Preschool Observation’s Review

Information Child’s Age: 3.5 years.

Date and time of day: 11/20/2018 9:30 AM-11:00 AM.

Observation Site or Location: Challenger school -Preschool classroom.

Number of children present: 12 (Including the child)

Number of adults present: 2 teachers and me

Section I: Describe the indoor environment: The classroom has a naturalistic feel to the environment. It was pretty well organized and it was very spacious and filled with natural lightings.Once we enter, the left side of the classroom has small cubbies each with a hook and it is labeled with number, shape, and name of each child where they can keep their belongings like jackets and their paperwork.

The cubbies are followed by a big display board that has the best works (art) of the children. Then there is a big whiteboard and a small apple display in which the teachers are playing songs to the children. In the left corner, there was a door to the play area which was kept closed. Followed by the door was a series of shelves that has all kinds of art supplies, books, wooden blocks, craft supplies and so on. Next, to the shelves, there was a dramatic play section with some pretend and play toys such as kitchen counters with toy vegetables, fruits and food items, toy babies in the cribs and dresses(fireman hats, doctor coats, etc).To the right side, there was a sink(for washing hands), and small faucet for the water fountain and then a restroom. The center of the classroom has a small table and chairs and a big mat with shapes in it. The kids used to sit on the rug during circle time.

Section II: Choose a child to observe and provide a detailed, head-to-toe physical description of the child. The child I choose to observe was Anya who has a light skin, long black hair, brown eyes, and cute little baby teeth. She is tall for her age with chubby cheeks and cute smile. She is wearing a burgundy colored T-shirt with a checked gray skirt and a black pant and black shoes. She is of average height for her age and weighs around 28 pounds. OBSERVATION: The class starts with an opening routine in which all the children cleaned up all the toys. Followed by opening routine was phonics time. The teacher taught them the letter B and its sound and the words that start with letter B. The teacher pointed out Anya and asked her to say the letter on the board and its sound. Anya said “B”. The teacher said good Anya “Can you tell the sound that letter b makes. She said “B says buh buh”.The teacher said very good. She smiled. The children were given with a worksheet to circle the words that starts with B. Anya went to the table from the mat and she sat on the chair and started circling the words as the teacher explains. While she was doing that one of the other kids spoke to her in her ears. She also whispered in her ears and they both laughed. Teacher noticed it and asked all the students to listen. After phonics the teacher asked all the students to go back to the mat for circle time. Anya was the first one in the class to sit on the mat and she was very excited.The teacher played the song and Anya started to sing along with it doing some cute actions. She started to rise her hands up and down and clapped the hands when the song “clap your hands” was playing. After the circle time all the kids went to recess. Anya went to the restroom peed and flushed and she came out and washed her hands in the sink. She did everything perfectly. The children went to the play are through the other side of the door.Anya stood third on the line when they were going out through the door. Any started running with full excitement and she climbed the small stairs for the slide and she slides. Then she ran to a small firetruck and started rotating the steering wheels and says “beep beep”. One of her friends wanted to take that position but Anya does not let her to do. She said “No I am the driver”.She then stepped out of the truck and went to do slide again. She called one of her friends and started playing with her. The kids were asked to stand on the line again to go back to the class. Anya went inside the class and washed her hands. Anya and her friend went near the kitchen counter and started to cook with some vessels and vegetables while the teacher called Anya and her friend to come and sit on the mat. Anya said “Ok miss” and sat on the mat.

Section III: Physical/Motor Development Fine motor skills:Anya circled the words in the sheet of paper, She scribbled with crayons before the opening routine starts, She clapped her hands, She pasted things onto paper. Describe large motor skillsShe climbed the steps to slide down the slide, She ran in the play area, she jumped and walked. She was pretending to be a driver and was rotating the steering wheels with her hands, She rotated the wheels with one hand and beeped the horn with the other hand.

Section IV: Cognitive Development Observe the child’s play and interaction with the environment. How does the child first approach the activity? How does he or she use the materials? As soon as the teacher announces that it was a circle time Anya finished her paperwork from the phonics session and she immediately came and sat on the mat. When she was sitting on the mat the teacher gave all the kids some rattles to dance while the rhymes was playing. She did all the cute actions. When the wheels on the bus go song was playing she appropriately did all the actions with her rattles on her hands. She was the one who completely focused all the lines of the songs and did all the actions. Describe the focus of the child (attention, persistence or distraction). I think her attention was very good throughout the class. Although she was being distracted sometimes she never misbehaved and she obeyed the teachers commands all the time. Describe the child’s level of engagement, the tempo of play and the amount of energy the child is investing in their play. When Anya was doing pretend and play with the kitchen toy I think she explored the materials and identify their properties. She used her knowledge of the materials to play creatively and imaginatively. When she was playing outside in the park she was completely excited and her amount of energy has never dropped out instead it always increased which is one of the wonderful features in children. Describe the child’s body movements, facial expressions. Throughout the observation, I loved her expressions, cute smile, and her cute actions. She did a lot of cute dance movements during her circle time. Her teacher also told me that she was one of the cutest dancers and expression queen of the class. Some of the other kids also followed her expressions and dance movements. Does the child engage in any “self talk”? Give examples. When she was playing outside and when she did steering wheel on the firetruck she was doing lots of self talk.She pretended herself to be a driver of the truck and she sang the ‘Wheels on the bus’ song. She connected her knowledge of her rhymes with the real truck. As you observe this child discuss the other activities that they move to. Are there any activities they seem to avoid? Except during the circle time and the outside play all other activities are complete teacher initiated. When she was doing outside play she initiated all the activities herself and played on her own. The activities during phonics, art, and science are all teacher initiated. But she obeyed the teacher’s instructions and was very discipline throughout her activities. I don’t think there are any activities that need to be avoided. The teachers are very well prepared and they are completely planned on what activities needs to be done. They followed their schedule and the students are also well aware of their schedule and activities.

Section V: Social Emotional Development Peer Interaction: How many other children are involved with the child? The classroom has 12 children including Anya. How do they interact with each other?

They interacted very well during their play time and circle time. Rest of the time all the students are packed and was busy with their academic activities. Does the child have any particular playmates during this time?

She was interacting with most of the kids when she was inside the class. When she went outside and played she was arguing with one of her friends and she played most of the time with other. She preferred to play with one of the girls named Janisha when she was both inside and outside. Provide some examples of dialogue that occurs between children. Discuss what clues do you get about the child’s social-emotional development from listening to and observing the child’s interactions with their peers? Anya gets opportunities to play with other children of her age. She explores her world and gets to know the people in it. She learned generous and kind behaviors when interacting with other children of her age. Adult interaction: How did the teachers interact, intervene or guide the child you have chosen to observe as well as the other children present during your observation? During Phonics time the teacher pointed out Anya and she asked her a question. When Anya responded with the correct answer the teacher appreciated her and praised her. When Anya was distracted by another kid during circle time the teacher asked them to keep quiet and listen.They immediately obeyed. I think the children will learn from the school that activities and events can happen in an organized way. I think the teachers has created routines that are very predictable but flexible.

Section VI: Summary Looking at these criteria how well do you think the environment you observed helped children self explore and learn? Give examples of what you saw throughout the environment to support this.

I think the classroom environment is designed in such a way that the education has become almost inevitable. As we all know children always absorbs things. They think that all in the world about them that their eyes see and their ears hear. I think the classroom environment gave all the children the opportunity to observe, explore, participate and recreate experiences. It was spacious so that they can add, change or combine resources as they want. All the resources in the classroom were reachable for the children. The displays and the posters, photographs and interactive displays all looks like it will stimulate interest among the children. The classroom was sure the setting is clean, tidy and inviting Were there areas of the environment which were not designed for this type of learning, needed too much adult direction or were not appropriate for the children’s ages and stages of learning? I don’t think there are no such areas that were not appropriate for the children. A child gains a sense of self esteem when their environment reflects who they are, their accomplishments, their family, language and culture. Did you see evidence that this classroom reflected the individuals in the classroom, their families or their culture? Give examples of what you saw. The classroom has the best artwork display of each child and gives pride to all the children. The parents have been invited during all the special events and they can take a look around the class and they can see their children performing for the event and the special day. They have pictures of children involved in different activities which can be a great way to involve parents when they visit the classroom/school.I think the school has been conducting lots of outreach activities and they are regularly inviting parents to participate in school activities which will surely help the child gains a sense of self-esteem.

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