3/5/10

Today was my first day in Melissa Messengers classroom. She has 21 students in her class and includes a lot of play based learning. I thought that her classroom was set up in a great way. The time when I observe the children are in centers. I would say that this type of play would be considered structured. Today I sat in the station called "How to Build a Log Cabin". In this station the children had to make a model to show how to make a log cabin using pretzels, peanut butter, and a graham cracker. The children had a choice to either copy the words on the example or draw pictures. I think that it was a great idea to give the children choices on whether to write, draw, or do both. Some of the children were very into the project and perfected it while others just drew scribbles on their paper. The children who just scribbled did not seem to enjoy the activity as much and were more concerned with talking to me or what was going on at the next station. At one of the other stations the children were listening to "Duck rides a Bike" on tape and following along with their own copy of the book. The children were engaged in reading at this station and seemed to follow the book well. I really liked how Melissa rotated her students through the station and how each station was structured but targeted different skills so the children were not doing the same thing over and over again. I believe that new activities keeps children engaged and excited about play. It is important for kids to have some choices though even in structured play, for example being able to draw pictures, write, or do both. I really enjoyed observing today and am excited to go again.