The 1980s hit “Celebration” by Kool & The Gang plays from a small speaker while eight preschoolers giggle and jump on brightly colored circles on the gymnasium floor. It is a Tuesday morning at Connections Early Learning Center (CELC) in Bridgewater, Va., and three Bridgewater College students are teaching a physical education class to a group of four-year-olds.
“The main goal is to get them to have competence and confidence,” says Tate Leach Jr. ’26, a health and physical education major from Middletown, Pa. Leach is serving as lead teacher in class today. Assisted by two classmates, Leach shows the children how to place a small stuffed animal on their head, tilt their head forward and catch the toy in their cupped hands. It is more difficult than it might sound.
Dr. Amanda Campbell, Professor of Health and Human Sciences and course instructor, explains that young children will instinctively clutch an object to their chest when they catch it. This activity gets them to practice the gross motor skills that will eventually enable them to, for example, catch a ball that is tossed to them.
For the past two years, students in Campbell’s Field Experience in Elementary Physical Education course have taught preschool physical education to children attending CELC, which is housed in—but unaffiliated with—the Bridgewater Church of the Brethren, located just up the street from the College. Each student plans two 15-minute classes for the three- and four-year-olds. Fifteen minutes might not sound like very long, but it can be a nerve-wracking quarter-hour when the preschoolers are distracted by visitors or have their own ideas about how to use the classroom manipulatives.
“The biggest challenge is keeping them focused on what we’re doing,” says Andrew Baugher ’26, a health and physical education major from Grottoes, Va., who is serving as teacher assistant in today’s class. Each student rotates twice through three roles—observer, teacher and assistant—over the course of the semester.
The students’ lessons are recorded and then reviewed with Campbell after class, when they discuss anything the student might have done differently. Earlier in the class, the preschoolers tossed scarves in the air and then caught them—first with one hand and then the other. With the three-year-olds, Campbell suggests that Leach tell them to catch the scarf with their “favorite hand” and then with their “other hand,” rather than using the language of “left” and “right.” Leach nods in agreement; three-year-olds don’t usually know their left from right.
This is the kind of hands-on practice that Campbell says is so valuable for her students. It gives them a chance to work with children before they begin their formal student teaching practicum during their senior year.
“This gives them real experience with real kids,” Campbell says. “It is a space where our students can make mistakes and learn. And the preschoolers get some practice with their motor skills.”
The health and physical education major at BC prepares students to teach those subjects in PreK-12 and experiential settings. Most students also complete the requirements of the Teacher Education Program and obtain their teaching credentials.
Campbell says that it was a BC alumna who helped facilitate the connection that led to her partnership with CELC. Shay Yoder ’22 was a health and physical education major who took several classes from Campbell and now works as a lead teacher at the Center. Yoder says it has been great to have the current BC students working with the preschoolers.
“[The class] isn’t just physical activity,” Yoder says. “It helps them learn to follow instructions and work as a group.”
CELC Director Amanda Peters says that having BC students teach at the Center has been a wonderful experience for the children and helps strengthen CELC’s connections with the Bridgewater community. She says that her staff also benefit from the experience.
“Our teachers get to see new ideas of things to do with the children,” Peters says. “We are so thankful that Bridgewater College has partnered with us in this way.”
A few weeks later, Aubrey Beale ’26, a health and physical education major from New Market, Md., is leading the three-year-old class through activities using a large multicolored parachute. A few struggle to follow instructions, instead running under or on top of the parachute.
“Everyone turn on your listening ears,” she reminds them as her fellow student-teachers lead the children back into their places.
The four-year-old group are much more attentive. They are able to identify the colors on the fabric, take turns pretend-swimming under the parachute and follow multi-step instructions. Beale, who hopes to work as a high school physical education teacher, comments on the difference that one year of development makes in what the preschoolers are able to do and that she had to cut back on her plans for the three-year-olds when it became clear that they were struggling to follow instructions.
But Beale adds that both she and the preschoolers have grown over the course of the semester. For Beale, this is the second time she has taught a class and she says she felt “a lot more confident” this time. And she noticed that both groups of preschoolers were able to follow instructions and carry out motor activities far better than at the beginning of the semester.
“Being able to see that growth has been great,” she says.
To learn more, visit the Health & Physical Education website.
– Heather S. Cole
12/9/24
