St. Mary's Lab 6

I’ve learned that all younger children are different. Whether they’re at a different level of a motor skill, social aspect, or growth point they all have their own personal level in which they are at. Each child is and individual and should be treated as an individual. There were many activities that were appropriate for the children. One of these activities was four goal soccer. Four goal soccer got everyone in the class involved and all of the children were playing. The directions to the game were given very clearly and thoroughly in which none of the children had any problems or had any questions. The children knew who was on whose team and which goals to shoot at. Another activity that was appropriate was capture the flag. In capture the flag, we had the children capture the Easter baskets, that had eggs in them, and bring them back to their home base. The game went very well and the students really enjoyed it. A game that was inappropriate was food freeze tag, in which the students had to say their favorite food before getting the ball thrown to them to get unfrozen. The game didn’t go very well because the students weren’t using the right throwing motion by throwing overhand. The students also didn’t get the concept that they needed to be tagged first in order to get the ball. I feel that we really didn’t have the students’ full attention when we were explaining the rules and giving an adequate demonstration of the game.

I was only able to experience the Pre-K at St. Mary’s for one lab. When I first walked into the room one of the boys in the class immediately greeted me, taking my hand and bringing me over to where he was playing. I ended up helping him build towers with the blocks that he was playing with. I then played with a group of other children who were having a tea party in the playhouse and also were playing with the toy cash register. The children were very talkative and energetic. My group had a game for the Pre-K children when we took them into the gym, which had them performing various motor skills such as leaping, hopping, sliding, and jumping. The game was also associated with spiderman, in which the children threw balls at the villain Dr. Octopus. Working with the Pre-K children was different from working with the older children because the Pre-K students weren’t as developed with their motor skills and their social skills as the older children. I did really enjoy working with the Pre-K children because they were very playful and talkative and were very excited to play any game we had for them.

While I was at St. Mary’s I was in the cafeteria a few times and I noticed the fine motor activities that the children were playing. Some of these fine motor activities were drawing, doing puzzles, and building with small legos. I feel that if you can find a way to incorporate the fine motor activities into the activities that you have in your curriculum, you should definitely execute it because it is another way to build the children’s character.

I have learned a lot of valuable lessons and tricks that can help me with my teaching style while spending my time at St. Mary’s. I have learned to really project my voice loud enough in which everyone in the room would be able to hear it. I have also learned to always give an adequate demonstration of the activity, game, or skill that I am teaching so the students know what I am expecting from them. I have also learned to name all of the objectives to the game/activity while I am introducing the instruction and rules to the game/activity. With all of the labs, I have learned to always have alternate variations to games/activities, in which I can continue the interest of the children and look at different aspects such as different motor skills. I feel like my teaching style has not yet fully emerged, but was really developed during my experience with St. Mary’s labs. I feel that I will be learning many more new aspects to teaching with the rest of my experiences that I have ahead of me within the classes I have yet to take. I will constantly be learning as I go through my teaching experience, constantly fine adjusting my teaching style.