Heroes!

We had a fantastic day at St. Mary’s last week. The theme was super hero’s and the kids and my fellow students had a blast. We had to incorporate running, hopping and galloping in our games. Myself and my group helped the first group with their game. They had a bunch of cards in the middle of a hula hoop and on those cards were movement task the kids had to do back to their lines or groups. The group first started to make such the kids could run, hop and gallop. We were working with 1st and 2nd graders and I was surprised that they all could do the gallop well. Those that had trouble picked up on it incredibly fast. There was music playing so when the kids were not going to the middle to get a card some of them decided to dance and they were not shy about their dance moves. It was a lot of fun. Next, was my groups game called Batman tag that we made up. We had a lot of rules and I thought it was too much for them to handle but to my surprise they understood the rules well. The kids that got to be Batman and the Joker had a great time and we made sure that they all got a chance to be one of the two before our time was over. Gender and ability didn’t seem to be much of a difference. All the students did well with the running, hopping and galloping but there was a difference between the age of the children and the willingness to play. We played a freeze tag game next with another group and they a mix between 2nd graders and I think maybe 4th graders. The older children did not was to participate. I recall there was a boy and four girls that just stood in the corner in the gymnasium and I tried my hardest to get them to play because they seemed shy or thought it was just a dumb game. The older children though were much better at hopping, jumping and gallop than those younger than them.
The first good teaching strategy was for the first game we played. Instead of throwing them into the game they had the students try and practice the skills needed for the day’s games. When it was time for the game every child was prepared. My group during our instruction to the kids we checked for understanding to make sure that they all understood the game. It went really well I thought but of course there were a few that didn’t know but once I helped explain it to them they got it and participated in the game. One thing that stood out to me the most was at the end of class when all the children were load, Tyler said “clap once if you can hear me” and then said “clap twice if you are quite.” That stood out because it worked with the kids and it is a strategy I will have to use one day.