Field Experience Day 4- February 17th, 2012

6. Skill Themes and Student Abilities:

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Today we started the lesson off by practicing the skill theme: throwing. The underhand toss to be exact,  using bean bags and hula hoops. My host teacher had each of us take a group of children and practice. We were instructed by the host teacher that wanted us to encourage the children to bring the arm under the shoulder and possibly discuss a step into the throw. But because they students were in preschool, it was better to focus on only one part of the throw. After that we were given free reign to instruct and interact with the students as we liked. I tried to get some of the children to throw certain color bean bags into certain hoops to add even more accuracy. Incorporating color with the throwing is another thing to reinforce what they are learning in the classroom. Some of the children were able to do the step with the underhand throw and be successful at getting the bean bag in the target while other had difficulties controlling the throw. It was a first hand look at how different the children are in skill level.

Later in the lesson, I was dribbling basketballs with some of the girls and even between 4 preschool girls there was variation in skill. Cues for Dribbling a Basketball Two of the girls were able to dribble the ball about 5 times while the other 2 could only hold onto it for one or two (while having their eyes on the basketball the whole time). With the same basketballs and same girls we played a passing game where we would bounce the basketball to pass. 2 of the girls were able to catch the ball off of the bounce while the other two were unable to control it. These girls are all in the same grade and yet they have different abilities.