CHDV 210 Curriculum Activities Self Evaluation Form (Large Group) Why did you choose this particular

r activity? (DRDP, conversation with child, etc.) Our theme for the week was seeds and plants. The theme for the previous week was insects. I thought it would be a fun opportunity to read the very hungry caterpillar. I enjoy acting things out for the children. Since I have this book memorized I knew I could read the book without looking at the book. I had a prop of a caterpillar with me that I used to talk to me. I knew it would be a fun book to read both for me and the children. The song I chose to do was a butterfly song, I really like that song and I like to act it out so I chose to do that song as a transition for the children. The second half of the day I chose to write a little story for the children about a carrot seed that grew really big. I choose this because I thought I could do something different than just reading a book to them, I could act out the story I wrote for them, and child-guided experience cannot happen as effectively without adult support (Epstein, 2007, p.25). My ultimate goal is to have the children engaged and for me to be able to support the childrens developments with my tone and actions. What were the strong points of this activity? This activity had many strong points. I felt confident, since I had all my materials memorized, both The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the story I wrote. The first activity I incorporated the children into the activity with me. I had them say with me, but he was still hungry! and I would ask them, but guess what? and they would reply, he was still hungry! Many of the children said they knew the book already and they were

anxious to finish the book to see what happened to the caterpillar. I enjoy asking them questions at the end of the story because I, encourage children to tell or read the story in familiar books, the children are able to talk about what happens (Epstein, 2007, p.31). When the children can tell me what happens in the story I know I was able to grab their attention and that they were engaged in listening to what was happening. The transition I did from snack to the carpet was fun. I did the caterpillar song with them but we acted it out instead of singing it. I had them be caterpillars crawling on the floor then they would climb up the tree, they would spin for their cocoon, then they would go to sleep and lay on the floor then they would be a butterfly. The reason I choose to have the children act it out was because when children act out stories, they enhance two essential components of early literacy development, for the children to be able to listen to what I was saying and act it out was a good example of their comprehension (p.88). It was a lot of fun and the children wanted to do it again. The second activity I did was fun. I was not sure how the story would go with the children, I was not sure if they would like it or not. I made flannel people for my story and as I was telling it I was holding the flannel people in my hand and making different voices. When I finished my story the children wanted the story to keep going, I finished the story and the children did not talk or say anything they sat and waited, they were not ready for the story to have been finished. What were the weak areas? The weak areas that I thought was during the first activity I was going to teach them a caterpillar song, the children did not seem interested in the song. We did it twice and only a hand full of children did the song with me. If I would have introduced it better maybe they might have joined in. The second weak area I found was that the story was

not long enough during the second activity. I thought the children were going to be very hyper and I planned the book with breaks to bring the children back together to listen, but it was the total opposite. All of the children sat with their hands on their lap, criss cross, and did not say anything during the whole story, except to react to situation. If I would have been more prepared with some type of conversation the activity would have been long enough, according to Epstein (2007) asking questions (even open-ended ones) sparingly so children can initiate as well as respond in conversation (p.15). What specific changes did you try out when you presented the activity a second time? The second time I did this activity was not all that different because I had to do the same activity with a different group of children, in the afternoon. The change I did make was to tell the children that my friend caterpillar had a song for them to learn. The afternoon children were more engaged in the song, and we did it three times since they liked it so much. Another change I did the second time was for the transition from snack to large group I waited until most of the children were ready to be dismissed from the table to give the teachers the okay to send them. Since the afternoon children have a bit more energy I didnt want them to get hurt. The second time I did the second activity the children were asking me questions about the story about what happened after the story was over. So we had a mini discussion, what do you think happened? It went well both times. The children asking me questions about what happened after the story was good because it was child directed, they were asking me the questions and I was responding, this meant that the children had, understanding the meaning of spoken and written language (Epstein, 2007, p.25).

 Evaluate the success of these revisions. How might you improve next time? (Focus on your teaching skills) The way I would improve next time is to think of better ways to introduce activities. Also a big think I would like to work on is crowd control. For example, being able to know how to clam down the children when they are talking or not listening is a goal of mine for all future activities. Also, I think being able to think of questions would be a good improvement. For example, I did not plan for any child to ask me what happened next, after the story was finished. I did not plan for an answer or plan for questions. I would like to improve by having questions already thought of so I do not have to think of them while the children are asking me. Did your curriculum activity meet your stated objective? Support your answer with specific examples from your observation of the childrens involvement in the activity. For this activity there were no objectives. I did have goals for myself which were crowd control and not to get nervous. I did accomplish those goals because I was able to keep the children engaged and interested in the activity I was doing for them. I was able to look at the children while I read the book instead of looking at the book. I was able to stay calm and not nervous because I knew the story I was reading. The children accomplished sitting down and listening to a story. I measure the childrens involvement by how much conversation we have during the activity, having a conversation means using the give-and-take of language for social intercourse (Epstein, 2007, p.27). In all this activity went great.

 Based upon your informal assessment of the children during this activity, how would you build upon this activity? What would be the next curriculum activity you would plan in this area to enhance the childrens learning and why would you choose this next activity? With this activity I think being more prepared with more questions and with more conversation is what I need to have because I think this activity went very smooth and was a very good activity. Another thing I could do is make it a language and literacy activity. This could be done by having the children, in a small group and talk about the second story and the children can come up with an alternative ending to the story, this would enhance their skills in conversation, language, and thinking beyond what is presented to them.