this week I went to work straight in the pre school class and this week they were learning about different planets. when the practitioner asked what planet they were on today, a little boy called out straight away that they were studying Uranus. this little boy was praised by all his class mates. some even asked him how he knew straight away.

because of the space/planet theme, each section of the room was set up with things to do with planets. on the creative table, the children could use different types of blue paper to make the planet Uranus. on the weighing table, some rocks were covered in tin foil and they pretended to call them moon rocks. in the blocks corner, the children could build rockets and spaceships. and in the water area there was pink water that the children could splash about with.

during circle time in the morning the pre schoolers went around stating their names with the corresponding sign language of the first letter in their name. I noticed that this made the song more enjoyable for them as it is something special that they can say they know. on top of the children saying their names, the practitioner also asked them what they would like to be called today. some children chose funny names such as “Elephant” or “super girl”. with that being said, when I called a child by their actual name, she came up to me and whispered in my ear reminding me that her name was “super girl”. one child wanted to be called by her friends name. some children just wanted to be called  by their actual names.

I realized that these pre schoolers were really independent. as soon as they sang their morning song, they were all off doing their own thing. one little girl came up to me and was really interest in me being their. she did not speak English but she still communicated with me through the use of actions. for example I knew she wanted me to read her a book when she went to the book shelf, pulled out a book and handed it to me. she then decided to sit on my lap and waited for me to start reading.

working in he baby room was harder than I expected it to be. even though I already knew this, I realized that babies need attention 24/7.  there was this little boy that I didn’t pay attention to at first because when I walked in some children were taking a nap. when he woke up I realized how attached he was to one particular practitioner. the children were playing outside and the little boy was standing in front of the practitioner holding onto her hands. once the practitioner removed her left hand to wipe her face, the little boy started screaming, despite the fact that he still held her in the other hand. I later noticed that this little boy was like this with every practitioner, including myself when I had him. I however had to be told that I had to put him down and look after the other babies around me and that he would just have to cry it out. I noticed then, that I had to put my feelings and emotions aside even though the baby was crying. this made me realize that working with such children required more than just motherly instincts of picking up a child when they are crying.

on my first day I didn’t really have a lot of work to do as I was just getting a feel of how things were done in that setting.

the things that I had to do were:

• reading with the babies
• aiding the children in garden
• helping to wash the babies hands before eating
• going to collect the food trolley from the kitchen and back
• singing songs with the babies
• getting them ready for outside (putting on coats and shoes)
• playing with them
•  helping around during feeding time
• putting out the beds for nap time.

Welcome to my first blog