Service Learning Project: Reflection #3

On my final visit to the YWCA I brought with me a copy of Jane Yolen and Mark Teague's book How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?. I chose this book primarily because the language was aimed at primarily at preschool aged children and matched the language of the books I had seen Ms. Nancy read to the children earlier. What captured my attention about Yolen and Teague's book, however, was the lesson in good manners it taught the children. I had looked through many books geared toward a preschool audience before finding this one and was unable to find a book with any sort of theme beyond basic identification. The setup of this book also lent itself well to reenactment, a teaching tactic I had seen Ms. Nancy use upon several occasions in the classroom before. So, as I read the story aloud to the children I had them stand up and act out both the good and bad actions of the dinosaurs. The children really seemed to enjoy the book and the silly actions they had to do to mirror those of the dinosaurs. After I finished the story the children returned to their seats and I thanked them for their participation. 

In retrospect, I wish I would have interacted with the children more as I read them this story, making sure they really got the concept behind the actions of the dinosaurs. I could have achieved this objective by reading through the story by itself once through, then asking the children to identify the good and bad actions of the dinosaurs before they go to bed. After this, I should have read he book a second time during which the children acted out the actions of the dinosaurs, afterwards reiterating the differences in the behavior of the good dinosaurs and the bad ones.