ECE 227 Observation Sheet Classroom: Toddlers Ages Observed: 1 to 2 years Observer: Sarah Flatten Date and Time:

: Oct. 8 @ 8:45 Context: Playtime

What is happening?There is soft childrens music playing in the background. A little girl with a green bow in her hair is sitting at the table with a boy in a blue shirt. The table is covered in a big sheet of paper and the children are drawing on it with markers. The boy gets up to play in a different area. The little girl keeps coloring. She seems very distracted by what is going on around her. She keeps looking around. A little girl across the room starts crying and the girl at the table with the green bow looks at her immediately. She then looks back to her marker. She begins coloring her finger nails with the marker. The little boy comes back and begins coloring. The girl looks at him for a long time. Then she goes back to coloring. She looks as a teacher talks to another little boy. The boy at the table keeps coloring and does not pay attention. The little girl with the green bow keeps watching other children. She begins to rub her eyes but stops as someone enters the room. The boy is still coloring. The girl goes back to coloring as well. They are mostly just scribbling. The boy is using many colors, but the girl has been using magenta the whole time. The boy gets up and goes to a different area. The girl puts the marker on the ground and sits on the edge of her chair. She moves to the floor. She gets back in her chair and turns to watch some children at the table next to her play with play dough. She keeps watching them. A

teacher begins talking to her asking if she wants to play. She says no. She gets distracted by a mirror on the wall. She is looking at herself. She lifts up her shirt and begins to roll it. Another little girl sees her but does not pay much attention as she is too busy playing with her play dough. The teacher soon tells her to keep her shirt down. She begins either picking or plugging her nose. She is still looking in the mirror and begins to put her hands up. Then she puts them down and looks around. She moves over to the play dough table again. She slowly sits down. The other little girl is still playing with the play dough across that table. Another little girl comes and sits next to the girl with green bow, and begins playing. The little girl with the green bow just watches her. Then she begins to play with the other two girls. The little girl across from her gets up to use the restroom. A little later the other little girl gets up and goes to the table with the markers. The little girl with the green bow is alone at the table with the play dough. She keeps looking up and looking around. She watches as a boy is playing in a tub of water. DialogueOne thing that stuck out to me while I was observing was that the girl that I followed the most, the one with the green bow, did not do a lot of verbal communicating. She mostly just watched other children. Many of the other children were talking and were also communicating non-verbally. Areas of Development NotedDuring this period I noted that the children all seemed to be moving about easily. One thing I did notice when it came to motor development was that they often dropped things or did not hold things with a firm grasp. Many of the children held the markers with their whole hand.

Their language seemed well developed. Some had trouble with some of their words but overall they could all speak fairly well, for toddlers. All the children were playing and you could see that cognition came into play with this. You could see it in what they were making with the play dough, drawing with the markers, and one thing I noticed was with the boy who was playing in the water. He was driving boats around. He was mimicking how real boats act. The toys the children played with ranged in shapes, textures, colors, and many other sensory types. I saw emotional development in the way the children interacted. The one little girl expressed herself by crying. Other children knew to ask when they needed things. One thing that surprised me was that I did not see a lot of fighting that you often see with children this age. All the children seemed to be able to interact just fine socially. One thing I noticed with this age group was that they seemed to be fine working alone or in pairs. The little girl I watched most seemed to not care whether she was interacting with the other children. She seemed to rather watch them. Summary of Age GroupThis age group was right at the time when their brain would have a spurt in EEG activity. This means that it is a crucial time for their cognitive and language development. They are also going to have an increase in conceptual knowledge. This means that it is important to keep an eye on the children and make sure they are developing correctly in this way. This can also mean that teachers need to make sure they are providing the correct stimuli for the children. What do you want to know more about?-

I want to know how to plan a curriculum for children this age. I would also want to know how to enforce the curriculum. With this age of children, do you make them sit and listen? If you are doing an interactive game or song do you make them listen and participate or do you let them join if they want to? Next Steps in DevelopmentAs these children get older their brains are going to go through huge anatomical changes. These changes occur from about 3 to 15. Also their frontal lobe is not completely developed. The most rapid growth of the frontal lobe takes place from 3 to 6 years of age. This means that as it is very important to be teaching 11/2 to 2 year olds things that will aid in their cognitive development it will be just as important if not more important in the next few years. In the next few years these children may need more time to play in bigger areas where they can work on their motor skills. In the next few years they will be able to jump and skip around with better balance. In the next year these children may also need smaller objects to play with. Right now they may put still be putting things in their mouths. They also do not have the fine motor skills to be handling small objects, but soon these motor skills will get better and they will need objects that will increase these skills.

ECE 227 Observation Sheet Classroom: Preschoolers Ages Observed: 3-4

Observer: Sarah Flatten Date and Time: November 17, 2008 @ 9:00-9:30 Context: morning routine and stations

What is happening?The kids are just coming in from recess. One boy starts to put on animal masks. The children slowly get all their stuff off and wash up. They are told to all sit in the middle of the room on the carpet. They are quietly talking amongst themselves. The teacher tells them good morning and she goes through the helper chart. The kids sit quietly and read the names. Then they do the calendar. They count the days that they have been in school. Then the children all say the day, the month, and the year together with the teacher. They do the weather also. The kids begin to quietly talk and interact with one another. The teachers ask for the fish helper and the plant helper to pick a teacher and go do their specified activity. The fish helper feeds the fish and the plant helper waters the plants. Then the helpers come back to the circle. The children do a game called willaby wallaby. After they do this game they sing twinkle twinkle little star. One child does not seem pleased with this song and says what the heck? After the children go through the morning routine, they split into stations. They work in the gym area and other areas inside the classroom. One group works in a booth called the light n shadow room. It is a dark room where they can choose to add light. They are given glow in the dark dough before they enter. Dialogue-

These children could speak well. They were able to communicate their needs to teacher clearly, and they could also easily interact with each other. They did, however, have trouble speaking out of turn. As for the teachers, they talked to the students with respect and as adults. Areas of Development NotedThese children had much greater balance than the toddlers. They were up and moving around easily. They also could jump or hop around. Their language was clear and concise for the most part. These children were also much more advanced in their cognitive development. They could sit still, listen to the teacher, and respond to any questions. They could also easily follow directions. They also did well counting, up to about 36. These children are at the stage where their brains are going through huge anatomical changes. These changes occur from about 3 to 15. I also noticed that the areas that the children we in we more open. Perhaps, this was to give them space to work on motor skills. The only good example I have of observing emotional development, would probably be when a child was asked to stop something or to pay attention or something of that sort. The children could handle this well. They did not wine or through a fit when asked they just went and did it. Even when a child did not listen, they did not cry or through a fit. I think that as they are getting older they are more able to control their emotions. As for social development, I think that they could easily interact with one another. They also were split into groups with each other and had to get along in these groups. Summary of Age Group-

This age group was at an age where it is important to make sure they are growing vastly in their development. They are learning cognitively that about objects shapes and what changes them. They are also at a stage where they are going to be using speech as a way to communicate as well as way to solve tasks. Their long term memory is also becoming more advanced. They were also learning how to sound out words and rhyme. What do you want to know more about?I think with this stage you will notice more problematic children or ones with behavioral problems. I would want to know how to handle these children without holding them or the other children back. Next Steps in DevelopmentAlso their frontal lobe is not completely developed. The most rapid growth of the frontal lobe takes place from 3 to 6 years of age. This means that this age is crucial in cognitive development. It is important to monitor the children when they work and play and make sure they are developing accordingly. Their motor skills are also getting better and better. They have more balance than a toddler, but it still needs some polishing. They will also be expanding on their vocabulary and language skills. ECE 227 Observation Sheet Classroom: Kindergarten Ages Observed: 5-6 Observer: Sarah Flatten Date and Time: December 2, 2008 @ 9:15-9:40

Context: morning routine and stations

What is happening? The children are working in stations. One station is for children to work on playing cards. Another station is for snack. Another is for word sounds, and the last one is a craft. The children playing cards seem to be playing war. The children doing a craft are making something by folding paper like an accordion. The children working with word sounds are showing the teacher how many sounds they hear in a word when she says it, and the children at the snack station are eating and drinking. At the snack station there are two girls and one boy. One of the girls is constantly in the face of the other girl. She is telling the other girl that she is a zombie, hugging her, and squeezing her cheeks. The other girl does not seem to mind at all. She just goes back to eating her food and drinking her water. DialogueThe children seem to have little trouble with words. Their vocabulary is very increased from the preschoolers. They are speaking in full sentences and they speak more clearly.

Areas of Development NotedThese children have little to know problems with balance. They were up and moving around easily. They also could jump or hop around. Their language was clear and concise. One thing I did notice was the size difference among the children. In preschool, they were all about the same size, but in this class there were children of different sizes.

They also, were self-aware and seemed to have complete hand eye coordination. They seemed to bounce around more than preschoolers. They were out of their seats more and I could notice that they were more adventurous. They are also doing a lot more on their own.

I also noticed that the girl that was pestering the other girl may have just been doing so to see how much the other girl could take. They both are starting to become more familiar with their own morality.

Summary of Age GroupThis age group was a fun one to watch, because they were more like little people than the preschoolers or toddlers. The preschoolers and toddlers seemed to still be trying to figure things out, but the kindergarteners acted as though they had it all figured out and were ready to test their abilities. What do you want to know more about?This age group is starting to get more curious. They think they know a lot and are a little more outgoing than when they were younger. How can a teacher enable this curiosity to be explored, but still have guidelines and boundaries? Next Steps in DevelopmentAlso their frontal lobe is almost completely developed. The most rapid growth of the frontal lobe takes place from 3 to 6 years of age. They are also learning more and more about their own and others emotions. They are beginning to understanding rules and justice and will soon show stages of moral reasoning.