Personal Narrative: My First Practicum Placement

This is my first practicum placement in the Lethbridge community and in a daycare centre. It has given me a different, but good experience from working in a Parent Pre-School Program (PPP). This placement is different from my last two placements, because it has allowed me to gain more experience with younger children. The placement still gives the children the opportunity to learn through their play in play areas of language, art, water, sand, blocks, and kitchen (dramatic play). They also, have specific play areas for infant play, play dough, and train set play, which is different from PPP. The placement is a bit more structured by offering a time schedule of outdoor play, nap, snack/meal time, and possible gym time for the children who don’t
take naps. With outdoor play I was given the opportunity to interact with the children in a different atmosphere and see how they use their imagination to create their own play outside.
At this practicum placement I was able to create and set up different play areas, and more individual activities. I am still learning the creative process of planning play areas and how to be resourceful with gathering materials. I just planned a play area in the water play area for the first time on infants’ washing/hygiene. I was able to borrow materials from my practicum placement, in the ECE lab beautiful junk containers, and with the help of my sister who works in a dentist office that was able to give me free children toothbrushes.
I had a great experience and time of being able to interact with other educators, and a different age group of children that are at different stages in their development. The daycare has recently received two newcomers. One of the children is learning English as her second language, and the other child is younger and hasn’t developed in his language yet. I am learning how to communicate more with descriptive responses, pointing, and non-verbal communication gestures.