Oh baby you, got those reflexes

but you say it's postural

but you say it's primitive

The palmer's grasp is in the first four months

you wrap your fingers around but you don't use your thumb

(sway to music while making a fist without thumb) Kelsey and Katie

When you move my head, my body goes too

it's called righting and you better see that fool

(tilt pretend baby and get it to move its head) Kelsey and Katie

Another kind of righting is when you move my body

My head will go with it, i swear that to you mommy (MOOMY)

(look like were in the air) Emmie and Bouch

In the first four month's, when you stroke my sole

the babinski makes me extend my toes

(sit in pike and extend toes) Emmie and Bouch

after four months, the plantar reflex is found

once you touch my feet, my toes curl round

(still in the pike curl toes) Dayna and Dan

when i'm tipped backwards I try to stay upright

i'm doing the pull-up, to keep my figure tight

(lean back, lean back) Dayna and Dan

The sucking reflex is when i am really hungry

I first search for nourishment from my big mommy

(pacifiers) Kelsey and Katie

The palmer mandibular makes me close my eyes

if you touch my palms my mouth opens real wide

(tickle palms) Kelsey and Katie

CHORUS (1 min)

When mommy holds me over the water I start to swim

it's a reflex i can't control, i move my every limb

(swim over little pools) Emmie and Bouch

When my daddy holds me up like superman

i extent my legs and arms, and i brace so i can land

(superman flying) Emmie and Bouch

The fencing reflex makes my limbs extend

but only on one side, i look like the heisman

(do the stance) Dayna and Dan

When moro is involved, i flex my legs and arms

Then I'll extend them with a smile, i have so much charm

(smile while crunch position to open extended arms and legs) Dayna and Dan

Crawling has some cool reflexes too

i bend my knees, my arms reach out, i make it look cool

(crawl in a circle) Kelsey and Katie

when I'm being held up on a surface that's flat

my weight goes forward and i primary step that

(katie stands on a table) Kelsey and Katie

when i am tilted sideways, I do the Labyrinthine

my head wants to upright so it makes me align

(bobs lays on table) Emmie and Bouch

just like the labyrinthine, but uprighting with my eyes

it's called the optical, it should come as no surprise

(everyone tilts their head and makes their eyes follow) Emmie and Bouch

Thank you for listening to our baby song

We hope you like our diapers, its better than a thong

Chorus!!

Based on my observations and interaction with the St. Mary’s students I have learned that young children are very upbeat and hyper. I have noticed that sometimes it is hard to keep them occupied. They seem to constantly be on the go and are only into something for so long. I felt that playing the pizza game with the children was very appropriate. When you tell them that there is an oven in the middle that they cannot go though they almost take it seriously. When you exaggerate a little I feel that it gets the children more involved. Another activity that was appropriate was the game with the super heroes. The children loved it and were so involved. I feel that they probably could have played that game all day. One game that was inappropriate was the parachute game. I’m not sure if the game was to intense or overwhelming for them or if they were just very hyper and were not that interested in the activity. Overall I have learned a lot about children from observing and interacting with them at St. Mary’s.

I believe that the PRE K children were different than the older students in a few ways. The PRE K children tended to listen better to what you were telling them. I feel at times the older children just didn’t want anything to do with what you were saying when the PRE K always seemed to be involved. Also when doing an activity with the PRE K it was easier to keep them occupied as compared to the older students. I enjoyed very much working with the younger children. I liked how I could sit on the carpet and read to them and they were so interested in what I was reading even if they have heard it a hundred times. They were easy to play with and found the simplest things fun and enjoyable.

Some of the fine motor activities that I had observed were the children coloring, playing card games, and board games. The children build things with blocks and legos. In physical education it would be more suitable for gross motor skills but there could be a small concentration of fine motor skills.

I think my teaching style has emerged based upon my experience at St. Mary’s. When I first arrived there I didn’t know what to think or expect. I was quiet and somewhat unsure of how to interact with the children. The more I went the more I learned. I learned that you need to be loud and outgoing. When trying to get children involved you need to think of the things that they are going to like. Its almost like you have to bring yourself to their level and think of what it is like to be a little kid again. I think I have learned a lot in how to act and get yourself involved and also what needs to be done to have the children listen to you. Overall I believe that St. Mary's was a wonderful learning experience and has taught me a lot about teaching and being around children.

I believe that the past activities/games that have been used so far have been relatively appropriate for the students. In regards to this past lab, I was talking to a member of a group who had to teach the middle age kids, those who ranged from ages 5 to 7. He was saying how he didn’t believe that his game would be appropriate for these students considering their ages and the difficulty of the game. They decided to change up the game a little to make it more appropriate and it worked great. I feel that if you know which age group you will be working with prior to lab it will be easier to make the games appropriate for the students. I feel that a few games like rock paper scissors tag was a little too hard for the children. Working with such a big group tends to be a little more confusing to the children when we are trying to explain the rules. When most groups realize that their game is to intense and they make changes to it, it usually ends up working better.
I think some limitations that work best would be using the games that are the most easy to explain and understand. With the younger children, the more rules to the game the harder it is for them to understand. By keeping the task and games simple the easier it will be to assess the motor skills. It is easier because they know what they need to do and how to do it if the directions are simple. It is harder to assess them when the tasks are too hard for the children and they are unsure of what they are supposed to be doing.

When reflecting on my experiences at St. Marys so far, I feel that there are a few challenges and difficulties I have faced. One is getting the students attention and keeping it. There have been many of times where we are able to bring the kids in and get them to listen. Usually we have to yell at the top of our lungs just for them to hear us. The listening only lasts for so long. Usually after only a couple seconds of talking and trying to explain or give directions they start talking or yelling our or moving around. I understand that they are very excited and wound up after being in school all day so it is going to be difficult to get their attention especially at the beginning. They seem to have so much energy and the last thing they want to do is listen again. Another issue is that there are times where they don’t all agree on doing an activity together. The older kids are the best exaple of that. There are usually certain groups who want to play basketball, one kid on the side playing soccer, or the girls playing on the mats. In this case it is harder to keep them all satisfied and involved. When loosing their attention it is even worse because then they are just unhappy.

I think a few suggestions on how to reslove these difficulties would be in the first case, with the students not paying attention would be to be louder. I know I struggle with this and I have noticed that it tends to be hard but ive also noticed that the louder you are the more likely they are going to listen to you longer. When they know that they can talk over you they are going to try and do it. If you are loud enough where you have their attention 100% I think chances are its going to last longer. I also feel that using a whistle seems to work really well. Its very loud in the gym and when you have lots of little kids running around yelling sometimes trying to yell over them just isnt going to work. I think that the students are going to be wound up after the school day no matter what so in order to get in keep their attention we need to be as involved as possible, loud and keep it interesting so it catches their attention. With the second issue I think the best way to go about this is to just let each kid do what they want. Ive noticed that a majority of the students especially in the older group like to play basetball. There are enough of us that we can split up and be able to interact with all the children even if they are doing separate things. We need to do out best to keep them happy and enjoying the day.

Both Rowan and Anthony are the same age, both six years old and in kindergarten. Because of this, you would think that both would be at the same level when it came to the abilities and skills that they need to perform. When in fact this was not the case. Rowan was able to perform everything correctly when performing the leap when Anthony was only able to complete part of this skill. On the second skill, horizontal jump, Anthony was able to perform these skills correctly when Rowan had a little trouble. She struggled with having her arms extend forcefully forward and upward, reaching full extension about the head. With the last skill, Rowan also struggled a little because she didn’t keep her body turned sideways to the desired direction of travel. This shows how just because they are the same age and one is a boy and one is a girl that it doesn’t make them even, or anyone better then another. I remember watching one of the aids show Anthony how to perform the leap so that he was doing it correctly. I also remember Rowan being shown how to horizontally jump correctly. Overall, both students did a relatively good job of performing these skills. With a little help they were able to correct what they were doing wrong.

Well, I was unable to interact with the children today during the lab so I talked to one of the people in my group, emmie. She told me that depending on the setting, either in the cafeteria, gym, or a classroom, it was different. She told me that she lets the children go into their groups and games that they want to play. She then goes and finds the students that are by themselves. By doing this, she is able to connect better with that student. She also told me that by doing this, other students will come over to interact and become involved in what they are doing or talking about. When up in the gym, the best way to connect with the children is to play games with them. By giving them ideas that they can relate to or imagine it gets them more excited in what game they will be playing. For example, During the car game the children can pretend that they are the cars. And in the superhero game they believe that they are superheroes. It gets them more involved and they enjoy the game more.

After working with the children at St. Mary’s the past three weeks and observing, there is an effective strategy that can capture the attention of the children and keep them on task. One of the most important strategies is to relate to the children. By doing things that make relate to them it will get them more involved. Another strategy is being excited and involved in what is going on. The children like when you are as involved as they are. If you keep the games and rules simple but not to simple that it will bore them, there is a better chance that they are going to stay on task. One activity that keep the children captured and involved was the superhero training camp. They children seemed to love it. They could relate to what was going on and they were all so excited when you told them they could be super heroes. By broadening their imagination and making them believe that they are something that they enjoy, chances are they are going to love the activity.

After observing many students at St. Mary’s I believe that both age and gender play a role in a child’s ability to perform certain motor skills. My group started to observe kindergarteners and first graders in the gym. One girl in particular we watched was a five-year-old kindergartener named Casey. Right away I noticed that she was able to run and hop, but struggled when she was asked to gallop. She was standing in a lunge position and just jumping forward. There was no transfer of weight. One of the teachers was able to help her correct what she was doing. This helped her because she was able to gallop better and more properly. I noticed that there was a difference in the performance of the girls and boys. The boys wanted to do everything really fast. The girls were more relaxed and just performed the skill because they had to. I also feel that because of this, the boys didn’t perform things as well as the girls did. We had to watch a boy who was six and seemed to perform the activities relitively well. We then went and worked in the pre-k room. These children seemed to be a little less able to perform the skills as well as the older children. Once again, the boys were a little more wild then the girls. When we tried to have the children hop, they seemed to just jump and skip around. I think that with age the skills will improve and become more develpoed.

When we first arived to saint marys and set up in the gym, I noticed right away they they children were very wild and excited. The first game that we attempted was the with the parachute. Then the game was first set up, the instructors had the children sit down around the parachute to explain the rules and the game. All the children wanted to do was touch and play with the parachute. In my opinion the students should have stayed seated and listened to all the directions before going near the parachute. Because the kids had begun touching and playing with the parachute before the rules were explained, it was very hard to hear the rules and what each child needed to do. I believe that it is best to explain the rules when you have the children quiet and paying attention before you send them to play the game. When the group attempted to change what they were doing it seemed to work better and grab the childrens attention easier. With my game, zanny zoo, we had all the childern line up on a single line and were able to grab their attention. We explained the rules of the game and then separted them evenly to a area where there was a teacher. Once they got there we had them sit down and listen to what we were going to do next. I thought this worked best because the children listened better, payed more attention, and worked better in smaller groups.

Task A.

1. I think the differences in motor behavior and social behavior between the St. Mary's students depended greatly on grade levels. I began working with students ranging from grades 3 to 6. They had no problem socializing. They actually tended to be the ones to come up to you and want to start a conversation. There motor skills were also at a higher level. This differed a little in gender with the fact that the boys tended to be a little more agressive. Overall, the motor skills between the boys are girls didn't differ a great amount. I had talked to a few students that were soccer or basketball players. This tended to show a little skill more during the game of knockout and soccer compared to the students that were not involved in either sport. When all the students came into the gym, I got a chance to interact with the younger students. I noticed that it was a little harder to get them to socialize with me. Some of them seemed to be more shy or afraid. There were a few that I noticed that had no problem socializing. I feel that the more you tried to talk to them and hang around the more they opened up. Also, the younger children were less developed with their motor skills than the older students. I think that that has much to do with their age and just beginning to interact in the activities. I feel that age and ability has an influence on motor development and increases with age along with involvement. There muscles and understanding of certain skills increases. I also believe that some students tend to have more ability than others which can differ with certain activities. With gender, from what I saw, a majority of the girls were just as developed as the boys, and there were some that were not. They also seem to be developed better in certain tasks. For example the girls tended to be able to perform a cartwheel better than some boys, while some boys tended to shoot a basketball better. But there were both boys and girls that could do the same things equally. Overall i feel that motor development along with social development is influenced by age, gender, and ability.

2. With the group that I was working with a few fine motor activities that we performed were card games, playing with legos, and putting puzzles together. When observing theres activities I noticed that the students all had a high sense of what they were doing. With my group, I didn't notice much a difference with age, or gender. I feel that it may have been easier for some students to build with legos because it is something they like to do and tend to do a lot of. With this, I noticed that some students were able to build something that was more advanced than what someone else was building. I also noticed that it was easier for some students to find a puzzle piece and put it where it belongs. Others took longer and with more concetration. With the card games, some students were able to grasp the concept easier while others it took some time. With all of these, I didnt feel that females were more advanced than males. I also didnt feel that the third graders were less advanced then the sixth graders, although some may have been, it wasnt very obvious. What I did notice is that some activities came easier to certain students than it did for others. I believe that this is based on ability and interaction with the activity.