Taking That First Step

October 5 was my motor development classes first lab at St. Mary's Elementary School in Cortland and it was great. As was our first visit the children pretended like they didn't want us there saying to each other "Oh no, not the college kids" but secretly we all know they love us. We started the day with a game by one of my classes groups. We played this game called enlist bucket. Each card has a movement task that the child has to complete in order to move on to the next bucket. We broke off into smaller groups to each of the four buckets and helped the children understand and modify the task to make it a challenge for the children. The grade levels looked to be first and second graders and there were differences between there motor movements and developments. It was so much fun helping them along the game. When task were to simple for some we modified the task for them, such as if jumping ten times was to easy we had them try touching our hand at a level that they really had to load up and jump. Modifying the task made it into a whole new game for them. Some children didn't know how to do some of the task on the cards and it was fun teaching them. Some of course were wild when teaching them but as time moved on they got better and better at the skill as I watched them move on to the other buckets. One little girl didn't know a word on a card and I helped her sound the word out until she got it. It's awesome working with children of all ages. This game is great because one can look at the diffrent levels and motor skills these children are at in stages of there lives. The game did however drag on a bit and you could see kids getting tired and bored of it and moving on to something else. After that we played some games on the scooters which is always a blast. After our time in the gym we moved downstairs where the kids got to play with legos, board games, snack, or draw. I found a boy to play a marble game with and he beat me pretty bad but i got some revenge in checkers. We finally concluded the day with free time in the gym, where i learned a new type of box game. It's pretty cool that I learned a new modern game that I can now teach to others. I had a blast and am looking forward to the next lab. Until next time, have a good one.