I was so glad to get the Editorial turned in. I had a tough time writing it. Not only am I not a very strong writer I also have never had to write something like that. Even though is suppose to be difficult to make it short enough, I had trouble getting it to be long enough. I ended up about 50 words short, but I felt like if added anything after that it would have been worse not better.
This week at the day care the theme was Nursery Rhymes. The room was decorated with a pretend house, castles and other things to pretend. The children loved playing house, stacking blocks, and Legos during free play. They also had the chance to play with the biggest amount of Floam that I have seen in one spot, and make magic wands!
On Monday the story was The Gingerbread Man, the kids got to help read the story because they could remember to use the phrase “Run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man.” Then they had the chance to decorate their own gingerbread man at the craft table.
On Tuesday at free play there was a table set up where they could draw letters in shaving cream. I remember doing this in school and loving playing in the white, fluffy stuff, but it had changed a little bit. They found a way to make it a no mess area. (A little disappointing but probably a good thing with such young children.) They put plastic on the table and then shaving cream then another sheet of plastic over that. So they could draw then wipe it away or change it, all while staying clean.
The story that day was Humpty Dumpty. After the story the teacher had a project for the children. First they had to work together to build up a “brick wall” with blocks. Then the teacher dropped an egg into a bucket of straw, sand, water and an empty bucket. Each time before it was dropped the children had to guess whether they thought the egg would break or not. They really enjoyed this project and were very interested. Very cool first view of a science project and a hypothesis – even though they don’t understand either of those things yet.
I agree, getting the editorial turned in was a huge load off my back. I had a problem figuring out how I was going to word mine because I had a lot of information that I wanted to include. It was a wise move not not adding anything extra just to get that word limit. I feel that word counts just inspire people to make stuff up just to reach the "required" word limit. My teacher in high school had a student who wrote only to satisfy the word count on their essays. The kid actually ended up writing about how his day was because he believed my teacher wouldn't read it.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely feel your pain on the editorial. I was afraid that not only would mine be too short, that I wasn't doing it right at all! I've never written an editorial in my whole life so it's not the type of writing I'm used to. Therefore it was a little difficult for me. It sounds like you're having an awesome time with these kids! I think it's great that they're provided with so many opportunities and that it's all taking place in a learning environment. Reading this post really took me back to kindergarten because I remember doing something along the lines of pretty much all of those activities. You're right about the shaving cream activity, it isn't as much fun if you can't make a mess! The egg activity was the only thing you've mentioned that I've never heard of kids at that age doing before. When I was that age most everything we did was centered on learning how to read and just having fun really! But I think that's really great that the kids are being introduced to science at such a young age, they're already being prepared for their near future. I hope you continue to enjoy your service work!
ReplyDeleteI had the same sort of problem you did with the editorial but I felt like having a friend edit for me made a world of difference. I wrote it out, had one friend edit it for me, fixed the parts she said sounded weird, then I sent it to my other friend who is a communications and English major, had her edit it, revised it one more time, saved it, went to bed, woke up and edited again and THEN I finally turned it in. It was a very long, but beneficial process.
ReplyDeleteI’m slightly jealous of your service organization. That sounds like so much fun! I remember every Christmas, when I was little, my family and I would make gingerbread mean. Too bad the kids weren’t baking cookies; that would’ve been too awesome. I’ve never heard of the shaving cream thing before but the way they made it mess-free was kind of awesome. The humpty dumpty experiment seems like a nice introduction to science. Good for them.
I am also so glad that we have our editorials done! The daycare seems like a really cool place to volunteer at because of the awesome activities they have for the children. I think all the activities and crafts will help the children be better students when they get to school and possibly even increase their intelligence. I love reading to children when they get to participate by saying a phrase a different parts and I think it helps keep the children more engaged in the story too. That is a really unique way of letting the children play with shaving cream. Did you try it? If so, was it still fun or just strange? I love the fact that they are exposing the children to science at such a young age and with exciting experiments that will encourage them to like science not hate it! I personally believe that they more children that can be exposed to science the better off our world will be. I hope you continue to enjoy your volunteer work!
ReplyDeleteI did play with the shaving cream. It was very cool because they could still draw letters and things but minus the mess!
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