Jumpin', Stompin', and Shakein' St. Mary's

Colorful Creation:
On this visit to St. Mary’s school my group and I were involved in the Special Projects Group. This entitled us to redecorate the gymnasiums bulletin board. In our creation we included a variety of sports suitable for the upcoming season, it gives the visual idea the other sports that can be played to stay active and healthy.

Throwing and Catching:

We had to observe the students playing games that focused on them throwing and catching. There was a variety of skills levels seen. Some students were seen having more components of the throw down than others. We even saw a student who was able to throw effectively with both their right and left hand. The game played was very fun for the students, and the TA's looked like they were having fun as well! Students were in the initial, elementary, and a couple could be considered mature in their fundamental throwing skill.

There was a very high level of participating today. Lots of creative games were being played by the other groups; it engaged the students and kept them involved and active throughout the day.

After creating the board we interacted with other students in the gymnasium. My group members and I were involved in various activities, first we played a little catch with the football, then had a soccer trick contest with some of the older boys, I was very impressed with how skilled they were in the sport. I saw successful trapping skills from the students, controlled dribbling, and even juggling the ball by popping it off the ground first!

Afterwards a girl student brought over the long jump rope. This was an exciting activity that mixed older students and younger together. It was fun playing with the students because we were able to learn a new jump rope song taught to us by one of the younger students

Teddy bear jump rope:

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, ‘touch the ground.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, tie your shoe.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, that will do.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, go upstairs.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, say your prayers.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn off the light.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, say goodnight!

Then the rope turners proceeded to count the following number of jumps the student was successful in completing over the rope.

We were even practicing running into the rope and jumping in while it was already moving and had multiple people jumping together at the same time!

After that activity I noticed some students off to the side on a mat sitting and humming. I realized they were practicing meditating and we ended up playing a little made up game that created lots of smiles. The students had to remain in their meditation pose while crazy things were going on around them such as "earthquakes" the mat would slide around, or using string to have them "getting caught by a giant spider.

Towards the end we played rock paper scissors tag which was fun to play with the pre-k and older students. The student teachers assisted with the younger players so they could be involved in the game too.

Afterwards we met in the middle and sang a song. The students though it was a very funny song and there was lots of laughter all around.

Then to conclude our day we thanks St. Mary’s with a fun and loud cheer. The students got to stomp as loud as they could and shake their whole bodies in the cheer stop and shake it.

Lab 4

Debate Day

The Debate held in class was to figure out which curriculum plan was best to include in the schools program. The challengers of the days debate are the Sticks in Sports & PE Enthusiasts, Fitness Education Fanatics, and Skills theme Advocates

The sticks in sports group was the first to present to the board. They had an argument which entailed the use of sticks in their lesson plans to develop the use of these sticks in sports as the child matures and the game played matures. It creates a plan to have the children develop using stick equipment in various sports that can be transferred to learning other stick sports as well.

Next to present was the Skill theme Advocates. Their presentation emphasized the importance of learning the individual developmental skills that make up the play of the sport. By working on games that enhance skills in game play it better transfers from practice to the game time performance.

           

Finally to present was my group the Fitness education fanatics. Our presentation focused on the importance of lifetime sports. We wanted this to be included with the schools program because of the health benefits starting at childhood all the way throughout life by learning lifetime sports. By participating in these activities it allows the student to be active and healthy in creating their own plans to stay fit and healthy in their lifestyles. The creation of our presentation went very smoothly. Everybody was involved in the project and each had a point to advance our cause.

After all the presentations were complete it was time for questions and rebuttals. This was an intense time in the classroom. Each group was pointing out holes in the plans of other groups. Even though the heat was on in the questioning the rebuttals were clear and had good answered from all of the groups.

The board had time to deliberate and reach the decision of dividing the curriculum between lifetime sports and the fundamental skills of sports. It was a successful ending for our group and a fun day of debate.

Preschool Play

    It was a very exciting day returning to St Mary’s school. The theme of the day was sports and many student teachers were getting into the theme wearing their favorite team jerseys to show the students.

My group followed theme as well in the preschool room. Lauren, a group member of mine, brought a craft for the preschoolers to do. It was coloring pages and constructing an “Olympic Medal” all of their own. The preschoolers colored each medal cut out, once finished coloring the students brought their cut out to one of the student teachers in the room to have a ribbon attached to the cut out so it can be worn around the wrist. The preschoolers seemed to enjoy that they could wear their creations and show them off to their friends around the room.

Following the craft activity was story time. I was privileged to read to the preschools during that time. We read the book “Flip and Flop.” This was appropriate because there had been so much snowfall recently and it included a lot of snow activities in the book. The story is about two penguin siblings who play in the snow together a game they created and then was able to share with friends. It was very exciting and the group of students listening to the story got to join in with the story themselves. They liked the reading so much they wanted to hear the story again! I had a lot of fun reading to them.

We got to go into the gym and play a few games next. MK, my group member, started a game that included Jump ropes. This was an activity where the jump ropes were stretched across the floor parallel to each other and had some space between them. The preschoolers were active in participating in this activity because it allowed them to run and jump over objects. Following that was the game Bridges. The preschoolers were confused at first about the game but go the hang of it and enjoyed when the music stopped so they could be caught in the bridge. 

After these activities some time was spent with the preschoolers leading the activities. Hula hoops were grabbed and they started some games of their own. Each of my group members and I participated in these activities. Some were playing tag, being chased, or playing hopscotch. It was a fun time and a very successful day.

Lab 3