Puddles!

My observations this week are pretty straight forward. There are two particular instances that I thought were interesting. One was when I observed a little girl from the SNC Children's Center playing on a truck and saying that it was her wheel chair. This really fits into the concept that children to experiment with differences and recognize other people who are different from them.

Also, since it has been so warm there are tons of puddles on the playground and children LOVE jumping in them. It can be difficult to keep the children out of them. As I teacher I know I would love to let my kids jump in all the puddles they want, but on a large scale cleaning that many children up from getting all wet takes so long that is just isn't realistic in this kind of setting.

Fog!!!!!!

So I had intended on observing at Aldo today, but the weather had other ideas. The fog caused them to have a 2 hour delay and give me no time at Aldo because school wouldn't start until 10:30 and I have to work at 11.

Bummer.

The Snow is Melting!

This week I was able to spend a lot of time outside with the children at the SNC Children's Center because of the warm temperatures. But since it was so warm, there were lots of puddles and ice that the children were not aloud to play in. It was really difficult to keep children off the ice and out of the puddles because they were just so intriguing to them and I can understand that. But when you have a group that large we just can't let them get that wet because changing them all into dry clothes would be a very long task. But before the children would get yelled at about the water they were having fun with it. They would run and slide through the water and of course get soaking wet.

It was also Dr. Seuss Week this week so that was a great foundation for some fun classroom and non structured play and much thinking outside the box as Dr. Seuss does. During circle time they were asked many questions where they had to think creatively and use some imagination. During free choice time they were able to play some Dr. Seuss board games. This was interesting to be apart of because they are at an age where they really can't understand the rules of the game very well and teaching them was pretty difficult, so they just kind of did their own thing and had fun with it.

Here are my observational sheet from this week!

Trains, Boats, and Slides

On Friday I worked 3 hours at the SNC Children's Center. I was able to observe some time spent outside and some non-structured time inside. It was very interesting to me how clear the leaders were in the group and how those leaders were usually the ones getting in the most trouble. At this age children haven't learned how to be effective leaders and usually take the leadership role as the person who gets to boss everyone around. This may have a correlation between the children who get in the most trouble. If they are always getting talked to (or bossed around as they might see it) they might feel as they need an outlet and thus boss around other children. Also those students are often the older students who don't play with the younger children very often.

I also observed that children have the urge to be physical in their play but are stopped by teachers because someone will get hurt. I don't know how to allow children to be physical in their play because when I (or another teacher) don't intervene someone ends up in tears. That line between physical and rough is so vague, it is difficult to deal with.

First Time at Aldo!

On Tuesday (2-23-10) I visited Aldo for the first time. I went into Nate's kindergarten classroom and it was very interesting talking to him about working at Aldo and working with kindergarteners. I went from 9-10:30 but the kids were in music from 9-9:30. After they came back we helped out with snack and literacy centers. I expected to be really shocked by the culture of Aldo but really the atmosphere wasn't too crazy and out of my schema for schools. Nate did say that he does keep his class a little more structured because kindergarteners need that a little bit more than 3rd graders. But just walking the halls was different than any other school I've ever been in. I wasn't sure what I should do about behavior, especially being a first time guest. I had some difficulties with one child and I really just didn't know what I should do. I tried talking to him about making some words, but he really wasn't having it.

The literacy centers were pretty play based. The children were able to make a lot of choices and work independently in their centers. They didn't get to choose what center to be at, but there were choices within the centers. My observation notes are below.

I also spent 2 hours in the SNC preschool. They are doing a winter theme this week. Every thing is pretty self explanatory from my notes which are posted below.

PicoCrickets

There has been some slow communication between Aldo, but it has been set up that I will be going to Nate's kindergarten class next Tuesday at 9am. I'm really excited to see how Aldo functions because I have heard so many things but haven't experienced it for myself.

During my time in the Children's Center this week, we went sledding again which was a lot of fun. The children were much more attune to the rules and conscience of how go down and then walk up the slides, and Bonnie didn't even have to go over the rules again. On the walk over to the hill, we also spent some time looking for letters all around us. For example we found the letter "i" as a light post. This was a great way to incorporate literacy into their play because now that they have done that once, they will probably continue doing it in their everyday play.

Last week's class where we played with the Picocrickets was a lot of fun because we really got a sense of how children would react to a new toy. I was amazed at how much children could learn about problem solving when programming their toy. Beth and I really had to try out different things before we were able to get our program to work. It was a little frustrating but both of us love a challenge like that so we really were motivated to get it to work. The picocrickets really allow for creativity in children's play because there really are endless options. When Krissy was first talking about the duck and Yoda I was really unimpressed because I was thinking that they were the most boring toys and not very exciting to play with. But I really think that children will be more excited about all types of play because they will be more likely to ask the questions "Why?" and "How?" which is clearly a sign that they are doing higher level thinking.

Structured and Unstructured Play

So far I have only done some observing during my work that the SNC Children's Center, but I have been able to make a few observations. While I'm there they have both some structured and unstructured time.

During Structured Playtime... (example sledding)

-many children struggle with rules given out before playtime

-are still able to have fun and interact with their peers

During Unstructured Playtime...

-seemingly take a lot of direction from adults (want ideas of what to do)

-outside time is seen as running around time, not so much time in nature (probably a winter thing)

-rough play is very discouraged (but generally because someone complains of being hurt)

-children are expected to make choices

-many children go straight to the teacher when there is conflict

-some teachers encourage them to work it out themselves, but still provide some support

-one child consistently participates in make believe play where she is the teacher, but doesn't like it when other teachers are around. Only other students can be there.