structured play time

Who: morning preschoolers
What: observation of children playing in a structured play time
Where: Children's Center on St. Norbert campus
Ages: 4 and 5
Gender: female and male
Demographics: all caucasian, mixture of low to middle SES

Today, I observed the morning preschoolers during their openening circle time. It took a little while for circle time to start, since Miss Bonnie was talking with preschoolers and helping them with check in. I waited on the carpet with a few of the children during this time. Some of the students were waiting very quietly. Some boys were singing to each other, while another kept getting up and changing spots.
While Miss Bonnie did finally come, she told them to quieten down and everyone did, right away. They talked about how they are going to a play tomorrow. Most of the preschoolers were participating in this discussion, since they seemed fairly excited about it. They had a lot of questions about it and kept wondering if they would have the same bus and bus driver as they did for the last field trip. There was one boy who was wearing a pair of bright orange shoes. He kept getting distracted by these and had to be told to pay attention. Once Miss Bonnie mentioned that she could take them away, however, he started to listen.
Then, they read the book The Rainbow Fish. Most of the students seemed to be paying attention, although there was one boy who had frequently had to be told to quieten down by one of the workers. The other students were listening and talking about the book. There were some comments that were very off topic, such as when one boy talked about going to Florida, but Miss Bonnie pointed this out, and they got back to the book.
After reading it, they talked about the moral of the story and how friends are supposed to share with one another. Some of the students raised their hands and talked about what toys they like to share. One boy talked about sharing his power rangers, which made all the other boys start talking about whether or not they had power rangers.
After this discussion, they reviewed the concept of odd and even numbers, which they had started earlier in the week. They counted dots on cut out mittens, saying whether or not they were odd or even. There was one little boy in particular, that knew the answers immedietly. Some other students were more quiet during the activity, particularly the girls.
Then, Miss Bonnie briefly went over the morning anouncements. When we introduced the art activity, all of the students started to get excited. They couldn't stop talking about it.
After this, circle time ended and the children went to the different centers.