LAB 3 - TAKIN IT OUTDOORS

For the first time sense we have been to St Mary's, my group finally got to change up the scene. While for the past 2 labs we were gym group and special projects, we now were the cafeteria group. This is the older kids and we could have them do more skilled tasks than the younger kids. This was great. However, before we got to do this, we analyzed the younger students in games that involved throwing and catching. I had 2 students to observe which I will label as Student 1 and Student 2.

Student 1, was a male at the age of 5 and he definitely was lacking skills in both throwing and catching. The one thing he did very well was he had a good downward arc with his throwing arm which indicated that he was winding up to throw. However, he did not rotate his hips and shoulders, and his weight did not transfer feet. He stood square to his target and did not follow through beyond the ball release towards the side opposite his throwing arm. It was not the same for his catching abilities though. He did a great job preparing him self for the catch by flexing his elbows with his hands in front of his body. His arms extended awaiting ball contact and although he did not catch the ball every time, he did catch the ball a few times with great form when his elbows bent to absorb the force of the ball. I was actually impressed in his catching ability and thought his throwing needed a lot of work.

Student 2, was a female also at the age of 5. She did a great job in both throwing in catching demonstrating that she knew the skills but still needed to work on them.  Her wind up was evident with here downward arc of her throwing arm and she also rotated her hips and shoulders after stepping with her non throwing hand side foot. Her follow through was the one thing I thought needed the most work. She did not come across diagonally, she came straight down and it just did not look smooth at all. Her throwing was seemed very refined. She prepared with her elbows flexed and her hands out in front of her. She extended her arms to catch the ball. She caught the ball almost every time it was thrown to her with her hands only and her elbows bent every time to absorb the force of the ball. All in all, the students I observed did a great job in both throwing and catching. 

The highlight of this lab for me was when the children thoroughly enjoyed the game we introduced (European Handball). They engaged in it and took pride in succeeding. It became very competitive and they didn't want to stop when we told them time was up. This made me very confident because we were nervous that they either wouldn't like the game or that they wouldn't be skilled enough to play. We were foolishly mistaken because they not only enjoyed it but they excelled and played very well.  I'm looking forward to next week because we have the same group and I plan on introducing a new variation to the game.