Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, and music.
At first, he didn't quite get the whole following the instructor thing. After a few weeks, his regular teacher came with him to class. She helped him understand watching the teacher, doing activities with the other kids, and just generally listening for instructions.
He's now a Capoeira rockstar! Check out his backward bear crawl.
Some updates from his teacher
Link's Motivation
In the beginning of the year, Link was still adjusting to our routines and activities. At first, it was more difficult to present him a new learning opportunity that was new to him. Over the past few months, as he has become more comfortable, his risk taking and motivation has increased greatly! He is working on writing, painting, puzzles and creating things with others using dialogue and teamwork.
Link’s interest in things that have engines is obvious to most who meet him. He’s building them with blocks, legos, and even his body as a propeller. On walks he’s making siren and motor noises. We’ve noticed that he will build something that looks like an airplane with the legos or use a block to fly around the classroom. At the GCC’s we use this interest to build upon an idea and create a curriculum that will help children have an intrinsic motivation to challenge themselves. We’ve been using Link’s interest in airplanes to start conversations with him and his peers, supporting his social skills and conversation skills. We want to see what it is exactly about the airplanes that he likes in order to provide him with more information to build upon his ideas. Could we show him pictures of the inside of an airplane and will he create a space for his friends to sit inside? Could we talk more about flying and see how the materials in our classroom fly...or not?
Partner Easel Drawing
During this activity, the Harvest Mouse children took turns drawing with markers on an easel. We partnered Link with Ella based on their differing levels of skill and interest.
Ella demonstrated her ability to reach to the top of the paper and slide the pen down when she couldn’t hold herself on her tippy toes any longer. Link observed for many minutes and tried it on his own. He was so happy and engaged in the drawing that he filled his whole paper once he made this connection with Ella. Link and Ella spent many minutes drawing, jumping and laughing while working with the easel.
Since Link seems to enjoy bigger body movements with his art, we have been thinking more about how we can provide him with more opportunities for these types of experiences with his classmates more often (ie. finger/hand painting, clay work)
No comments:
Post a Comment