The student I worked with was Sophia, a five year old kindergartener and Shamus, a six year old first grader. Both students had trouble performing the locomotor skills, not because they couldn’t do them but the game they were asked to play was a competition game and it was too advanced for them. I did see both student slide, both of them performed the slide technique very well.
I feel like when you want the kids to perform a locomotor skill you should not make them perform a competition drill because at such a young age they are not focusing on the skill, but more on winning. One of the activities played today was an obstacle course were there was no winner or loser. The kids performed all the locomotor skills and wanted to play the all day.
I learned that when you are working with small children, make them play a game that is very simple, but to them look very difficult. When working with a small group of kids like 2 or 3, simple games like jump rope moving around will keep them occupied for a good 45 minutes.
1. Reflecting on your experience so far at St Mary’s, what do you think have been some difficulties or challenges you have faced? Consider all areas – environment, children, etc.
This past Monday (October 20) was the most challenging day for my group by far. The first game we played, take out the trash was ok, but it got wild. The second game we TRIED to play was a simple circle game throwing to your partner. The kids didn’t follow instructions and was all over the place. I feel like the game was a little to advance for the kids and the instructions were a little to advance. I learned that in order to keep the kids attention you need to play games were the kids are moving and the instructions are easy to follow.
2. What ideas/suggestions do you have to resolve the difficulties or challenges that you wrote about in #1?
Keep the games simple and instructions simple for the kids. Also your lab partners need to keep the kids attention when you are trying to explain a game. The kids are young so they want to play games that are moving them in some sort of way, kids hate to stand around.
1. Consider the activities/games that you have utilized so far during the past four labs. Were they appropriate for the students at St. Mary’s? Why or why not?
Most of the games that were played at St. Mary’s were appropriate for the kids because they demonstrated a certain locomotor skill. These games showed kids locomotor skills that they should already know or they should be learning at this age.
2. What might be some limitations to games or activities when using them in the process of assessing motor skills?
Some limitations could be age, gender, and even the area you have to work with and the material. When assessing the kids you have to make sure you keep them active and moving because they have a very short attention span.