Observation Toddler

CD 10G Observation 1: Toddler

Yu Shen

1. The Setting

Name: Yu Shen

Date: February 2, 2017

Time Start: 10:30 AM

Time Finished: 11:30 AM

Name of child observed: Ben (Boy)

Age of child observed: Toddler/ 2 Years to 3 Years

Location of observation: De Anza Child Development Center, Room 15

The interior of Room 15 is a bright and spacious environment. The room is divided into five separate areas, including free play area, little kitchen, dining area, circle time area and reading area. To the left of the room as I enter is the free play area, and there are some low stools for children to sit and play. To the right of the room as I enter is a little kitchen, and a teacher is preparing some snacks there. There are three dining tables near the little kitchen, and low stools are around the tables. Circle time area is on the opposite side of dining area, and the carpet of circle time area is colorful and large. Reading area is under the windows. There are a book shelf and a sofa in the reading area. When I enter the room, there are eleven children present at the time of the observation – five girls and six boys. They range from two to three years of age. There are three teachers and two volunteers present at the time of the observation. There is one teacher for every four children.

1. The Running Observation

The boy who I observe is Ben, wearing stripy clothes, a pair of galoshes. Before morning circle time, Ben is sitting beside another boy. The two boys are looking at the same book and whispering to each other.

Around 10:35, morning circle time begins. The teacher says morning to each student one by one. She says, “Hello to Ben, so glad to see you.” Then Ben waves hand to the teacher and says hello. Then the teacher says hello in Mandarin (“Ni Hao”) to Ben, and likewise Ben answers the teacher by using Mandarin (“Ni Hao”). The teacher asks the students about their daily morning schedule, including brushing teeth, washing face, washing hands, putting on clothes, eating breakfast and drinking milk. The teacher asks Ben, “Did you go to the potty today?” Ben answers Yes and the teacher thumbs up to him. Then one student comes into the classroom with his mother, and Ben looks in the direction of the door immediately.

The teacher asks the students to stand up and do some movements with the music. The dancing time opens with a song, The Itsy Itsy-Bitsy Spider, “The itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out. Out came the sun and dried up all the rain. And the itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the spout again.” The teacher encourages the children to song along and to perform hand gestures with the music. Ben looks at the teacher carefully, observes teacher’s hand gestures. At the first time, Ben does not follow along. Then the teacher begins to do spider activity again. At the second time, Ben starts to follow some of the hand gestures.

The second song is Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes. The teacher asks the children to point out the corresponding body parts. The teacher sings the song slowly at the first time. Ben points out head, shoulder, knees and toes correctly. Then the teacher sings the song faster, and Ben keeps up with the rhythm.

At one point as the teacher is transitioning into the story time and asks all the students to sit down on the carpet, Ben walks to the teacher and sits near teacher’s low stool. The teacher says, “Ben, if you want to see story, sit there.” Ben stands up and goes back to the original seat. Then the teacher begins to read the story about a hen. Ben concentrates on the story for about two minutes and then distracts to play with the carpet. The teacher asks the children a question, “Will you share bread with friends if they don’t help you.” When Ben hears the question, he pays attention to teacher again and answers Yes. Then the teacher asks another question, “Will you clean up the toys even if you did not play with them?” Ben answers Yes with all the students.

The next activity is another song, where all the children are asked to stand. To the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat, they sing a song with hand gestures called Roll, Roll, Roll Your Hands. Ben dances, claps and smiles to the boy next to him.

The closing songs are called the More We Get Together, which utilized modified sign language. Ben tries to follow hand gestures, but he is not able to complete all the sign languages.

Then around eleven o’clock, it is time to go outside to yard. The teacher sings a song to all the children, “I like Ben, and there is no doubt about it. Ben, go please find your jacket.” After teacher singing this song, Ben stands up and goes to the clothes hook beside the door. Ben takes off his jacket and passes it to the teacher. There are eleven children around the teacher, so the teacher helps them to put on the jacket one by one. After all the children put on their jackets, they wait next to the door. It is rainy outside and Ben begins to sing a song happily, “Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day.” Ben goes outside, then sits on the stone stool beside the door and keeps singing, “Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day.”

Ben holds hands with another boy and walks to the big playground. There is a small pool, a set of slides, several tricycles in this big playground. Because of the rainy weather, the teachers begin to fold some paper boats for the children so that they can put the paper boats in the small pool. Every child is waiting for the teacher’s paper boats. At this time, Ben sees a tricycle on the other side of the playground. He tries to sit on the tricycle. After trying several times, a teacher comes and helps him to sit on the tricycle. Ben rides the bicycle around the playground alone. Then he finds that the teacher catches earthworm and six children are around the teacher. Ben takes off the tricycle immediately and runs to the teacher. He crowds into the crowd. The teacher asks, “Who wants to touch the worm?” All the children laugh and a boy stands out to touch the worm first. Ben looks at him touching the worm carefully. Then it is Ben’s turn to touch the worm. He touches the worm gently and cheers yeah.

Ben notices that a boy is walking along the footstep and is trying to keep balance of the body, which attracts Ben’s attention. He goes to the footstep and tries to stand on it carefully. At the first time, he fails and then he holds the tree to keep balance, and at this time he successfully stands on the footstep. Ben stares at his feet and takes his first step slowly. After several steps, he fell down into the grass. A teacher is running toward him and helps Ben to stand up. The teacher finds that Ben’s elbow is a little bleeding. Ben follows the teacher to clean his bleeding elbow with water and pastes a piece of Band-aid on it.