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