Preschool Observation
The preschool years are the prime age for children to develop their three areas of development: biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial. Ages 2 – 6 are considered the early childhood period, preschool period or as the book calls it the play years. During this age, children spend their time developing through experimenting, imagining, learning, and interacting with others.
For the purpose of this study, I observed preschool students ages 3 – 5, at the Travis Air Force Base Child Development Center. I was delighted to spend my Friday (02/26/2010) with the 24 students in Mrs. Kelli and Mrs. Jennica’s class, “Room 12,” as they called it. As I entered the room, I felt as if I were four years old again, in a magical play land of some sort. There were scattered conversations, laughter, cries, and every sort of noise you would find in a preschool classroom. The classroom was set up with many different activities and learning objectives throughout the room. There were different centers separated by many different learning objectives: science, manipulative (puzzles), reading, music, computer, art, sand, quiet, and many more. Along the wall, near the entrance, were cubbies each assigned to every student to store their belongings. The walls were fully decorated with previous art works that the students have completed and pictures of friends and families. The ceilings were filled with hanging mobiles and kites from corner to corner. To one corner of the room was the bathroom, which I found adorable little toilets and sinks; It was like a moment in a miniature world. There was also a kitchen filled different things for meals and snack times, as well as first aid kits for emergencies. Overall the classroom was geared towards learning and the development of the students, at the same time it provided them with fun and entertainment.
The Term Paper on Student Responses to Learning Styles
Method The study involved the use of quantitative data, which was got from questionnaire responses from all the participants into the study which represented the attitudes and perception on the different learning styles. The data, which was used in this study, is as a result of a survey on university students. The main purpose of this study is to be able to identify all the determining factors ...
I began my observations in a corner, out of the way of the students performing their various tasks. They began their day after breakfast around 8:45 am with dramatic play, in different block areas with different activities of their choice. I decided to observe three boys of ages three and four, in a building block area or a mock up of a construction area. There were many different size and shapes of wooden blocks, from squares and rectangles to cylinders and triangles. There were cute little construction helmets and a wide variety play tools for the student to pretend to be construction works. The three boys wore their yellow hard hats and goggles, each holding a hammer in one hand with a tool belt around their waist. Boy 1, the tallest of the three began by calling the other two, “Let’s go build a house.” He, as the oldest of the three, decides to take charge and the other two immediately complied with his orders as if they knew the rule of seniority in business or company. Boy 2, then exclaimed, “Look at me I am a worker,” as they begin stacking the blocks one after another.
Here we see the boys demonstrate the development of their gross and fine motor skills. As they use their arms and legs to move large wooden blocks from the shelf to their, by now, their rising sky scrapers. As Boy 2 & 3 move and stack the blocks, Boy 1 acts as the leader and directs the two to what to do. Boy 1 utilizes his fingers and fine motor skills to maneuver and align the blocks, ensuring that the blocks were straight and stable. Impressively, after about 10 minutes or so, the boys have created a skyscraper taller than they were.
Lastly in this area, I observed one of the “workers,” hurt himself by pinching his fingers in between two large wooden blocks. As this happened the boy externalized his problems, screaming and running to his teacher, Mrs. Jennica. As he cried and try to contain himself, he explained to her what had happened. With a puzzling look and trying to decipher what he had said, because his crying drowned out his words, she comforted him by telling him everything was going to be ok. As a child with static reasoning, he insisted that the pain could not be undone and continues to cry, but after a few moments he stops because his fingers felt better.
The Essay on Field Hockey Play Boys Team
While reading the article in the Sports Illustrated publication I assess the topic about men being able to play field hockey with other women. Many of the people that live in the western Massachusetts area oppose allowing men to play at the woman's level. I do agree in permitting men to play field hockey on a girl's high school team. I think that the boys that are talked about in the article are ...
The next area I observed was outdoors on the playground, luckily just before it started raining. There were about 26 students, from two different classrooms at this time of outdoor play. The outdoor play area was set up with a playground to the left, an artificial grass hill with two trees and a bike track surround it in the middle, and a picnic area with tables and a sand box. The outdoor play area was equipped with slides, jungle gym, rock climbing, various staircases, tricycles and many more activities.
Here I observed a group of about 7 boys play various games, from playing birds, ninja turtles, and soldiers. These boys demonstrates their highly developed gross motor skills through running, play fighting, and tactically hiding behind objects as they play. At this age, it seems as if the students have an endless source of energy, which allows them to aggressively play for a long period of time. Here I also noticed that these students experience preservation. Regardless of what game they played, they continued to run around the play area for the duration of the time.
The next group of students I observed on the playground was students who were less social and who isolated themselves from the rest. They played on their own and would not speak to any of the other students. What I noticed was that these students refused to speak to the others. They were also demonstrating private speech, where it seems as if they were having a full conversation with themselves. Both were discussing about what they were doing and what they going to do. Out of the two students, I observed that they were capable of speaking as well as the other students, but decides to keep to themselves. To understand this phenomenon, we would have to study more than what we see, but of more of their past, upbringing, and thought process.
The Term Paper on Play Area Critique
The area of the pre-school room that I have chosen to critically evaluate is the dress up area. Our pre-school consists of 20 children aged 3-4 years old spread over two sessions, and comprises both boys and girls. In our pre-school we have two polish children, one boy and one girl, who speak both English and Polish, one Chinese girl and one Zimbabwean boy. The rest of the children are Irish. Our ...
The last group of students I observed on the playground was two girls playing on the monkey bars. The monkey bars were about 5 feet off the ground, consisting of 14 handlebars arranged in a circle, with one starting point and ending at the same platform. To my amazement, these young students were able to complete the entire course, swinging limb to limb, without any assistance. What I found more interesting was that the girls exhibited intrinsic motivation, where their goals of completion rooted from the need to feel competent. After each girl completed the course, they would cheer for one another and also themselves. They feel proud and accomplished when the do so and would repeat this activity.
The last area I observed was the Art Center, where the students were instructed to trace an outline of each other’s body, as the teacher measured their height, and filled the outline with an image of themselves. The 24 students were paired up with a buddy and were given their materials for the project: crayons and a large sheet of paper taped to the wall.
At first, I didn’t think children of this age can able to create a full size picture of themselves with such accuracy and detail. With some crayons and their fine motor skills, they were able to trace their buddies to the smallest details. Beyond age two as the book stated, children begin to develop more precise fine motor skills, because they are able control and manipulate their hands and fingers. The students clearly demonstrated this new development by producing life like pictures of themselves, even at such a young age. After the completion of the drawings, I was completely impressed and amazed of the details that they were able to draw out.
One observation I’ve notice, about children during this age, even before the book introduced it to me was that most, if not all toddlers experience egocentrism. During this activity, the students had to wait for the teacher to measure them before they began their project so that she can keep their height for records. The teacher decided whom she wants to measure first, by their ability to be quiet and patient. She told them she would measure the one who is the most quiet. But most of the students were unable to be patient because they were eager to know their height. Some cried and some became boisterous as they waited and would also demand that they would be next. Through this activity and testing of their patience, I can agree that children do, “contemplate the world exclusively from their personal perspective.”
The Term Paper on Teacher And Child Student Difficulty Attention
Ideas for Attention Deficit Children Children whose attention seems to wander or who never seem to "be with" the rest of the class might be helped by the following suggestions. Pause and create suspense by looking around before asking questions. Randomly pick reciters so the children cannot time their attention. Signal that someone is going to have to answer a question about what is being said. ...
After being completing their outlines and drawings, the children were very proud of their piece of art. Regardless if it was beautiful or ugly, in their own mind it was the best one out of all the other drawings. They would show it off to everyone in the classroom and explained why theirs was so great. This is when I realized that; humans are born with pride and a positive self-concept, believing we are capable of everything. But because of different types of parenting, children retain or change this personality throughout their childhood.
Through this observation, I was able to see the theories that developmentalists have about children, come to life. It helped me have a better understanding of biosocial, cognitive and psychosocial development of children during their preschool age. I enjoyed watching the children learn and I in turn, learned how fascinating a child’s mind could be. I also discovered that I have a great interest of the development of children and may possibly pursue a deeper study in this field.