School before play!!

Today I had the opportunity to return to St Mary's to assist the pre k teachers. I would like to reflect on how my morning went. I introduced myself to all the students and after that I was free to roam around the room and either play with the kids or help them with assignments. I was able to learn the morning routine which is important because when i student teach I will have to adapt to different teaching styles and environments. The students started off doing a work sheet. They had to write there names in three different spaces, the first was written for them, the second they had to connect the dots to each letter of their name, and finally they had to write out there whole name. I worked with one girl for about a half hour. She had a tough time focusing, and told me she couldn't write her name. So what I did was I told her to retrace the letters again to her name to get the motion down so she could complete the work sheet and eventually we got through her whole name.
Another work sheet they worked on was counting. They had a picture of lets say a apple and they had to count how many apples there where and write the number on the line. Their were about 10 different pictures. I had to help one child write a three, so on the back of his worksheet I showed him and he went to the front and applied what I had showed him. It seemed after each child finished their worksheets they were aloud to play. Examples included puzzles, toys, and a kitchen set. When I was walking around the room I saw Illianna trying to put together a puzzle and eventually about four more kids showed up. It was great to see their reactions when we put the puzzle together, one girl actually screamed and was told to quiet down. But the kids ran over to the teacher and showed her the completed puzzle. It was like the first time they put it all together and they were thrilled. The last thing I want to talk about is a young girl named Lyla. She comes into the class room balling her eyes out, and she walks over to her desk and starts her worksheets. At this point she is still crying. So I walk over and introduce myself, (she wanted nothing to do with that). So I went on to plan B and asked her what she was going to be for Halloween. Couldnt get her to crack. So I walked away and was helping another student with work and all of a sudden I hear "Im going to be a purple unicorn" I look back and sure enough it was Lyla. So I started to joke around with her and she was laughing and started to become more comfortable in the class room. I would walk away from her and say "Lyla" and she would look up, and I would look away as if I wasnt their. And she was looking all around the room trying to figure out who called her name. So i did it again and she caught me looking away and she started to laugh. So I kept doing this until she was in tears from laughing not crying. It was a great feeling to get her to open up to not only me but the other students. In conclusion I learned a lot today, about classroom procedures, personalities from the kids, and teachers, and much more. I would definitely love to go back and work with them again.