Observation of Play

Today I observed children in the Children's Center during circle time as well as center time. There is a new student, so it was interesting to see how he acted compared to other students. The students who have been there a while are used to sitting and listening and know what the schedule is. The new student wanted to play, had difficulty sitting during circle time, and kept wanting to leave the room to play with a toy from the other room. However, I loved how he interacted with his environment. He was hesitant to play at certain centers but once he did he really enjoyed it. I noticed that some children played on their own, while some preferred to play with others. A student was working on a puzzle by himself so I went over and talked with him and he showed me how to put the puzzle together. He could pick up any piece in the puzzle and knew where it went. If he wasn't sure, he looked at the picture until he found the exact position. I observed the children during circle time when each child had the opportunity to write his or her phone number. The children sat and patiently waited for their turn. I was impressed, because the Kindergarten students in my Sophomore Block classroom would never have sat still that long.

On Monday I observed preschool students playing outside. They mostly played on snowhills. A few built a fort together. They went around looking for snowballs large enough to use for their fort. 2 students were looking for the snowballs while the friend put it together. I related this to Knowledge Under Construction because even though they weren't working with blocks, they were doing something very similar.