Lab 4

         Today was Lab 4 at Saint Mary's, however today was not like the other days at St. Mary's.  Today was a special day that every kid enjoys at the end of October.  You know what I'm talking about, Halloween.  The kids were even more full of energy today than the past few weeks because the games we had today revolved around Halloween, thus making them more excited.  Even though it might have been more hard work to keep them settled down when need be, I enjoyed seeing the kids happy to play the games because I know how happy I was when I was their age and hope they get the same experiences I got.  I had the Pre-K kids this week so I had to observe another group as they created games to help us assess their throwing and catching.  The big things we focused on this week was when they were throwing that they made the T formation, stepped with their opposite foot, and followed through.  Also with the catching, it was important where their elbows were, if there hands were out ready to catch the ball, and if they could catch the ball with just their hands or if they needed help from their legs, chest, or other parts of the body.

           After the assessing, my group went into the classroom where we played games, read, and conversed with the students.  My first try at playing with a group of kids was denied when they told me that "They didn't want me to play" ha.  I tried to find out why and ask them some questions so that they might forgot or find a way to include me.  They were playing house so I asked questions of who everyone was and what they were doing.  One girl told me that she was making baby food and that she would tell me when it was ready ha.  I said OK and thank you, so I went to another group who was drawing pictures.  One girl was drawing a duck so I talked to her about that and then she asked me to draw an elephant, so I did so, and she found it amusing which made me happy.  After that, Ryan, my TA Eric, and I played a card matching game with a few of the students.  This became very popular and we got more kids to join as time went on.  By the end of the game it was time for snack so the kids had their cookies and milk.  After, one student wanted me to read him a book so I read him a few pages and interacted and asked him questions about the book until it was time to go to the gym.  There Julia had a spider web activity that we did and I introduced my game to the children.  At first the children didn't really abide by the rules of the game, however after a few minutes or so and with help of my group we got the game going, and the motor skills that I incorporated into my game were practiced.  By the end of the game, I noticed how some students definitely improved.  I think it is because a lot of them didn't know how to throw correctly, so we taught them how repetitively, and it got them in kind of a groove where they would just do it automatically without us telling them.  It was great to see the improvement!

My Lab 4 Assessments