First day of lab jitters

When we came in to St. Mary's we had no clue what to think. There were so many questions like would the kids like us, where are all the toys and equipment?? Once we got started with the kids and the games the jitters went away. The kids are full of enery and the willingness to play. As we went through the lab the more fun we were having. I was kind of upset when the lab was over because I was having so much fun playing with the kids. THe one thing i learned from this lab was to always be pre paired with games and activities, because the children just want to play and play and not have any stopping in the middle.

Its a Merry time for lab

MERRY CHRISTMAS, if you couldn't guess but this lab was Christmas theme. My groups task for the day was to clean and organize the closets. Even tho this task sounds boring it was actually very fun. We organized and cleaned for almost two hours but all the while there was laughing and smiling. After we had cleaned up the closets and made them beautiful it was time to take pictures of what we had done. After the pictures it was time for our group to do our song. The only problem was no one in our group owned an Ipod, but instead we did an interactive chant. The chant involved Santa, Mrs. Clause and Rudolph. The song was an old camp song that i remixed to make christmas themed. The kids seemed to enjoy the shouting and movements. So over all the day was fun and full of laughfter.

Turkey day was full of stuffing

This lab was thanksgiving themed, my group was finally able to work in the gym we played basket ball dribbling game. It was a game that involved keeping focus while not looking at the basketball. The children had to look each other in the eye and try to make each other laugh while trying to keep the basket ball under control. It was really fun making the kids laugh by making silly faces and doing silly dances. One of the girls i was playing with she would not laugh or smile no matter what i did. She was very good at muck. Afterthat game we played another game that involved kicking a bouncey ball into a turkey that we put up on the wall. It got the kids to try an kick the ball off the groung, it took them a few try's but after a while they got it. I can't wait for the next lab!! :)

The circus rolls into town

This week in lab it was circus themed, it was funy to see the other groups dressed up as clowns. This week we were with the pre schoolers. They make me laugh, if you are wearing anything out of the ordinary they want to touch it and try putting it on them selves. A few of the girls took my bandana and tried it on, then they tried to put it back on my head, it didn;t work out so well but it was still fun. The children kept asking us to play different games with them. I went from play doh to mr. potato head, to playing with cars. Pre schoolers i feel will never run out of energy. The zipped from one end of the room to the other with no problem. After snack and a story we headed into the gym to play a game. We played dirty back yard, at first we just played to regual game, then we changed the rules to every time you throw you had to make an animal sound. Some of the children threw better while making the sounds, it gave them an extra boost. Dirty back yard probably was not the best game to play to view throwing and catching. But the children had fun and so did I. Out ending somg was the chiken dance, the music wasn't working so we had to sing it and dance it. It was a blast trying to sing the chiken dance.

The next morning it was my turn to go to St. Mary's before school porgram. A few of the pre schoolers remebered me from the day before and were very excited to see me. The day started out with the children practicing writing there names. The teacher had writen there name out in bold print and then in doted lines then stuck the paper in a pastic sheet. This way the children could take markers and trace there name. I helped a few of the children write there name, and gave them hints on how to write other letters. For example one of the boys asked me "how do you write the letter F" So i told him "Make a line straight up and down, then at the tippy top make a line come straight out, then in the middle make another line." Then he made the letter F. It felt good helping them with there letters. Afer they were done with there name they went to another station in which they had to do thier numbers. After there numbers they could either practice there colors or shapes. Once they were all done they were able to play with the cars or play doh. St. Marys has a great program and the teachers really do care about the students which makes me want to become a teacher even more.

A Spooky good time

This lab was Halloween themed, we were stared out in the cafeteria. We were hanging out with the older students, I sat down with them and started making paper bubble notes. A few of the students started to ask how it was made and what they were used for. So i taught a few of the kids how to make them. The most exciting part was watching them take this plain piece of paper and turn it into something of there own. A few made peace signs, while others colored in the whole paper. One of the girls got the concept of folding it and started to teach the other students. A few of the other kids started to teach me how to make a paper boat, but we ran out of time and had to go into the gym. Once we were in the gym i got a group of boys to start playing taps. Taps is a basket ball game that involves, jumping throwing and catching. The game was going smoothly until a few of the boys decided to try and play taps across the gym. One of the boys tried to teach me to dribble the basketball between my legs while i walked. That didn't work out so well, and also he tried to teach me to spin the ball on my finger. I almost made that work but after a while we decided to go play some knock out.While we were playing I noticed that one of the girls was very talented and got most of the college kids out. Our ending song was thiller, all the kids had a blast pretending to zombies. While making there zombie nosies and moving like zombies would. Over all it was a spooktastic time.

Cleaning up dirty back yard

The game dirty back yard is the game in which children are divided into two groups. They are given a portion of the gym which contains various amounts of foam pieces, and soft objects. They must then try and throw there pieces to the other side while the other team oes the same thing. There are a few ways that you can change this game to make it more team and skill oriented. You can start by saything that every object that is blue has to be thrown to 3 other team mates before it can be thrown over the net. Another variation is everything that is a circle has to be thrown in a certain way. Like the potty shot, backwards, thrown like a baseball, or even thrown between the legs. As for the counting don't have the students count up how many objects they have, you as the teacher should because then you can say that it is a tie so noe of the children feel as they lost, and you can do the activity again. With a few changes this dirty back yard is now clean.

A small view of how much fun we have :)

Superduper day at St. Mary's

This lab was really fun, the children that we worked with are full of energy from when we got there till we left they were bouncing off the walls. It was really cool to see how some of the kids are totally emersed in the games while others could care less. Sometimes we had to go over and talk to the kids who didn't want to play one on one. But after a little talk they were ready to play. Its was a really fun lab and i can't wait to go back and do the next one. The theme for this lab was superheros, everyone was dress in there super hero outfits. There was bat man, super man and even bird women. The kids get more energy if they see the college students in crazy outfits they get ampted up for wht ever activity that we are doing. The kids are always excited and ready to go, also the kids like to talk, if you ask them one question you will get a story. It sute how open they are, you learn a lot if you just listen to them. I can;t wait to get back there it is so much fun.