Early Childhood Observation

On May 2, 2018, I went to the Williams College Children’s Center to observe a group of children and see how signs of development show up in everyday life. According to the website, the Center serves a wide age range of children, going from six weeks to preschool, while also caring for elementary-aged children with after-school care. However, the group I observed when going to the Center were the preschool children that were roughly 3 to 4 years old. Arriving at 10 AM, the group started the session with show and tell, before moving on to play outside. Within the hour, there were many examples of physical/motor, perceptual, cognitive, language, and emotional/social development from the children that was very appropriate to see within their particular age range.

For my child observation, I went to the Pearl Street Head Start center in Glens Falls. During the four hours that I spent there I focused mainly on the observation of a four year old female that for the sake of privacy I’ll call Sarah. Based on my observation and conversations with the teacher we came to an agreement that Sarah falls more on the low end of the spectrum as she fits more into the requirements for a three to four year old rather than those for the four to five year old age range. That being said, Sarah is relatively on target for a girl of her age in all areas.

She tells her teacher, “Here teacher, help me put it on.” The teacher gives the coat back and tells Rosa to try by herself. Rosa says, “I can’t.” The teacher shows Rosa how she would put her coat on. Rosa then looks for the first arm to put in and puts the coat on the back. She finally then puts both arms in and says, “Look teacher, I did it by myself.” After Rosa put on her coat she runs outside with a smile on her face to play with her friends.

For this research project, I chose to interview my very own daughter (Alaina). She is a 7-year-old first grader who lives with her mother full-time. She has one older sister who lives in another state. Alaina is an active and inquisitive young lady. She attends year-round schooling and in her free time, she participates in Tae Kwon Do and basketball.

Since my observation took the course of three days I have several findings. So day one’s observation begin with Regina and Gabriella who appear to be accompanying Annabel to what appears to be a building of great interest. While the exterior looked plain the inside does not the walls are lined with these brilliant garments the walls are also adorned with several looking glass. When they enter Annabel begins communicating with another human who then leaves and the three appear to sit on these rectangular prisms. The human from earlier comes back and she is followed by four other humans who each appear to be bringing a square on wheels and in these squares each appear to be carrying five brilliant garments. When I first entered the building there

The early childhood site I observed at is Associated Students Inc Children’s Center. It is a site catered to preschool children. It is located in the city of Sacramento, the capital city of the United States and state of California. This particular community that surrounds the site is a suburban area. It is a culturally diverse area with ethnicity ranging from Caucasian, Latino, Asian American, African American, Pacific Islander and other multiracial ethnicities.

According to Teaching for Equity and Justice, participatory/experimental means to give children a chance to do hands on activities, which allows them to actually get involved with something rather that telling them information and giving them a test. At the early childhood center, I saw many of the kids showing intelligence through this. When I first walked in the teacher was reading a story to her students and asking them questions to seek participation from her students. Later, I observed children who were painting with popsicle sticks. In this room some kids didn’t want to paint so to get them involved the teachers played music with them. After observing the classrooms, I watched Claire's Classroom. In this video a speaker was informing

My observation was at Lincoln Elementary School, located at 221 Cross Street, Harrison, New Jersey. I observed an atypical child in the Kindergarten Inclusion Classroom, in which had a teacher aide Collen Sawyer, a general teacher, and a teacher aide assistant. The classroom has seven students with special needs participating in a Least Restrictive Environment with 14 students without disabilities. The classroom was ample with reading area, dramatic area, science area, manipulative area, writing and art area, and the area with a border and projector for the teacher interact with the whole-group, it also had a bathroom inside the classroom, which the teachers could keep eye on them.

I have chosen to observe the second video of preschoolers participating in free-play. In the video the toddlers are gathered in the classroom taking part in different activities. The room is a large open concept room with a variety of sections that enable the children’s play.

I did my observation of a Kindergarten Teacher at Meadow View Elementary, on Wednesday the 8th. I had the pleasure of observing Mrs.T she has been teaching for 15 years. Mrs. T is how I am going to refer to her in this paper. Mrs. T has been teaching kindergarten for 10 years and taught first grade for 5 years. The students in her classroom are in the range of being high to low with their reading level. Mrs. T graduated from the UNCW with her B.A and earned her Masters at ECU. The activity that the children were doing was reviewing sight words and letter sounds. I was amazed at the children on how they were sitting and very much engaged in the lesson.

While having breakfast at a local coffee show, I was presented with the opportunity to casually observe a child somewhere between 5 and 6 months. Bailey is a very happy, active, babbling little girl. She was sitting at a table with her mother, and another woman similar in age to mom. I am not sure if this was a relative or a family friend. Bailey was “propped up” on the bench next to mom using a pillow (I think they are called “boppy” pillows) and had two or three brightly colored fabric animal toys. I was sitting three tables away from them, but there were four other people at the tables around the baby and her family.

I enjoyed reading your post and looking at your observation chart. What age is the boy that you are observing? The only reason that I am asking is because he sounds like the boy that I am observing. Although mine does not scream, but he hits, kicks, throws things, and raises his voice. The first time I was in there I was shocked. I am around young children all of the time, but I am not used to this type of behavior.

I have a eight year old son,when he was younger we would always go to the playground. He started interacting with other children around one in a half to two years old, but he would only interact with other boys never little girls. I thought this was normal ( girls have cooties stage). When my daughter was born she would play with who ever, it did not matter if they were male or female. As I got to looking around the playground kids were playing with whomever, I do not believe there was a preference. My early observation was incorrect it was just my son who preferred to play with the same gender. I did not take in consideration all the other kids playing I was just coming to the conclusion based one my own child.

On 01-02-2016 at 1625 hours I was dispatched to 333 south Westwood Boulevard in reference to shoplifting.

During an observation, the educator’s perceptions, observation skills, responsiveness to the children and the views of children are important aspects because they influence the information you observed whether it is valuable for recording. The learning experience I did with the children displayed those aspects and my experiences and interactions during the learning experience have showed responsiveness to children.