Lab 3 Was A Great Day

When observing the St. Mary’s students as they participated in the movement patterns, I observed a leap, horizontal jumps and a slide. I observed two different students. When I was observing them I felt that they were very similar in the way they did the three locomoter skills. In the beginning of the game I felt that one of the students was doing an excellent job in sliding because that was the easiest for her. She had trouble with the horizontal because she wasn’t able to take off and land on both feet at the same time. The other student was very similar to Sophia in the movement patterns. He was very successful with the slide and the horizontal jump. I felt that both students had trouble wit the leap because they thought a leap was the same thing as a hop. Every time the leading group would ask the students to leap, they would hop. The teaching strategies that I used to connect to the children consisted of getting them motivated. When I would try and teach a game, I would bring the students in and I would get on one knee so I am making eye contact with the students. I feel when I do that they pay attention more instead of running all over the place. I tried to teach the games with examples that will get them motivated to play. If I was using a game that was simple, I would tell them to use animals and when you use examples like animals or cars or planes they tend to get happy and want to play. Another strategy that I used was me playing with the students. After I would explain a game they would come up to me and ask to play with them. I feel that when they ask me to play they feel more confident and comfortable. An effective teaching strategy to use when working the students after a couple of weeks is to choose games that will get them involved. As a teacher, you don’t want to walk into a class setting with boring games. You want your students to get involved as much as possible. Also, another teaching strategy that I used was to kind of bribe the students in way. When I come up to do a game the students have other games in their heads that they want to play. In a way I tell them that if they play the game I have planned, then maybe we can play a game that they want to.