Skip to main content

Reflections- December

As I look to planning activities for a new month, I must take time to reflect. Reflection is a very important step in the teaching process. We should not keep trudging along without taking time to stop, look-up and think about what worked, what did not and where we need to go from here.

Let's start on a positive note- What Worked...
This month's Sensory Box was quite a success! Funny how sometimes things just click. It was most likely because of a number of activities and repeated practice but I want to believe it is from this month's Sensory Box. Jacob loved using the round boxes to scoop the split peas and pour them out. He also liked using the spoons to fill in the boxes. I have seen considerable improvement in Jacob's hand-eye coordination when he is eating. I cannot help but think it is from the time he spends scooping in the Sensory Box! This proved to be a huge success but it also tells me it is time to move on to a new skill. He has mastered the skill and although he finds great pleasure playing this way, for Structured Play time we must focus on a new skill. He will have opportunity to practice this skill when he is playing in the sandbox with sand and at bath time with water in the tub. 
Playing with puzzles is a basic activity that I have included as part of our Structured Play time since we began in September. Puzzles are a great way to practice more than just hand-eye coordination skills. They help foster cognitive and logistical skills. Jake seemed confused by the concept of puzzle play. Each day I spent time modeling the skill for him and he would just run off with a piece and drop it somewhere else. Finally this month he was able to start to understand. He can put the pieces in the general location, not in the exact spot necessarily. 
Beyond this accomplishment Jake has also FINALLY started making animal noises. When we practice the puzzles, read books, play with toys I always say the sound an animal makes. Besides a dog bark he has not made a sound, but this month he has started making every animal sound! This tells me a few things, first- he is soaking it all up! Just because he does not respond verbally does not mean he is not learning! We get caught up looking for outward signs that what we are doing is working but sometimes they just are not evident. That does not mean it is not happening! Next, it tells me he is becoming developmentally ready for speech. Making animal noises is one of the first steps in forming words. I am quite excited about the prospect of some more sophisticated vocabulary! :) 

Ok, now for the areas in which need improvement...
Our Story Boards have not been too successful. The way I am using the Story Board is already modified from its intended purpose. I look at it more as an activity to get him ready for future activities. Jacob shows no interest in the Story Board. I want to put more effort forth in this area and facilitate interest and excitement in this activity. 
When we tried beading this month it did not go quite as planned. I purchased larger beads and we will try for more success next month.

I also want to have more plans ready. We do not always get to every activity but I would like more options for days when one or another activity just is not feasible. 

Take some time to reflect on your Structured Play time!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

December Project-Based Learning: Sharing Through the Season

Every classroom teacher knows how crazy the classroom can be from Halloween to winter break. There are fun community activities, holidays, and a lot of excitement! I learned instead of trying to fight against the hype, to channel the excitement into projects!    This time of year the necessary elementary classroom routines become dull and have a harder time keeping student interest. So what better time to introduce project-based learning! I feel strongly about learning about the culture and traditions of others. In my classroom, over the years I have learned traditions celebrated in holidays I was familiar with and traditions from holidays I was not aware of previously.  This project was created to provide a way for students to share their personal family traditions during this exciting time being all-inclusive and without making religious statements.  Project Objective: The students will each select and read a picture book to the class asking questio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Play to Write- Week 3

We participating in a Wednesday Play Group called Play to Write over at Cherrios and Lattes . This is week 3- Write/Spell Your Name.  We started this week's practice with some name tracing. Cherrios and Lattes provides the printable for some dotted letters. She suggested doing rainbow writing with this sheet. I showed Jacob but he was more interested in writing all the Jacobs. I started by modeling on the first name. Then I held his hand and we did it together. Finally I let him do the last three on his own with only my verbal prompts.  He took this very seriously and was very proud of himself! I was surprised at how much he liked doing this activity. He has a long way to go but he did pretty well! One thing I had to repeat was not to go around the o and a more than once. He wanted to go around and around. This is an activity that I think he will want to do again! The next activity was Missing Letter Name Practice. We started by singing a little song I sing fo...
2 comments
Read more

Name Writing Practice

Jacob did a little name writing practice today. He was asked to trace the dotted lines to write letters for his name. This is good practice with spelling as well. I had him say each letter as he wrote the letter.  As you can see he is very choppy and not exactly on the dotted lines. His motor skills are not quite sharp enough yet to be able to hold the crayon and he especially loses control as he works on towards the end. We also did a Missing Letter Name Practice. Both of these ideas came from Cherrios and Lattes ' Play to Write, Write to Read. These are good ways to practice names and writing. He gets very angry if he thinks he made a mistake. See the scribbling. I have to reinforce that it is ok to make a mistake and that everyone makes mistakes but we just keep trying. Practice is the only way to get better. When this happens I cannot help but think of my former students that did the very same thing and proceeded to throw fits and give up. I hope to help Jacob ge...
1 comment
Read more