Day 4, The Easter Bunny is Coming!

Today at St. Mary's involved great Easter Fun. I thought it would be a good idea to bring some visual props to excite the children, so my group and I came prepared with Easter Bunny ears & Easter egg necklaces. As soon as we put the props on the children become overjoyed and came running over to us. The Bunny ears definitely caught the children's attention and made them ready to interact in all of our Easter activites. The day started off with my group and I observing the children participate in activities where they were working on skills such as the overhand throw and catch. We watched a girl named Mady and a boy named Garrett's reaction to both skills. As they passed a ball back and forth to each other, Mady struggled a little more then Garrett in how she did the " T " and extended her arm during the throw. Mady did an underhand toss almost every time instead of any initiation of a wind up. She didn't have any follow-through or weight transfer during the attempt. Garrett was succesful in the overhand throw for the most part, but had trouble rotating his body. When catching the ball, again Mady struggled and caught the ball close to her chest; almost using her chest as a backboard. Garrett was good at catching, he flexed his elbows and held his friends infront of his body. After observing the children, my group and I posted the collages that the Cortland student's made onto posterboard, and put the poster board on the door of the St. Mary's gymnasium. We tried to be as creative as possible as we decorated the door's, and took our time making sure that they looked great. Next my group and I cleaned up the exquipment room. It took a little while and we did our best. When it was our turn for my group's activity, we split up the children into two different groups. The goal of our game was to have to have the children participate in different skills such as hoping, skipping, jumping. We placed Easter cards with instructions such as " hop 5 times ", " jump 10 times on your right foot", after finishing the skill the children could pick up a nearby bean bag and run to the oppoiste end to place the bean bag in a Houla Hoop. Then the children would run back to the Easter cards and complete another task until all the Easter cards were picked up. Our game was a good time, and I felt like the children really liked it. My group and I were assigned to make up a Easter themed song, and to teach it to both the children and Cortland students. It was a fairly easy song to follow, and we sang it togeather 4 times. To close up the day my group did an end of the day Easter cheer. All in all, it was a great Easter filled day. I had a good time with the children, and I hope they enjoyed us ! =)

Childhood Growth & Motor Development

http://prezi.com/stkwxdmofxex/

Dinosaur fun !

Day 3 with the St. Mary's children was a blast. The theme was dinosaur related, so my group and I dedicated our games and activites to dino fun. We brought props for our games, coloring cartoons, and also dinosaur books. We each dedicated our time with the children to have a dinosaur twist. When first arriving at the gymnasium, my group and I observed children jumping, sliding, and leaping. We were assigned to watch a red headed girl and a boy named Zaine. The girl and the boy were good at jumping, but at times both didn't quite land with two feet on the ground. Zaine slid well, but the slide for the girl seemed like more of a jumping motion. The leap for Zaine seemed to have hopping included in it, while the girl continued to have a walk rather then a leap. The girl did not seem as interested in the activity as Zaine, and did not really pay attention when the Cortland students were giving out directions. After the gymnasium my group and I went to the Pre-k room. The children were awesome! I found it really easy to capture the attention of this age group, and had fun playing house with two of the girls. After snack time Stephanie and I each read a story to the children. I found that when you truly put a lot of excitement and enthusiasm into the story that the children focus more on what is being read. My story was about Princess Dinosaur who had to find her way back to the toy box before the family dog Spot could reach her. It was an easy story to understand and the children seemed to enjoy it. After spending time in the Pre-k room my group and I headed to the gymnasium. Kyle, and Stephanie did great with their games, and the children loved the props that they used. It seemed that the more props the easier it was to grasp the children's attention. We ended the day with a group sing-a-long to the dinosaur hokey pokey. As a group we really involved the children into the song, and it was a great way to end the day.

The 7 homework questions !

1. 1. The three critical issues facing children in the US today are early puberty , in school and community violence, and also the rate of rising childhood obiesity.
2. 2. Goals of the concept "Developmental Physical Education" are increased movement skills, increasing physical fitness, and trying to advance in physical activity.
3. 3. Three factors that explain the relationships that lead to the development of the whole child are the conditions of the learning environment, requirement of the movement task, and the biology of the individual. It is stated that Developmental Physical Education rrecognizes the relationship between certain necessities of the movement task, the conditions of the environment, and the biology of an individual in promoting motor control and movement competence.
4. Individual appropriateness is the inclusion of learning experiences into the physical education program geared to learner's phases and stages of motor development and the levels and stages of movement skill learning. Group appropriateness is the inclusion of learning experiences into the physical education experience based on chronological age or grade level.
5. Fundamental movement skills include locomotion and manipulation. Three examples of locomotion skills are leaping, running, and jumping. Three examples of manipulation skills are striking, throwing, and bouncing.
6. Patterns of stability can be observed as axial, static, and dynamic movements. Two examples of axial movements are bending and turning. Two examples of static and dynamic movements are rolling and doging.
7. Physical fitness is defined as a combination of health related fitness, and also performance related fitness.