Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Saint Mary's Lab Four: Dinosaur Theme

Lab four at Saint Mary's was quite different for me.  My group was in the Pre-K room, with a focus on our cool Dinosaur Theme.  Switching from being in the gym over the past two labs, I was excited to experience something a little different.  Even when i worked for the YMCA, being around kids this young was definately a new experience, so it was a little intimidating at first.  As soon as I got into the Pre-K room, I began playing with building blocks with a small group of boys.  I noticed that all four of the kids wanted to grab my attention as soon as they got comfortable around me.  There was one point when one little boy said to another, "Nick is playing with me, not you".  This shows that kids at this age, tend to attach themselves to adults once their comfort level is at a certain point. 
My job in the Pre-K room was to read a book a that went along with our Dinosaur Theme.  I was a little nervous at first, but I got a bit more comfortable once I started reading.  This is where I ran into some small issues.  One little boy who was sitting right infront of me, kept on getting on his knees to touch the book.  This caused an issue for some of the girls in the back because they couldnt see the pictures that I was displaying from the book.  I had to tell the little boy a few times to stay seated so everyone else in the class could see the book.  The other issue that I ran into was with a different little boy.  He began making burp like sounds over and over again.  I, as well as Jess, asked him numerous times to stop burping.  He didnt listen whatsoever, which then took the focus away from about seven other kids, who began to laugh.  This was definately frustrating, but something that I will definately learn from.  There are going to be kids like that in all classes, and we as teachers, have to keep going and try to prevent things like this from happening again.