Today we began exploring our class story. It takes place in a forest so I decided to teach my forest relationship lesson. They learned words like over, under, around, through, on, off, above, below, far, near, beside, between, in, and out.
We began the class by playing simon says. I had them put their hand over their head, their foot between their hands, and stand beside another person. They were having a good time and liked it. We talked about relationships in the simplest way saying how our body parts can have relationships with each other.
My first mistake came when I had the kids imagine a forest as I described it. I don't think they are able to do that. I should have had them move as I described it to them, I should have taken them on a journey through the forest as they moved, rather than imagined it. I then had them create a class forest and (realizing I should have done this all along) walked them through the forest. They became a caterpillar in a cocoon, then turned into a beautiful butterfly. They flew over, under, between and landed on the tree branch. I then had the boys become trees and the girls become deer. vise versa. The kids had fun then I began to loose them. They were no longer exploring but running around like crazy children. I knew they had had enough so I cooled them down and finished the class.
I need to understand how to be age appropriate and to keep them interested. I can't give such young kids so much freedom or else they will no longer be exploring they will be just mindlessly running around.
