Ballet Class

In order to consolidate this module, I observed 5 girls in a private ballet studio, during a pre-primary ballet class, and 6 girls playing together in a sandpit during their free play period at a private Jewish Day nursery school. The girls in the ballet class were between the ages of five and six years old, and the girls at school were between the ages of four and five years old.

During the ballet class, the ballet teacher was present. She needed to control the class, manage the behaviour, and make sure that the children all did as they were told. The teacher was there to do most of the exercises with them, as they are still young and are not able to remember the entire syllabus by themselves. Although the teacher was doing most of the exercises with the students, it was also important for her to pay attention to each individual child and give them feedback when necessary. The ballet studio is a big hall, with a stage in the front. There is a lot of floor space for the children to move around freely, however they tend to bunch together as they lack special awareness. In other ballet studios that I have visited, there are many mirrors, which were lacking from the studio in which I did my observation. I found this to be a disadvantage, as children benefit from watching themselves.

The girls which were observed at school were observed during free play, and therefore the teacher who was present avoided any involvement with them. The sandpit is situated in the centre of the playground and is a popular choice for the children. They are provided with many buckets, spades, trowels, funnels, and many other sandpit toys. They are able to collect water from the bathroom, which these girls used in their cake mixture to make it...

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... more privileged homes, as they might not have access to computers and electronic gaming, which would result in them being more physically active.

This task was beneficial in assisting me to gain an understanding and insight of the needs of a child, and was a valuable way to consolidate this module.

Books

De Witt M.W. 2011 The young child in context: A thematic approach. Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers

Davin, R. 2005 The reception year: Learning through play second edition. Johannesburg: Heinemann Publishers

Electronic Sources

Web Pages

Stage of development [online] available at

http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/DLiT/2000/Piaget/stages.htm

[Accessed 02/03/2012]

Preoperational stage of cognitive development [online] available at

http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/p/preoperational.htm

[Accessed 02/03/2012]