Yesterday I went to my internship for the observation and interacting with children. I am doing my internship at a local park district summer camp. The program I am observing involves children betwwen 5-7 years old. There typical day run 9:00am to 4:00pm. Many of the children stay after 4:00, but are moved to "After Care" room.
The day I was observing there were 4 staff members and 19 children. I really liked this ratio. I am use to daycare setting where the ratio would be 20:1. The one teacher (Coach Brian) was one of the people I interviewed, so I felt like I knew a little bit about him already. The children really respond to him. When I met up with the class for the day, the children were outside playing. They then came in and did there learning centers. The teacher paired the children up and had them rotate to each learning center every 5 minutes. Then the children went to music class, and then to the playground. Then the children went back inside for snack and pick up.
I really liked how Coach Brian went over directions with the children first. Whenever he did this he seemed to use the word "recap". I also liked the different centers they had set up. They had independent reading, writing center, computers, numbers and counting, art, books on cd, letters, music, buddy reading, blocks or puzzles and free choice.
The only thing I really did not like was the length of the learning center time. It ran from 12:45-2:30. The children started off great, but by the end the children seemed to lose interest. Even though they lost interest, it still amazed me how they were still quiet and stayed in the expected areas.
Overall, this was an experience for me. I am use to the daycare environment and I thought it was the same. However, this program was more geared to learning and keeping the children's skills up to par during the summer. I am happy that I was able to observe and interact with this class.
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