Starting on October 8 in Child Development, students spent their time creating and planning lessons for preschoolers. They had a five day period to create and plan these lessons and had their peers act as preschoolers. 

Usually, the Child Development classes have a Preschool Day where the students bring in preschoolers from local daycare centers. However, because of COVID-19, restrictions on visitors were put in place. That didn’t stop the classes from doing the project, though. Students got creative and created a variety of lesson plans for their peers to enjoy.

“I enjoyed the variety of lessons and activities that students prepared, and I could see the learning opportunities as their ‘preschool students’ started to act out,” Child Development teacher Amy Mach said. “I told the students beforehand that it is one thing to find a lesson plan online and gather materials, but it is a completely different experience when you have to actually present to a room full of preschoolers. I think, in the end, it was a good learning experience for students and as a class we enjoyed the activities.”

Some students found it especially challenging to present to their classmates because they knew that the intellectual capability of their classmates was higher than that of a preschooler; high school students have an easier understanding of subjects than preschoolers do.

“Presenting to my classmates was definitely harder than it would be to teach the preschooler,” senior Avery Hall said. “It was difficult and awkward to treat the high schoolers as preschoolers because their skills are way higher than the little ones and they can understand things easier than preschoolers would have been able to.”

Students also found it fun to act like preschoolers while the others were presenting. Some found it weird to act like they don’t understand things when they actually do. The students were given behavior cards that had different actions on them, such as “get up and walk around” and “talk to your friend across the room.” These cards helped the students act like a preschooler

“It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be to act like preschoolers,” senior Bella Reilly said. “I kind of forgot what it was like to be a little kid and do little arts and crafts, so it was fun to have those kinds of activities to do at the end of the semester.”

Even though they couldn’t have a traditional Preschool Day this year due to COVID-19, the Child Development classes made the most of what they did have to make this project a success. The students had fun planning and creating lesson plans for their classmates.