During lab 1 at St Mary's, I was assigned to the Pre-K kids. Their activities were comprised of fine motor skills, such as coloring, playing with toys, and reading stories. They are very happy when you play with them and some of them are even happy to do what you suggest to them. For example, one girl was playing with farm animals and I suggested that we build a house for them. She got excited by the idea and we began to build. Unfortunately her skills were not quite developed enough to put blocks together, so I gladly helped her succeed. The boys wanted my attention to them, probably because I was the only older male there and they felt connected to me in that sense. Dunkin in particular always grabbed my hand and brought me somewhere to play.
When it was time to go to the gym, all of the kids jumped and cheered with joy. Once we got there, it was clear why they were excited. They loved running around more than anything, even if it wasn't for a particular game. Red Light Green Light was the first game we played, although the rules seemingly changed as we played since it was quite noisy in the gym. Other games we played were the hula hoop race and hot potato. Most kids started off playing the games we presented to them, but they eventually wanted to let loose somewhere else. Eventually two of the kids, Dunkin and Chris, started dancing to a song that they like. It was interesting watching them do this because they were just flailing around uncoordinated. At there age, they have no clue how their dancing, they just want to move and have fun. During the last few minutes, everyone gathered around for the "Shake Your Sillies Out" dance where everyone ran around doing different motions. It was interesting to see the motor skills comparison between the Pre-K and the older kids. I had fun playing with everyone and I'm looking forward to the next lab where I get to instruct a new group of kids.