Jackie Tonies

EDT 313
7 April 2017
Lesson 1 Reflection

Our investigation is about how the human body moves. In this lesson, I focused on

muscles and how they help make our bodies move. I believe it is important for young children to

be aware of how muscles help make our bodies move since fine and gross motor is one of the

five developmental skills. Throughout this lesson, I discussed what muscles look like and how

they work together to help our bodies perform movements. This lesson served as a wonderful

introduction to muscles and provided the students with the opportunity to learn about and explore

a variety of body movements, such as: jumping, clapping, spinning, and stomping. I began the

lesson by explaining to the students that we have muscles all over our bodies. I introduced the

students to the bicep and tricep muscles. Using their prior knowledge, they could tell me their

butt is the largest muscle in their body. I read two pages out of a book called Your Body by

Stephanie Turnbull to the students. I chose this book because it was developmentally appropriate

and did a great job at explaining the muscular system to the students. After I read the book, I

asked the students to show me how muscles help make their bodies move. They could

demonstrate various large muscle movements that they remembered learning about from our

hook lesson. Next, we played a movement game. Through the movement game, the students

could use hands-on materials to explore how the muscles in our bodies work together to help our

bodies perform movements. The hands-on materials kept the students engaged throughout the

activity. The students were encouraged to demonstrate their ability to interact with their peers by

taking turns. Also, the students were encouraged to demonstrate their ability to show a specific

body movement an equivalent number of times indicated on a number dice.

 From teaching this lesson, I learned which of the students can use their large muscles to

demonstrate body movements, which can take turns appropriately without getting upset, and

which can demonstrate a specific body movement an equivalent number of times indicated on a

number dice. This lesson allowed the students to discover new ways to move their bodies by

demonstrating non-locomotor and locomotor skills with control and coordination. The lesson

also allowed the students the opportunity to practice counting and identifying numbers. On the

day I taught the lesson, only ten out of thirteen students were present. According to the data

collected, all ten students could use large muscles to demonstrate various body movements.

However, eight out of the ten students could take turns appropriately without getting upset. For

the two students who had difficulty taking turns rolling the dice, I can help strengthen their social

skills in future instruction by having all the students participate in activities that require them to

take turns with their peers. For example, I would have the students take turns tossing a ball into

a basket. Only five out of the ten students could count the number of dots on the dice and

demonstrate the specific body movement an equivalent number of times indicated on the dice.

For the five students who had difficulty counting the number of dots on the dice, I can help

strengthen their cognitive skills in future instruction by exposing all the students to more

activities that provide counting to help them better understand that the last number spoken tells

the number of objects counted. For example, I would have the students count blocks and when

they are finished counting, ask them how many blocks they have.

If I was going to teach this lesson again, I would have the students draw the body

movements. For example, I would ask the students, How would you draw a spin? Would you

draw squiggly lines? Overall, the lesson went well and the students were engaged throughout

the activity. They were interested in learning new ways their bodies can move. For my next
lesson, I plan to dive deeper into how muscles expand and contract. I plan to do this by building

a muscle using art materials, such as: cardboard tubes, balloons, paper clips, and rubber bands.

The students will have the opportunity to explore how muscles expand and contract by

experimenting with a hands-on model of a muscle.