April 2nd: Chandler

My work at preschools has changed greatly since my beginnings in the Baker lab.  From cleaning tables to helping out with teacher lessons, Project DIRECT has truly helped to establish comfort in volunteering at preschool environments.  This past semester has found me with the goal of executing a service learning project seeking to engage some of the learners that get bored with the pencil and paper method of work.  Specifically, my project consisted of me creating a six-sided cube, with small, one-syllable words that kids could practicing rhyming with, printed on each side of the cube. Kids would then be called at carpet time to throw the cube, like a die, and say a word that rhymed with the word the cube landed on.  Overall, the kids seemed very receptive to the method of learning, and displayed enthusiasm over rolling the die.  Through the die project and thinking on the times I have spent working with Project DIRECT, I appreciate the experiences in preschool classrooms Project DIRECT has brought me.