Observation of Play

February 10, 2009 3-3:30 PM

Who: childcare and preschool children
What: observation of play on a playground
Where: SNC children's center
Ages: 2.5-5
Gender:female and male
Demographics: mostly caucasian, one african american child

I was with Liz, yesterday, at the Preschool. We watched as they had went outside and played on the playground. It was interesting to see the various types of play and groupings that were going on. The younger children seemed to stick near each other. They would either cluster around the little play houses, or simply run around in circle. It was harder to sense exactly what they were doing. One boy, for example, simply closed his eyes and turned around in a circle most of the time. Some of the older children went off on their own. One girl spent most of the time sitting on a tree trunk, singing to herself. Every once in a while another child would join her, but it seemed as though she was content just to be by herself. A lot of the older students really wanted to interact with us. You could tell they wanted to include us in what they were doing. As Liz mentioned, there was one little boy who, at first, wouldn't let go of her. He was very attached and didn't want to go off on his own. I also had one little girl who kept running up to me with issues about her socks getting wet or her snow pants getting stuck. She kept asking me for help, even though I couldn't tell what she was always talking about.
Another thing I noticed was that there were some students that kept having to be reminded what they could or could not do. There were certain rules about going down the slides or avoiding certain areas. A few children had to be told this over and over again.
Also, towards the end one student tackled another. This had to be stopped and dealt with. Other than that, there weren't too many discipline issues, though.