As you read the feedback each week, please keep the grouping in mind. If you are able to teach your children in mixed ages for movement you will find the lessons and the children's experience more successful as well.
The day started out great, my set up was smooth and easy. I felt confident with my preparation. Now all I needed were the kids!
The children walked into the gym, quietly and tentatively, checking out the brightly colored equipment and a new person standing smack dab in the middle (Me!). As they walked into the gym, I chose a student who was in the vicinity of where I wanted the group, pointed him out to the class and asked them to find a spot to sit near him, with enough space to be sitting without touching anyone else. I also told the children that this would be the last time they would sit down until the end.
One of my goals this year is to infuse what I know from recent science into my teaching and lessons. One interesting fact is that we focus better when our core is engaged. So, standing when you are listening to direction will help you remember it better! I have always had my students sit when I was giving directions for more than a minute. This year I am making an intentional point to give instruction to my students when they are standing. I wasn't sure if it was going to work with 3-5 year olds, but WOW, it was awesome. Not only did the children listen, it made me conscious of how long I was giving instruction, I didn't want to go on so long that they would loose focus because of that. As I watched the lesson, I was pleased at the pace of the lesson and that the children were actively engaged in the entire lesson from start to finish.
One other fact that contributed to the amazing focus of the children was the cohesiveness and focus of their educators. As I watched the video, I observed the teachers working one on one with students who needed more guidance. I even saw them play as a part of the class, being a great model. Ultimately they were actively engaged and focused during the lesson which was an awesome example for the children.
I began by meeting the children in a group where I introduced myself and the reason they were in the gym with me. I introduced the safety rule: Be Safe. After we discussed being safe, I began introducing the first new pieces of equipment; Cone and Spot, along with the concept and word Boundary.
From the initial entrance into the gym through the introductions, myself, safety rule and boundary concept the total time was about 4 minutes. Since this is the first day, the initial talk takes a little longer. Next week, my goal will be to get moving within a minute from when the children get into the gym. Much of the information you get from or give to the children can be while they are moving or in short 15-30 second bouts of stillness. During these conversations, the children can stay in what ever space they are in, looking at you, standing up.
We walked as a group around each of the four boundary lines. As we passed each cone, I picked up the Boundary station card and asked them to tell me what it said. I asked the names of the equipment as we would pass by and I also asked them to tell me the color of the cones and spots. This is a great way to pre-assess your children's ability to identify colors. We did all this while walking around the four boundary lines. I also took opportunities to reinforce the behavior I wanted by pointing out children who were moving safely, staying inside the boundaries and when they would participate and answer the questions I was asking. When I saw children moving outside the boundaries I found a child inside the boundaries and pointed out how great that was. In most cases the children outside the boundaries came right back in! It took us about 4 minutes to walk around the four boundaries, and when we got back to the beginning, I asked the children to follow me to a the various boundaries, cutting across the gym from side to side. The goal was to stay inside the boundaries, as we moved from line to line, moving inside the space marked by the boundaries.
After a couple minutes of following me to the different boundaries, I showed the children a PowerPoint slide I made that has animated children moving on their own from one boundary line to another. after we watched the animation, I asked the children to do the same thing, travel to the opposite boundary line, but stay inside the boundary, on their own, without me! I followed behind, complimenting the children that got the the line first and stayed inside the boundaries. I am still amazed at the difference in the physical response I see from the children to a direction when they are able to first watch it and hear how to do it before moving as opposed to only hearing it. I find the visuals most helpful when they are able to loop and play while the children are moving, giving a continual visual example for the students that are predominately visual learners.
After the children demonstrated they could move from boundary line to boundary line, staying inside the boundaries and being safe, we moved on to the activity, "Follow the Leader". I used the Disney song; Following the Leader, and looped it as we traveled around inside the boundaries. The main intention of this activity was to move around room space, inside the boundaries. I complimented the children who were moving safely, and staying in the boundaries. I did not ask the children to do the same movement as me, just to follow me around inside the boundaries. While we were traveling, one child fell and another stepped on his little finger. :( Once we determined that it was OK, I took that time to talk with the children about looking where you are going. That is a part of being safe. Happily, we didn't have any more falling during the lesson. I led the children around for a minute, and then began choosing children to be the leader. I was able to let 3 children lead. After we had been playing follow the leader for 4 minutes I changed the activity. Initially children asked if they were going to get a turn to be the leader, I explained that they would play the game again during the week and get more chances to lead, because we had another game to play!
It was time to introduce some toys, equipment that we get to play with. Bean Bags and Teddy balls. I explained the activity, we were going to clean up the gym. I messed up the gym by putting the bean bags and teddy balls all around inside the boundaries. I just threw everything out. It was fast and easy to do and really made a mess!
The children cleaned the mess and traveled to and from the boundary lines putting the mess on the spots. They traveled safely and I was able to reinforce positive behavior by pointing out the students picking up one piece at a time and the ones who were staying inside the boundaries. As soon as they cleaned everything up, I showed them a power point of an animated character picking up one piece of equipment carrying it into the boundaries and dropping on the ground. I explained that throwing the equipment into the boundaries wasn't safe because it could hit someone. Most of the equipment was carried to the boundaries! As soon as the gym was a mess they cleaned it up again, moving to and from the boundaries, practicing staying inside the boundaries.
Once I saw the children were playing safely and got the general idea of the activity I differentiated the activity by adding an element of listening while moving. As they messed up or cleaned up the gym, I called out the opposite activity at various intervals of time. Which ever activity they were doing, they stopped and started the new activity.
We ended the activity by cleaning up the equipment and putting it away. After putting the equipment away, we began stretching. I asked the children to find a spot to sit down where they could put their legs in a "V" without touching anyone. I explained why we were stretching; because after exercise our muscles shorten or shrink a little bit, stretching helps to relax and keep our muscles long and flexible, what stretching is; Relaxing and Lengthening the muscle, and how the muscle should feel as they stretch; A little pull on the muscle, but not pain.
We finished up with a quick review during which the children verbally described, why we have boundaries and what marked our boundaries.
During the lesson activities, the children demonstrated a clear understanding of where the boundaries were, they traveled safely and verbally described what we did. During the lesson and the review, the children read the word boundary and identified new pieces of equipment; Cone, Spot, Bean Bag, and Teddy Balls.
Below is the PowerPoint I used in movie form. Each slide is 5 seconds long, with the exception of the music slides. Those will play through the entirety of the song. You can use the PowerPoint audio and animations with your children, and using the video in full screen mode, you can pause and play to advance the slides when you are ready.
Next week, Lesson 2 - Travel/Stop.
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