EDUC413 Dr. Brouse Observation Template Your Name: Molly Larsen Teachers Present Ms. Lynn Observation Date Observation Time Location Focus 830am 11am Madison Toddler Briefly describe what is going on in the classroom and any changes in the environment that you notice: Walking into the classroom, to the immediate left there is a computer where parents sign their children in and out. There is also a variety of other information for staff and parents. Above the computer is a bulletin board with more information, more for the parents. Continuing to the left there is a doorway that leads into a small hallway. In the hallway there are cubbies for the children on both the right and left side. There are also spaces below their cubbies for jackets and other larger items. If you continued going straight through the hallway it would lead into the preschool room. Back inside the classroom, and along the left wall there are cupboards at knee level and also at head level. Inside these cupboards is where most of the snacks and extra supplies for food are kept. On the outside of the cupboards there is colorful construction paper. On that construction paper are posters of how to help keep healthy. The posters have written words and also pictures that correlate with the writing. On the other side of the cupboards if you go through the doorway is the hallway where the cubbies are. On this end of the hallway there are 2 bathroom stalls. There is also one sink for the children to use after using the restroom and before eating. There is also a changing table to the left. Walking out of the bathroom and to the left is the sink used to prepare food for the children. There is also a countertop, which continues to the left corner of the room. Along the back wall there is 2 large windows that look out to the small playground. Straight through the doorway to the back of the room, by the wall with the windows, there are two tables, spaced about three feet from each other. Each table seats 6 8 children along with one staff member. At the end of the table, to the right side, there is a small table used for sensory work. Off of the sensory table there is a door that leads outside to the small playground, the same one mentioned earlier. The door is located on the back wall in the right corner of the room. Along the ride wall of the classroom there is a long white board that stretches the whole length. Above the whiteboard are little posters, all displaying a different month of the year. In the middle of the wall there are cots lines parallel with the back wall. There are eight small cots and seven larger cots. On the backside of the cots is a wooden piano. Toward the right front corner of the right wall continues the whiteboard. On this section of the wall there are different shapes in different colors pasted on the whiteboard. This is also the teachers corner where there is a rocking chair and some area on the floor for the students to sit and listen.
Turning and looking at the front wall of the room is another whiteboard that stretches the whole length from the corner till the door. On the whiteboard there is a story board of Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See. There is the sequential animals in the coordinating color from the book and moves from the left side of the whiteboard to the right. Above the whiteboard are more months of the year. Written on the months are the names of the staff and children with their birth dates. The area from the right of the doorway to the teacher s corner is the play area for the children. To the right when you walk in the doorway there is a climbing structure that the children can use to develop their gross motor skills. There are stairs to get to the top and a slide to use to come down. Between the play area and the two tables mentioned earlier there is a play kitchen set and a shelf full of toys. Along the front wall there is a bookshelf with books. To the right of the book shelf there is yet another shelf with more toys and to the left of the book shelf there is a shelf with blocks. Physical Development: Garrett is a boy about two years of age that is in Miss Lynn s toddler room at Madison Elementary. He has blonde hair and blue eyes. On Thursday, October 1 st he was wearing plaid shorts and a blue long sleeve shirt. Garrett is about 32 inches tall and weighs an estimated 25 pounds. Garrett was using many fine and gross motor skills when I was observing. First, all of the children went to the gym to work off some energy and use their gross motor skills. Garrett jumped onto a tricycle right away and was zooming around the gym. He was able to move the bike quickly by peddling. He looked out in front of him to make sure not to hit other children, and would steer a different direction to avoid others. After Garrett was done with the tricycle he went on to play with balloons. He would hit the balloon up in the air with one hand and catch it on its way back down with both hands. He was constantly running and jumping all over the gym. Garrett would also get down on the gym floor and roll around or crawl through a pop up tunnel. While back in the classroom he would climb the stairs quickly and go down the slide. He went up and down the climber using the stairs and slide repetitively for about five minutes. During center activities Garrett s fine motor skills were easy to witness. Garrett was first working on a puzzle. It was a simple board puzzle with pieces cut out individually and a small peg on the puzzle piece. Garrett would hold the board with one hand, to anchor it on the table, and would hold a puzzle piece by the knob with his other hand. He was easily able to complete the puzzle by himself and needed no help from anyone. Garrett appeared to become frustrated when another child went up next to him and tried to help him. Later Garrett played in the sensory table, which was filled with water. He was able to pour the water from one cup to another without spilling too much of the water. He seemed to enjoy grabbing the different whales and sharks and making them swim through the water. There were
also rubber animals that if squeezed would re inflate under the water and water would go into the animal. Then when it s squeezed it empties, water will come out. Garrett seemed to enjoy watching the water fly out of the animals and was constantly squeezing them. The last center that Garrett spent some time at was with the playdough. Lynn had not had any experience with the children using scissors so she thought playdough would be a good starter for them. Garrett didn t seem to know what to do with the scissors at first. He put his playdough on the table and then started to poke at the playdough with his scissors. Lynn showed him to roll the playdough into a log like structure and to hold the playdough in one hand and cut with the other hand. When Garrett got the scissors he began cutting the log but wouldn t hold it in his hand, instead it was still resting on the table. As he was continuing to cut he began to hold the playdough in his hand and seem to become more comfortable with using the scissors. Cognitive Development: Garrett does a lot of observing in the classroom. Often times when a new activity is presented Garrett will watch the other children interact with the activity or toy and then make his own move. Sometimes he will join in with the other children and sometimes he will go off and play with a different object. When he appears to be observing he is often times using his sense of sight and also sometimes his sense of hearing. He will sometimes be across the room just watching what others are doing. If Garrett does decide to join in on the new activity it is done more quietly and passively. During observations there was bubble wrap in the sensory table. Many of the children took out the bubble wrap and popped them with their hands. While the children were doing this Garrett was on the other side of the room looking at a book. When he heard the popping he immediately looked up and started to watch the children. At that point the bubble wrap was on the floor and the children where jumping on it. Garrett continued to watch. After many of the children left to do another activity, Garrett got up and walked over to the bubble wrap. He started to pop a few of them slowly with his hands. Then he put it on the floor and started jumping on it like the other children had been doing earlier. Garrett is not the type to jump right into new events or learning activities. He often times, like stated previously, wants to be observe and watch the other children before he starts. It also seems that he often needs time to transition. He responds much better to learning activities when he is told that in a certain amount of time before he is going to start a new task. Garrett also seems to do better when Bryce works with him. If Bryce is by his side he appears to be happier, he often times is smiling more and interacts better with the teacher and other children. If Bryce had been there and leaves it causes Garrett to appear frustrated and he quickly loses interest. However, if you are able to get Garrett going on something individually he will stay for a decent amount of time.
Carrie s Feedback: Social/Emotional Development: Garrett could easily be looked over in a classroom full of toddlers. Since this room has a smaller number of children he does stand out more. He would possibly be categorized by many as a difficult child. He does have his times were he stands out and needs more attention for one thing or another. Garrett for the most part prefers to play alone or with a staff member. He appears to be more comfortable when he is not around a large group of other children. However, he does have one friend in class, another little boy Bryce, who he seems to feel comfortable with. He also seems to prefer one adult to another depending on the day. When at Practicum I have seen him attach to Lynn a couple of times, the student worker a couple of times and occasionally he will attach to me. Each day is different and at this time there seems to be no pattern. During play, Garrett will for the most part play alone. There may be other kids next to him playing with the same objects but Garrett will not interact much with them. This is also known as parallel play. At some moments he will play with others, but for the majority of his play time he would be classified as playing parallel. When we were in the gym Garrett was playing with a set of bowling pins and a bowling ball. He would set up the pins on his own and roll the ball down trying to knock over all the pins. The pins are made of a soft material and are hard to stand up. While Garrett was setting up the pins he would have a very concentrated look on his face. If a pin fell over and knocked down one or two other pins he would get upset and scowl. Over the course of the day and watching his facial expressions I would say that he has more of a serious look than a carefree look. He always has a face on that appears he is thinking about something or trying to figure out how something works. Garrett s reactions to touch vary a lot depending on who it is that is touching him and for what reason. When it is his turn to use the bathroom he refuses and has to be carried over. During this time he will kick and struggle trying to get away. Other times however, he will want to sit on your lap or hold your hand while standing in the classroom. Garrett and I were playing with building blocks and building tall towers for him to knock over. He seemed enjoyed this a lot and we repeated building towers and kicking them over multiple times. At one point he got excited and jumped into my lap. I started to tickle him and he laughed away! He was laughing and refused to get up out of my lap for the longest time. At that point he seemed completely comfortable. Garrett has a wide range of emotions while at school. We were lining up in the gym getting ready to go back to the classroom. He came running up to get in line racing another little boy, both with smiles on their faces. Right when they got to where we were lining up he tripped over another little girl s foot. He immediately tried to hit the little girl. To help him, Lynn got down to his level and repeated with
words saying what happened. She was retelling the story of what just happened and said to Garrett that it was an accident but it still made him angry. After telling the situation Garrett he appeared to calm down. Creative Development: Garrett seemed to really enjoy playing doctor. He had a blanket laid on the floor that he instructed others to lay on. He also had a pillow set up for the patients to lay their heads. He used all pieces found in the doctor kit including a stethoscope, medication bottles, shots, band aids, and a thermometer. He played doctor for about ten minutes and saw many patients. When recruiting children to be the patient Garrett would often times take a friends hand and lead them over or other children would voluntarily come over and lay down on the bed that he had made. He also built a tower using wooden blocks with Bryce. They would pretend to drive their cars around the tower. Both boys then knocked it down. Bryce left but Garrett stayed in the block area. He made a long row of blocks to make a road. He then would drive his cars up and down the road and make the noises associated with cars. In the gym Garrett runs everywhere. He interacts with a little boy in preschool class and is often chased by him and then he will chase him. While in the classroom he is more calm unless he is being chased by Bryce. At that point he gets up and runs with him. At one point Lynn turned on music for the kids to dance to. She brought out Easter eggs filled with some kind of small seeds (popcorn, rice, etc). The children used these as shakers while they danced around the classroom. At first Garrett sat and observed what the other children where doing. After a little while he joined in but still did not move much. The most movement seemed to be when Garrett would throw his egg and then chase after it. Language Development: Garrett does not speak a lot during the time that I am observing. He often times does not start conversation with other children or adults. When you hear him talk it is generally him coping another child. He often times repeats other words that he hears throughout the classroom. He does not use full sentences, so grammar is not noticeable. When I was building a tower with him he would often times grunt or make physical gestures. I would suggest words that he could use like open, eyes, help, no, cars, and tower. After hearing those words he would use them once or twice but not any other time later in the time I was there. Garrett wanted all the blocks lined up in a straight line. He would hand me a piece and grunt at me. I would reply with, Do you want help? He would nod his head yes so I asked him, Can you say help? Garrett would then reply and say help but the next time again he would grunt. We did this same pattern until we finished building our road for the cars to drive on.
The only other child Garrett seems to talk to is Bryce. Even then Garrett is playing with him, following or leading play, but not using much conversation. He will use one or two words but will most often listen to Bryce and follow his lead. Garrett seems to listen and hear what other people are saying to him but frequently he does not follow through. He will turn his head a listen to what is being said to him but will disregard what he is being told to do. For example, Kelsey called for Garrett from across the room. When she said his name he turned to look at her. Kelsey proceeded to tell him that it was his turn to use the bathroom. At that point he turned and went the other way. Later on in the morning Lynn was telling Garrett that he needed to blow his nose. He turned to look at her when she was talking but once again turned and went the other way. At one point Garrett was sitting in the rocking chair listening to the music being produced by the cd player. It is a cd that the kids have heard several times. Garrett sat there and seemed to be trying to sing along. You could see his lips moving along with the beat and words but I couldn t hear any words coming out. Carrie s Feedback: Observation Score: /10