ZCHDV 210 Curriculum Activities Self Evaluation Form

Cotton Ball Math

Please reflect on these questions as you evaluate each of the 5 activities that you present. Review the rubric carefully to be sure that you have included all components to earn the highest score possible. o Why did you choose this particular activity? (DRDP conversation with child etc.!

" chose this activity because " wanted to see how well the children could #eep trac# of and count how many cotton balls they could throw into the different shapes. $he te%t boo# suggests to play games that have mathematical elements such as counting measurement and spatial and temporal relation (&pstein '(() p.*+!. " thought this would be a fun game for them to play. " also wanted to see what shapes they remembered and recogni,ed. " wanted then to be able to tell me what shapes had more cotton balls in them.

What were the strong points of this activity?

" thin# a strong pint of this activity was having the children throw one cotton ball at a time " would as# them what shape they were aiming for and they would tell me the name of the shape and point to it this is how " could tell what shapes they #new. " also had them count as they threw the cotton balls then " had them count only the ones that stuc# to the shapes. -ome of them were able to do it and some had more trouble. .nother strong point " felt " had was #eeping the children engaged and interested by choosing an activity " felt they could have fun with.

What were the wea# areas?

. wea# point " felt " had in the activity was the shaving cream not staying on the board well enough to stand it up so " had to lay it down on the table which turned out to wor# also. .nother wea# point " felt " had was trying to get the children to help each other count all of the cotton balls in the shapes as they too# them off to which shape had the most cotton balls in it because of course they wanted to play with the shaving cream so " /ust let them have at it0

What specific changes did you try out when you presented the activity a second time?

-ome specific changes " made the second time around was having the children ta#e turns. $he first time " /ust let them all throw at once but as more children came " had to let them go one at a time.

&valuate the success of these revisions. 1ow might you improve ne%t time? (2ocus on your teaching s#ills!

1aving the children throw one person at a time helped me to control the activity better. " was able to direct and as# questions to each child to see what they could do. $he older children had to stand farther bac#. $he younger children stood closer so they could ma#e the cotton balls stic# to the shapes better. " thin# ne%t time " would have the children tell me what shape has the most in them and them remove the cotton balls before the ne%t child throws instead of leaving the cotton balls in the shapes.

Did your curriculum activity meet your stated ob/ective? -upport your answer with specific e%amples from your observation of the children3s involvement in the activity.

$he children were able to count as they threw and were able to count some inside the shape. $here were a lot of cotton balls in the circle shape one child started to count them counted to 4( but there were a lot of cotton balls so he started to count faster and faster pretending to count them but " thin# he was overwhelmed by how many there were. $he way the activity was set up the children were not able to tell me which shape has more cotton balls. " thin# a better idea would have been to have the children guess instead of trying to count each one they were distracted by the shaving cream &pstein says that children can compare and estimate without counting by using various senses such as eyeballing (&pstein '(() p.5+!. $he children were able to name each of the shapes. " adapted to some of the children to ma#e sure they would be able to ma#e most of the cotton balls on to the shapes. 5ostly all of the ob/ectives were met in the activity.

6ased upon your informal assessment of the children during this activity how would you build upon this activity? What would be the ne%t curriculum activity you would plan in this area to enhance the children3s learning and why would you choose this ne%t activity?

" thin# " would build upon this activity by ma#ing other activities with different #inds of shapes since all of the children were very familiar with the shapes " put on the board because the te%t boo# suggests the encouragement of children to e%plore non conventional shapes such as circles squares and triangles (&pstein '(() p.5)!. " would also ma#e an activity that they need to identify what is more and what is less. " would chose this activity because " want to enhance the children3s #nowledge of shapes and " want to try and meet the ob/ective of seeing what children can tell in what is more and less.