Child development is a class many schools offer, mainly preparing students to have children later in adulthood or how to care for children. It requires a lot of understanding about why kids act a certain way or how they develop. There is a lot behind learning how kids develop as they grow. Child Development at LHS, like other schools, has fun projects. One of the best is running a Pre-K class which comes towards the end of the year. The other projects are wearing the empathy belly and taking care of a robot baby. 

The class is way past fun projects though; towards the end of the year, eight 3-4 year-olds come to the high school for two blocks each day. In Mrs. Finnegan’s room, blocks 2 and 3, there’s a classroom full of student teachers. Each student prepares a lesson plan and will present this plan. We use what we were taught in the previous months about cognitive and gross/fine motor skills. Gross motor skills are movements, like moving arms or legs. Fine motor skills are reaching and grasping. Cognitive skills are the brain’s thinking, paying attention, processing information, and remembering. These are developmentally necessary for children. 

Child development students have been prepping the classroom for the preschoolers. They are making bulletin boards, decorating, bringing toys upstairs, and putting the finishing touches to the soon-to-be preschool classroom. The preschoolers will be coming in on April 3 to meet us and see the school, but then their actual first day is April 5. Towards the end of the year, they’ll have a “graduation.” 

There are different ways to teach the students in pre-school. There’s a rotation of who will be the main teachers, teacher helpers, teaching assistants, observers, and planners. Teaching a lesson is pretty straightforward and the helpers are others in the group helping the main teacher. Teaching assistants are going to help the students stay on task. Observers have to watch the students and observe what they’re being taught as well as what cognitive skills they’re learning. Observers are also there to make sure it can be solved immediately if anything goes wrong. Planners are planning to do their lesson, right before their teaching rotation. Prepping the lessons, preparing to do them, practicing reading the book. 

Soon the preschool will be in progress, so being aware that there are children around and acting accordingly is necessary. Even if the student teachers are stressed to act a certain way, there are going to be young children with malleable minds. This is how their future is being produced.

Jaelyn Werner, Staff Writer

Junior Jaelyn Werner is a writer for the 2023-2024 Colonel Newsmagazine. She cheers for Ledyard High School and spends the rest of her time with friends or family.