One of the most interesting parts of my day is one of the electives I’m taking this year: Early Child Education. I wanted to share with everyone what goes on in the class and what we’re doing with the kids… I mean students. Sorry, I don’t like calling them kids or children since I myself am an underager, which is a term I made up that basically means that I don’t like being called a kid or a child. So I shouldn’t call them something that I don’t like being called.
Anyways, the younger students didn’t come in right away. First, we had to learn about the stage of development that their age group is in. We learned that most of the students couldn’t hold a pencil/crayon properly, know the days of the week or the months, be able to write, or even recognize their own names!
The students finally came in on September 29, which was a Friday. The way the schedule works is that Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are the days when the students come in, and Tuesday and Thursday are the planning days when we complete assignments and prep for the next work day.
When the students come in, the first thing we do every day is let them have a bit of free play time, then we move to the carpet. The Advanced Planners run the circle time, and there are some songs we sing too. We sing the Days of the Week song, then go over the current and following day of the week and what month it is.
After that, we sing the Weather Watchers song (which I’d never heard of prior to taking this class) and go over the weather. Then there’s the circle activity to get the students interested in the lesson for the day. The type of activity varies, but they could put something on a poster or stand in order in a line. Sometimes, we also have a video or two to get them even more interested in the lesson!
After circle time, it’s time for the one-on-one activity. There are all sorts of activities that we do, but it’s all the same type of things that they’re learning. There are only a few curriculum areas: math, science, literacy, and art. One of the things that we’re working on a lot is them learning to recognize the letters of their names. But as you might guess, students aged 2-3 aren’t too interested in sitting still for long periods of time, so we have to keep the activities pretty short.
If they do well in the lesson, they get a sticker on their chart. It hasn’t been long enough for anyone’s chart to get filled up yet, but I think they might get a prize. Everyone’s been getting a sticker pretty much every day, so we’ll see what happens! After the lesson, the rest of the period is free play. We have all sorts of toys in the room, so they have a bunch of choices to play with, like blocks, Play-Doh, a kitchen set, and a rice table.
At the end of the period, everyone’s called back to the rug. There, we talk some more and have a couple of videos to hold their attention, as it’s time to switch helpers! Since the period just ended, we have to get to our next class, which means saying goodbye to the students.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that since my period is the first one (their first period, anyway – it’s our third), we’re the ones who get to pick the students up from their parents. The parents bring them to the door and we take them into the classroom, where they have to find their name before free play.
It’s pretty draining for me most of the time, as you always have to be really high-energy around them, and that’s not really my style. But they can make you laugh, and they’re pretty fun. Plus, my next class is right around the corner, so even if I’m delayed getting out of Early Child Ed because of the students, I won’t be late to my next class. The teacher would have cut me some slack regardless, but I prefer not to be late anyway.
Maybe some of you will take the class, or maybe your younger siblings will, who knows? Either way, to whoever decides to take the class: Good luck. You might need it.
