unstructured play time

Who: morning preschoolers
What: observation of children playing in a structured and non structured setting
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 unstructured set of free time.
When I first came in a lot of the students were over in snack with Miss. Bonnie. They were making french toast, which many were excited about, since they got to help flip it. Dramatic play was empty, which I don't usually see. There was one girl wandering around, aimlessly trying to decide what to do. There were a few others off on their own as well. One girl spent most of the time at the art table, painting with shaving cream, and another girl was playing alone with the fake snow. There were a few boys over the block area. They were all pretending to be police men and were driving their block vehicles around and arresting people. They had to be told a few times to quieten down, since they kept making loud siren noises. There was also a group of boy playing with manipulatives at one table. They were making ships and talking about going into battle.
As the time progressed some students did eventually go over into the dramatic play area. They started setting the table and putting on the outfits. A different set of students went over to the manipulatives this time two girls. They were making gymnasts and houses out of them.
There were also two girls on the computers. They stayed there for a while, then went to the writing table (which is a requirement), where they practiced writing all of the names. When it came time to clean up one of the girls wouldn't start until she could finish her writing.
The snack table stayed pretty crowded the entire period. There was also a table with puzzles, however these were never taken out.