On Nov. 16 around noon, various students were seen running around the quad playing children’s games not just for fun, but as a learning experience.

Around 20 students were in the quad last Tuesday all from the same ECE class. The students were playing children’s games like relay races, name games, circle games, and “What time is it mister fox?” before coming back inside for the rest of class.

Red Light, Green Light was also played. Only, in this version there were two extra lights: blue which meant you had to swim and purple which meant you had to dance.

All of this was a part of a group project assigned by Kate Williams Browne, the instructor of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) curriculum class. The children’s games had a hands on method of learning to teach how to interact with children.

“Each of the students in this class are a part of a small group that have presentations that introduces the curriculum,” Browne said. “[They] tell why it’s important to children, what the role of the teacher is, how you can act with parents, and gives development appropriate activities for the entire student to learn about the curriculum area.”

Other groups within the class included the discovery science group, music and movement group, library literacy group, and blocks and games group.

The group that set up the outdoor games were in charge of presenting how to utilize environments outside the classroom as an education outlet with children, and part of their job was to give real life experience as if they were the children.

Brendan Spillane, supervisor of the event also came up with the activities.

“We did this to introduce the students to different curriculum areas with different activities to show what kind of activities you can do with children of different age groups,” Spillane said.

The students who participated thought it was all fun and educational, expressing to one another that their profuse sweating and exertion entitled them extra credit. One such student who had fun was Merlin Fernandez, a member of the discovery science group.

“It was fun playing games and learning outdoor activities, we’re all doing group projects on different parts of curriculum,” Fernandez said with a laugh. “I think I just ran off all my weight.”

According to Browne the reason for doing all of these group projects isn’t just to help the students to properly interact with children, but also serve as a learning experience for the actual students as well.

“If you give students, like children, actual direct experiences with hands-on learning you give them the responsibility to create the contacts in which they are to learn it,” Browne said. “When you teach it you learn it better yourself.