Thanksgiving Madness

One thing I will take away from this lab experience is that things never will go as planned. I am learning to be okay with that. When you think you have a great game and set up, be ready to change it. I used a few games for soccer dribbling and basketball dribbling but when we got to the gym we had a quarter of it to work with. Also there were only about 6 kids who were interested in a mini soccer game. My plan didn't go well, but I ended up bringing the kids into a 3 v. 3 game where when possession changed they had to bring the ball back (like half court basketball).  The kids were good! They were very good at dribbling, passing and shooting. The game got pretty intense. Kevin and I joined in with the kids as well. They had better skills than I did! We did have an injury but later in the class the boy came back and kept playing.

It was a chaotic day but taught me a lot and I had fun.

Thank You St. Mary's Collage

Spooky St. Mary's

Our last lab was the week before Halloween, and naturally we decided to have a Halloween theme!! I remember as a kid loving Halloween and the excitement leading up to it. Our class dressed up in great costumes and I think everyone had a lot of fun. I dressed up as a hippy with ripped jeans and a tie dyed T-shirt. We had some really great costumes and even better responses from the kids.

My group was working with Pre-K this week. Working with the younger kids was a bit more unorganized than our past labs. Depending on the weather they are inside or outside, and always include snack time in the time we have with them.We don't really get to do much fitness with them aside from running around on the playground. I decided to do a craft with the kids. Prior to lab I bought paper plates and cut two eyes, a nose, and a mouth into each one to make a jack-o-lantern face for the kids. Every one was different and unique. I brought them in and after our time on the playground we all sat in their classroom and colored our jack-o-lantern masks. Dan also brought in a bunch of coloring sheets of scarecrows, bats, pumpkins and more. The kids really seemed to enjoy this activity. One little girl actually made one for me which I have hanging in my room. Sitting and coloring and talking with the kids in a quiet environment was a great change of pace. Although we didnt get much moving in, we worked on their fine motor skills, and got to bond with the children on a deeper level than just teaching a game in the gym.

The gym group was asked to design games that help us watch the kids pass and catch a ball and record their skill level. The kids seemed to enjoy the games and didnt even notice that we were watching to see their skills. To check list of the young boy and girl we took notes on click here.