I arrived at the Early Learning Center on White Ave on Friday April 1 st, around 9am to begin my observation of the

children at the center . As I set up my computer to start taking notes, the children are in the room playing with toys in different areas of the room . There are some children still being dropped off by their parents and joining the other children in the room . At first there were nine children with three familial teachers but now there are thirteen . It was clear that in the early morning the children are still waking up, a little groggy and are all relatively quiet. As the teachers start gathering all the children into the corner to talk about the art activity for the day, the children quietly clean up their current activity and go to the carpeted area. (The focal child that I chose came into the classroom shortly after the teacher started her explanation of the art project.) As I watch the children play, usually in pairs, I notice the focal child playing with an electric piano toy alone. His concentration on the music leads me to my decision of choosing him as the focal child. He is thin, taller than the other boys, with blonde hair and had a large blue sweatshirt on. He was born on October 1, 2005 and is 5.5 years old. He plays the keys in a tune only known to him while pushing other buttons to add drums sounds and a metronome noise that keeps the beat for his original song. The classroom itself is set up into different sections throughout the room . Each section offering different toys and specific play areas for the children to enjoy . There is a couch area has a small table and chairs, as well as a sink and microwave, almost like its a living room and kitchen. There is an art area with a large square table with many small chairs surrounding the table. In the center of the room, there is a semi-circular table with an indent in the middle,

possibly for the teacher to have easy access to each child sitting at the table . There is a two-story play area with an elevated area with stairs to get to the top and a lit space underneath . It almost resembles a two-story house to play in with a couch on the bottom story and it looks like a kitchen on the top, although Im no positive about the top story . In the far right corner of the room there is a carpeted building block area with many blocks in different sizes and colors . There is another kitchen like area with what looks like a stove/ oven and microwave, as well as a sink and small table and chairs in the middle . From where I sit, I cannot see where the toys are stored for these specific sections but Im sure they are close by . From my observation, the room is set up perfectly to encourage the children to engage in play. According to Santrock, 2011, Play is essential to the young childs health. The different areas give opportunity to participate in Pretense/Symbolic Play (the building blocks area), Social Play, Constructive Play, and Games (Santrock, 2011, p. 340-342). After the children are all gathered to the carpeted block area, the teachers start to discuss the previous art projects that they have worked on in the past . They discuss the textures of the materials used as well as specific types of materials including foam and vegetables . Some of the children speak up and talk about their experiences with the art projects . One response from a little girl is, I like the stamps, we made from .. um.. foam.. it was cool! As she talks about the project, her hands move in a way to mime out how she used the stamps onto paper to transfer the picture. After the children talk for a little bit about the earlier art projects, the teacher then starts to discuss the art project for the day. It will be another form of stamp art and a different material will be used as the stamp.

The children are divided up into 2 groups, one of the groups will start their art projects and once they are finished the next group will get to participate in the art project . The first group of children is sat down around the semi-circular table while the teacher starts to hand out supplies. A third teacher joins the art group to help with the art project and sits down at the end of the table. The art teacher starts to explain how they will make the stamps first, and then paint them before pressing another sheet of paper on them . The children in the art project area start to draw out pictures on the stencils . One child at the table looks closely at the paper and draws very slowly. Another child draws fast and starts to put many dots on the paper forcefully with his pencil. The teacher spreads out paint and demonstrates how to use the paint roller over the pictures. The two children who finish drawing begin to roll the paint over their pictures . The teacher helps a boy to roll out since he is having a little trouble with the painting process . On the other end of the art table, a girl doesnt work on her own picture and observes the other children making their stencils. After about a minute of watching the boy next to her paint his stencil she starts to work on her own. After she paints it, she again starts to watch the others and sit pretty still on her stool. While the first group of children is working on their art projects, the other group of children either read a book with a teacher on the carpet or starts to play with blocks . (This is when the focal child that I chose went to the piano and started playing on his own .) The children in the book group are asked to decide what book they want the teacher to read . As the teacher asks the smaller group of children to choose a book, I think to myself, Oh this will be very interesting . However, the decision is made with ease as a girl pulls a book from the shelf and the 2 other

children voice their agreement with the book decision with collective yeas! The teacher reads the book to the 3 children with lots of enthusiasm and makes different voices for each character in the story. All of a sudden, a boy gets up from the book group and trips on something that I am unable to see, falls down to the ground with a big commotion of sound coming from whatever the boy tripped on. The teachers all rush over very quickly and ask if hes ok. Although I cannot see him at this point, I can tell that he is not making a noise and a teacher helps him up . Im ok, is the boys response as he is helped up and quietly walks off while rubbing the spot that he fell on, his behind. He joins the art table as the other children are now printing their stencils onto different colored construction paper. Three children who are finished leave their completed art projects on the table and join the book group or start to play with toys in a small sandbox in the far left corner. At 9:34 I start to watch Nicholas, the focal child, still playing the toy piano by himself . He plays the piano for about five minutes and is very focused on the activity . He abruptly stops and starts to wander around the room. For most of the focal child observation, Nicolas roams around the room by himself mostly observing the other children at play, listening to the book being read and children working on their stencil art project. He walks to the area where the book is being read and listens for about 30 seconds then continues on to another section of the room. He walks to the center of the room where the art table is and starts to observe the children working on the art project. He stands near the table and quietly watches a boy carefully painting the stencil then pressing it to another piece of paper. He walks over to the small sandbox and watches 2 boys playing with toys making some sort of structure out of the sand . His expression remains the same

for the entire time of roaming and observing. Soon after, he starts to roam the room while stopping again at the art table and watches the two remaining children working on their art . The teacher asks Nicolas if he wants to make his stencil but he shakes his head quietly, again with a non- interpretable expression and walks to a different area.

Running Log

9:47am

o Nicholas starts coughing while walking over to the music section again o Starts to play the piano again (standing up) quickly pressing keys with just index fingers o Teacher says thank you for having volume on low o He nods head in response and says nothing. but then abruptly stops playing. o Walks back over to to art section while watching his feet with each step. o Follows the other children at the sand box. Watches the teacher directing the other child how to clean up the sandbox after he has used it. Standing straight up o He grabs for a toy in the box but another boy takes it from him. o He leaves room (to go to the bathroom?) o Comes back into the room and walks back over to the sand box. o Yawns and slowly starts to watch the other children playing with a teacher on the carpet. He follows others children out of the room. o Comes back into the room and is asked if he has done the art activity. o Shakes his head I dont want to as he lays down backwards on the couch while the teacher explains that hell be the only one who has done the activity. o While on the couch he has his feet in the air moving slowly in different directions and listens to the teacher. o Walks over to shelf and He grabs a piece of paper and sits down at a back table with the teacher individually while she shows him how to fold paper.

His hands are on her hands while she folds the paper. He then tries to fold it and she explains what to do next. (back to me right now so I cant see what he is doing)

o Teacher is still explains what the next fold is o Making a paper airplane? o The airplane is complete and tells him how the airplane will fly.. o He asks is he can tape the plane to hold it together. o thats a great idea! responds the teacher. o Starts to put tape on folds of the plane. o Stands up to get a better look at her taping the airplane. o Starts to throw the airplane. He slightly jumps up while forcefully throwing the plane with his right arm and his leg lifts up off the ground. He carefully watches the plane quickly circle and then falls down onto the couch, he follows by jumping onto the couch. o Continues to jump onto couch with knees bent and arms reaching toward the airplane. o Jumps off the couch while throwing airplane.

Interpretation of Observations Nicholas seemed to have great physical development since he easily moved around the room while chasing the airplane as well as walking around and observing other things happening around him. According to Santrock, 11th Ed. (2010), at his age children are more adventuresome and easily perform stunts that could possibly be dangerous; Nicholas exhibited this trait by his way of jumping on and off the couch while he was throwing the airplane . He seemed fearless when it came to chasing the airplane around and trying to jump high off the couch for the

airplane launch. He was showing how children his age are very active and fidget if they dont get to expend their energy (Santrock, 2011, p .259). He couldnt sit still while the other students remained in seats to do their art projects or listen to the book being read aloud . He may just have been bored or indecisive but it seemed like he wanted to walk around and exert some energy . He played with the airplane more than any other activity and this was the most active choice. Nicholas exhibited great fine motor skills by way of playing with the toy piano . There were many buttons and keys for him to press while still continuing the music . He was able to choose different sounds from each button and decide if he wanted it to go along with his playing on the piano. He was meticulously pressing each key and buttons at a time with his index fingers rather than just pressing many keys with his whole hand, like a younger child would usually do . He was also exhibiting his fine motor skills by way of making his paper airplane . In Figure 8.6 in Santrock, 2011, p.261, is states he should be able to fold paper into halves and quarters . After the teacher demonstrated how and which folds to make, he easily folded his plain paper into a paper plane. He also put tape onto the specific folds to hold the plane together . For an extra fun tidbit about Nicholas, he only threw his paper airplane with his right hand, which means he is not the norm when it comes to having a preference for handedness. A lot of preschool age children have no distinguished choice of which hand they will use for writing because they tend to use both hand and handedness will not be decided until a later developmental stage . (Santrock, 2011, p.263) It seems that Nicholas is physically developing at the right pace for his age when it

comes to gross and fine motor skills. While Nicholas was very physically active, he did not exhibit a lot of cognitive development

actions for me to observe because he didnt speak very much . However, when he did, he seems very aware and most likely in Piagets Intuitive Thought Substage by showing his thought process of putting tape on the plane to hold it together . I dont think that many children would think about wanting to keep the folds of the plane perfectly together . When it comes to Vygotsky, Nicholas gave a perfect example of the Zone of proximal development . (Santrock, 2011, p. 286). At first, Nicholas didnt know how to fold the paper into an airplane shape and the task was at the upper limit, too difficult to master on his own . However, after the teacher showed him which folds he should make, he was able to reach the upper limit and easily made the paper airplane. Nicholas did not exhibit a lot of speech but when he was asked a question or spoken to by the teachers, he understood what teachers were saying replied with the proper response . While observing Nicholas, he spent most of his time alone examining the other children . He seemed to be mostly exhibiting Onlooker and Solitary Play because he was either by himself and immersed in his personal play activity or watching the other children play but never joining (Santrock, 2011, p.342). There was probably a lot of inner speech, according to Vygotsky, which shows his cognitive maturation of being able to perform actions without having to verbalize everything . Nicholas exhibited sustained attention (Santrock, 2011, p.291) by his concentration on playing the piano and making his paper airplane . He spent a longer amount of time making the airplane and then playing with it for the rest of my observation . Unfortunately, I was not able to fully observe his cognitive skills because he was not vocal; from what I did observe, he seems to be able to perform tasks, concentrate and respond easily to adults, which leads me to believe that he

is not behind in cognitive development according to Santrock, 2011. It was very difficult to get a full understanding of Nicholass socioemotional development. He barely interacted with the other children and remained quiet for majority of the time period that I was observing him. He observed the other children for most of the time, which may show his interest and an increased sense of learning to understand others and listen to what their feelings are as well as how others act in different situations (Santrock, 2011, p.316). During the second time of playing with the toy piano, he turned the volume down when the teacher started to read another book. Another teacher noticed and thanked him for keeping the volume low for the other children. This was a great example of him understanding that others can be affected by his actions, being aware of his surrounding and not being egocentric. There are adults that still havent learned this important skill. Nicholass behavior clearly shows that he is in Eriksons Initiative versus Guilt stage (Santrock, 2011, p. 315). His energy and enthusiasm with the paper airplane was very clear and although it did go fly high or for a long amount of time, occasionally even crashing the ground, he was still able to continue playing and enjoying the activity. Instead of making the stamp in the art project, he initiated his own way of play by deciding to make a paper airplane. This shows that he was able to take initiative to create a playtime activity that he enjoyed rather than doing what the other children were or what the teachers suggested. From this small amount of observed activity, I would say that he is well developed when it comes to his understanding of the surroundings and self initiative, however, his few interactions with the other children might be a sign that he is not as well developed when it comes to socialization. Socialization is very important life lesson to learn because various socialization skills will be required for the rest of his life in one way or another, whether its professional, romantic or friendship interactions.

Learning high-quality socialization skills will help him interact positively with everyone around him and could possibly be a powerful asset in a future career. Hopefully, since he is in preschool at this Early Learning Center, he will learn these social skills with other children and improve in his ability in socialize. Overall, I think that Nicholas seems to be a well-developed child of his age and possibly even excels in certain areas such as taking initiative and awareness of others. He was very coordinated when it came to his physical activities as well as skilled at fine motor skills. He wasnt a fussy or difficult child from what I observed. He never pitched a fit or complained when the teachers were asking him many times if he wanted to do the art project. He calmly and nicely responded no and asked for help on his own activity with the paper airplane. I would like to know if his social skills are truly not well developed or if maybe his usual friend wasnt in class that day. Does he have siblings? Is his non-social behavior caused by the fact that he doesnt have any siblings? The social skills are my only concern for Nicholas and fortunately preschool is a great place to learn these social skills. I dont think that he was being stubborn by saying no to the art activity, I think it simply was a matter of the activity not sparking his interest and wanted to spend his time participating in a different activity. He was using the same fine motor skills that the other children were learning and perfecting with the art activity so there was no loss of cognitive and motor development. I was pleasantly surprised that the teachers allowed the children to chose their own activities and this seems to be very beneficial for Nicholas to learn to take initiative in choosing activities. I believe that the Early Learning Center is a great place for Nicholas to further his development and learn important skills for his life and education.

Emily Hale CFS 211: Human Development in Infancy and Childhood Child Observation Report 4/ 14/11 5 to 6 years of age