Day 2 Saint Mary's February 25, 2009

The two students that I observed were student A and student B.  Student A is a female and Student B is a male.  While, I observed both students, I noticed there was a difference in ability between them.  Student B was able to master the skill of running without any flaws.  There was a brief period where both feet were off the ground, arms in opposition to his legs, elbow bent, feet were not flat footed, and nonsupport leg was bent close to the buttocks.  Student A did have a brief period where both feet were off the ground and she did not run flat footed.  However, I would classify Student A in the elementary stage for running because her arms were not in opposition to her legs with elbow bent and her nonsupport leg was not close to her buttocks.  Both Student A and Student B were mature in the skill of galloping.  Both students showed good form during their gallop and fulfilled the performance criteria.  I did not observe Student B hop, but I was able to witness Student A’s.  Her foot for her nonsupport leg was bent and carried in the back of her body, her arms were bent at her elbows and swing forward on her take off.  However her nonsupport leg did not swing in pendulum fashion to produce force.  Observing Student A’s hop was difficult because as she hopped, she also had to hold onto the parachute.  Her having to hold onto something may have taken away from her ability to perform the skill.

I noticed that the six year olds really enjoyed costumes.  While playing the game Stinky Letter Stew, I simply put on an apron and cooking mittens and stood by the “cooking pot.”  The students wanted to participate and get their letters to the pot as quickly as they could.  I also made believe the stew was really starting to stink when they started adding the letters.  Once I did this, the students also started to play along with the smelly oder of the pot.  I could see the students were enjoying the game because of the environment that was created.  This game worked well for the six year olds, but I think older students would not have enjoyed Stinky Letter Stew.  The game was very age appropriate.  I also noticed that once I put on the costume, the students became extremely anxious and were not listening to the directions that were given to them by my other group members.  Next time I would wait to put on the costume until the directions were given.  Demonstrations by the teachers of the game helped students understand the task they had to complete.  Students said they knew what was being asked of them, but most of the time students did not know.  The demonstrations helped the students complete the tasks correctly.  Demonstrations along with verbal directions worked well for the students.