My initial reaction when I first walked into Mrs. Martha’s classroom was just filled with amazement. Before all the children started arriving, Mrs. Martha willingly gave me a quick tour of her classroom. She explained all of her centers and how she had set up her routine for her students. I was mainly shocked at the amount of materials provided for the children. Examples of this include how students are able to paint a picture of their choice during center and work time without a teacher supervising them, how the housekeeping/home area is very child-friendly in the sense that it makes the child feel at home since there is a table with a few chairs, a microwave oven and stove set, dress up clothes, and baby dolls for the children to play with.
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Martha’s students always start their day off with center and work time. By the look of her classroom, I could tell Mrs. Martha had the intention to sculpt her classroom into many multilevel activity areas. These areas included books, music, discovery, blocks, and housekeeping/home. My favorite area of the classroom is known as the Peace Pad, which allows one or children to sit in a small cozy area where they can relax and have some space away from loud or busy areas in the classroom. From my point of view, each area/center in the classroom encourages individual and small-group play without have all fourteen children interacting in one center at a time. When I asked Mrs. Martha why she planned to have the classroom set up the way it is, one of her main reasons was because it allows her and the assistant teacher, Mrs. Lynda to easily supervise their students during center and work …show more content…
Martha enables her classroom to facilitate exploration and child-directed play is by providing activities that go hand-in-hand with sensory play. Each morning during pre-planning, Mrs. Martha adds an item to the sensory table, so that her students have an extra activity to interact with during center or work time. On my first day of practicum, Mrs. Martha added some soap and water in the sensory table. Along with the sensory table, she added a few buckets, baby dolls, and washcloths. Occasionally throughout center time, I would walk over to see how the children were playing in the sensory table. A few students, mainly girls, would grab a baby doll and a washcloth so that they could bathe them. Others would pour the water back and forth between the different sized buckets and containers. The next time I went to practicum, Mrs. Martha added beans for the children to play with in the sensory table. Along with the beans, she added a few containers and different sized lids so that the children could enjoy filling up the containers to measure the different shapes and sizes of each item inside the sensory table. Not only does a sensory table give the students a chance to explore and observe, but it also helps them learn fine and gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and creativity
Martha’s students always start their day off with center and work time. By the look of her classroom, I could tell Mrs. Martha had the intention to sculpt her classroom into many multilevel activity areas. These areas included books, music, discovery, blocks, and housekeeping/home. My favorite area of the classroom is known as the Peace Pad, which allows one or children to sit in a small cozy area where they can relax and have some space away from loud or busy areas in the classroom. From my point of view, each area/center in the classroom encourages individual and small-group play without have all fourteen children interacting in one center at a time. When I asked Mrs. Martha why she planned to have the classroom set up the way it is, one of her main reasons was because it allows her and the assistant teacher, Mrs. Lynda to easily supervise their students during center and work …show more content…
Martha enables her classroom to facilitate exploration and child-directed play is by providing activities that go hand-in-hand with sensory play. Each morning during pre-planning, Mrs. Martha adds an item to the sensory table, so that her students have an extra activity to interact with during center or work time. On my first day of practicum, Mrs. Martha added some soap and water in the sensory table. Along with the sensory table, she added a few buckets, baby dolls, and washcloths. Occasionally throughout center time, I would walk over to see how the children were playing in the sensory table. A few students, mainly girls, would grab a baby doll and a washcloth so that they could bathe them. Others would pour the water back and forth between the different sized buckets and containers. The next time I went to practicum, Mrs. Martha added beans for the children to play with in the sensory table. Along with the beans, she added a few containers and different sized lids so that the children could enjoy filling up the containers to measure the different shapes and sizes of each item inside the sensory table. Not only does a sensory table give the students a chance to explore and observe, but it also helps them learn fine and gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and creativity