner.

St Mary's presents the Big Top Circus

Get your popcorn ready because the circus was in town at St. Mary's school. The circus mainly consisted of clowns and the parachute games but overall the children had a great time. A good majority of the class dressed up and acted the part, which was of coarse circus circus. There are so many advantages when you act out the theme, it engages the young students so much more they are intrigued and want to know if that your real hair or if you really wear these funny clothes. Its a great way to get the children comfortable and ready to have fun. Even though the older kids may not seem that interested in you but they are; there probably laughing at you which isn't a bad thing it's just another way to engage the student even if its at your own expense. In the activities of the day we worked on the overhand thrown and the catch and all of the proper techniques that go along with them. My group paired up with the Gym rats and observed the children these were the kindergartners and the 1st graders. There development of the manipulation of the round objects were in the elementary stage but the throwing and catching of the spheres were not as developed. Throws were very erratic and uncontrolled. At this age it is best for children to develop the proper techniques and then the accuracy and finesse will follow over time.

Harvest Fest at St. Marys

The third lab of our St. Mary's experience brought us into the end of October, this was the perfect time for a fall harvest festival, this was the theme of the day. We continued our observations of the children's locomotor skills development in their play and interactions in the gym and in the play ground. This week Activities R' Us were assigned to the pre-k children, I was assigned to come help with the Pre-k in the morning last tuesday. I was amazed how many of the children remembered me, my buddy paul who I must of read 5 books to came and found me as soon as he saw me, he couldn't wait to start playing with me and the other college kids. The pre-k student's are very self sufficient in terms of keeping themselves entertained this is due to their elaborate imaginations. In order to interact with the children you must delve into the imaginary world that they are playing in, such as that the wood chips are lava and you cannot step on them. These kids get so excited when you play the same games that they play, they are amazed that an older person would want to play the same games as them. When we brought the kids inside we set up a Harvest collection the children had to perform the locomotor skills in order to acquire the harvest items. We also added a tunnel for some reason the Pre-k children love going through the fabric tunnel. Next week we have been assigned to organizing one of the equipment rooms, this should be fun and a chance to see how to inquire all the items of the PE department.