St. Mary's: Sports Theme

      Last Monday, the Cortland students of PED 201 made their return to St. Mary's for another action packed day with the children. The shared theme for this week's session was Sports and the Cortland students represented the theme extremely well. Just about everyone from Cortland walked into St. Mary's with a jersey on his/her back. It demonstrates the amount of character the Cortland students have, as we all share one thing in common when observing at St. Mary's and that is to make the children smile. With many Cortland students wearing sports jerseys it had an immediate impact on the time spent at St. Mary's. The children reacted very well to us and everyone was excited for the activities to begin.
   

      The group I am with (Athletic Alliance) was in charge of leading the opening activities for the kindergartners and 1st graders. During the games, the Cortland students not a part of the Athletic Alliance observe from the side checking off movements associated with locomotor skills. The locomotor skills we were asked to incorporate into our games this week was the leap, horizontal jump, and slide. I was the first one to demonstrate my game and I believe it went pretty well. When I was describing the game (Hungry Frogs) to the students I did a lot of checking for understanding to ensure the children understood what he/she was suppose to do. During my game, I was able to incorporate the horizontal jump and slide for the Cortland students to begin completing the performance criteria related to the locomotor skills. I think I could of observed the students from more angles and provided more feedback, but overall it was a great experience. After, the group went down to the cafeteria for snack time where we got the opportunity to talk with the St. Mary's students. When snack time was finished we played tag games outside and finished up with the entire class dance at the end to conclude the day. I am gaining so much insight about the development of children as it will prove to be beneficial towards my path of becoming a physical educator.

***Click here to view my lab 3 assessment sheet!