Monday, November 30, 2009

Happy Turkey Day to St. Mary's


Today was the first time we had been to St. Mary's in a few weeks. It was nice to be back to see the students again. My group started in the cafeteria and I played a Pooh Bear game with a few of the children. As the game went on we started to have more and more fun. We then went up into the gym and played a kicking game where the students would "create a feast" by hitting different Thanksgiving foods with soccer balls. This game started off smooth but became kind of hectic after a little while. This students got off task and just wanted to kick the balls around and run. We then changed the game to maneuvering in and out of cones and being able to take a shot on goal. The students stayed interested in this game longer because they wanted to score on the college kids. This game let us become more involved and I find that when we are more involved in the game it is easier to control the group. When we are a larger part of the game we can control the pace and a lot of actions without them even noticing. After this game came to a close they had some free time to do whatever they wanted. By this time a lot of the students had gone home so we did our best to stay busy and try to interact with as many students as we could. With their Thanksgiving break approaching many of the students' attention was short and thinking about a few days off from school. I cannot wait to see them next time and see how their holiday went.

Circus day at St. Mary's


I noticed that I had missed a blog about circus day at St. Mary's. This day was very fun and everyone got into the circus spirit. People wore bright colors and had a little more energy than usual. Our group had the task of doing some closet organizing but we did not spend the entire time doing that. We organized some of the storage bins in the gymnasium then were able to play with the students. The students cooperated well this day and we got to join in at the end of the game they were playing at the time. When they were given free time the students were still anxious to play with us and that made them easy to work with. Megan asked me if I would play duck, duck, goose with her and a girl because no one else wanted to play. Within the first few minutes everyone saw how much fun we were having and many more students joined in. They were comfortable with us and would used funny names like cheese instead of duck to have a good time with each other. Circus day was one of the most fun at the school so I do not know how I could forget to blog about it.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Monday Funday at St. Mary's


Lab 3 at St. Mary's my group worked with the Pre-K group. This group turned out to be the easiest to work with because they were so excited to play almost anything. As long as we were energetic they were ready to play. They had great big imaginations and were not hesitant to share any story they could think up with us. It was nice enough to go outside and play and this got the day started off well. Immediately they would come up to us and let us know what game we were going to play with them and they were ready to go. The popular game with the Pre-K group was tag and they could play forever.
This week we were focusing on some more locomotor movements. The Pre-K group could not perform all the movements like the older students. The best one they could do well was run. Their hops were alright but will improve as they get older and better control over their bodies. The best runner I noticed was a boy Paul. He was a good runner and loved to show everyone he could his running abilities. When we went back inside we had the students try some new movements while navigating a course we set up for them. Their movements were not at a mature level yet but they tried as hard as they could anyway. Working with the Pre-K group was a great experience for Lab-3 and I hope to work with them again.