Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Imagination

Something that I've learned over my time spent at St. Mary's school as a student teacher so to say is that you must loosen yourself up. Being a good teacher to young children is getting on the same level as them so to speak. Think things up on the spot and don't be afraid or embarrassed of being a good teacher. I learned this though holiday games, a game where me and the students used our imaginations on the spot to create a game that not only they had fun, but I had fun as well. This game is called Santa's Reindeer's, and the object of the game is for the students, who are the reindeer, and myself, who was Santa, were to leap around like we were flying and arrive at houses and put presents under Christmas trees, put as many as we can as fast as we can. Might not seem as fun to older kids, but as to PRE-K students these types of games is what keeps them interested the entire time.

How About Those Games?

Many of the games that we as a lab group have used all were appropriate for the students in all ways. Some happened to work better then others because of the teaching strategy that was displayed. In the beginning of our labs the games did not take as well because most of us were still getting used to working with the children and getting comfortable. Later on in the labs after everyone got more comfortable the children seemed to get more interested and more kids played the games. As for skill wise, again some were better then others because it was harder to find games that incorporated the throw and the catch for some of the games as did kicking and dribbling. However, all in all the activities/games were all appropriate for the children at St. Mary’s.

Some limitations to the games or activities are such that you must make sure that every student has the opportunity to do each motor skill more then once for the purpose of the child having more fun and for the other college students to assess. Also, to have less of everything scattered, more organization keeps the games moving and doesn’t slow anything, resulting in more reps for the child and the child will want to continue to play.