St. Mary's Lab 2

Photo from Google Images

        The second lab at St. Mary's was a blast and it provided me the opportunity to gain insight on how younger children perform locomotor skills. Cortland students were asked to observe two specific children and see how well both could run, gallop, and hop. Observing these three locomotor skills gave me a better understanding if there are differences between age and gender. Many of the St. Mary's students did really well with completing the criteria on the rubric for the run, gallop, and hop. The Cortland students who taught the opening activities did extremely well in presenting the material and checking for understanding. It is essential to check for understanding with the younger students because sometimes the students can become confused or find the directions unclear. The young children really reacted well when asked specific questions on playing the game. From my perspective it seemed the students were very quick to respond and got the questions correct. At a young age the students will want to play any game as long as the teacher makes the game sound fun and interesting.
      

Photo from Google Images

        Within my group, while outside on the playground, the children really separated based on gender. The girls would gravitate toward the female assistants and the boys wanted to play tag with the male assistants. When our group went into the gymnasium we performed our games with the children. For the most part, the games went well, but there were a few games some children showed little interest and did not want to participate. One child was uninterested in any of the games we played.  He only wanted to play football, but always decided to join in from the beginning. At the end of the lab, we were  asked for our reaction to the day by video camera, which was a huge surprise. Overall, the day went great and I am really looking forward to coming back to St. Mary's for the next lab.

**Click here to view my Lab 2 assessment sheet.