This week I got off to a slow start due to the tiredness from the weekend. It seemed that time was standing still and I was trapped in a dream state. I was lucky that the class of students I observe are full of energy and life. They definitely will wake anyone up that enjoys children. They had so much energy like they were hopped up on sweets, walking and running from one place to another, laughing, and very now and then crying. I think that once I got into the swing of things observing the children was alot of fun and had me grining from ear to ear. I am starting to find new ways to observe the students so I get the effect that I am exactly participating with them without having to use words or get in their way. The students are becoming comfortable with the additional faces "observation students" and want us to interact with them. This is the one thing I hate about the class that we can't interact with the children and have to be like flies on the wall just watching everything.
The one activity I observed this week were two male students playing at the train station table. Student one asks the other student "student two can you fix my choo choo train?" and student two doesn't answer him at first so student one repeats his self. Student two answers this time with "this is my choo choo train" and student one holds the yellow train up in his hand to show student two. Student two replys again " this is my choo choo train." Student two continues to push his train along the tracks on the table. Student one begins to walk away from the table and tells the other student "let's go play horsey" in an excited tone. Student one begins to walk quickly to the shelf where the toy horses are located and grabs two horses from the box. Student two walks over to the location of student one and selects a horse and a toy human male. They sit down on the large rug and begin to play with the toys.
An extention to the activity I observed would be reading a book about the Old West or Cowboys and I could include costumes of Cowboys or Native Americans in the dramatic play area . I would also include an outdoors activity where the students would race each others with stick handles that have a horse head attached to the front.
Hi Janet:
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about the "horse play". I can vividly remember my older brother and me galloping around the house with our "horses" and yelling our heads off. This was when I was a child of course :o We ran an obstacle course around the furniture, which is what you could do with the extension activity you are suggesting: build an obstacle course and let the kids "gallop" it--all the while working toward the milestone of being able to stop and start, and move around objects.
Now as far as the Indian component, I'm not sure that would be acceptable these days, especially if you look at the historical events leading to the present day plight of native Americans. Although I'm sure there are some good resources out there: pictures, books, etc. that might be O.K. I'll have to research that.
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ReplyDeleteYou know Janet, I had the same problem! I was just out of it. But since the observation was about spoken language, it made it a little easier as I mentioned on my blog.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree when you say, "The students are becoming comfortable with the additional faces "observation students" and want us to interact with them. This is the one thing I hate about the class that we can't interact with the children and have to be like flies on the wall just watching everything." Seriously, it bugs me when children come up to me and say "goodmorning teacher" and I can only smile and look down at my clipboard. I feel like a total jerk lol.
An extension for that would be even more fun if like you mention is done in the dramatic play area. They could have costumes and those stick ponies and ride around on the playground. Great Idea!