Miles 4/20/09

Who: Miles
Where:Saint Joseph School, Inc.
Age: 4 years old
Gender: Male
Time: 3:00-5:00

Inside: Gym
Miles wanted to make a paper airplane in the gym. He knew the first few steps and did the folding on his own. I helped him with the last few steps. I put the paper where it should be and he folded it. I was talking to a few of the children and we were talking about middle names. Miles knew what his was and he told me. Then he flew the paper airplane. He pinched it with his two fingers and his thumb and always threw the airplane in the direction he wanted it to go. As he flew, he made alterations to the plane to change the way it flies. He added staples to it, and he also added some folds. A few boys tried to create challenges and wanted Miles to join. He acknowledged the boys but then continued to fly the airplane on his own. Eventually he took turns flying the airplane and chasing it with the boys. He talked extensively with another boy about both of their airplanes. They both built different versions. After a while, he drew on his airplane to decorate it. I would say he played on his own 90% of the time we were in the gym.

Inside: Snack
During snack we went around and told stories again. Miles told a story about fog and how he woke up and saw fog and it scared him (he said this was a pretend story). His story eventually turned into snapping turtles and alligators that went into the pool at the hotel he stayed at over spring break (he said this was a real story). A few children asked him questions about his story and he answered them with believable answers for both stories. He initiated this topic because he was the first to tell the story. When other students were telling stories, he asked questions. Sometimes he would interrupt and tell his own story. One student telling the story said he wanted to ask a question. I asked him if he wanted to ask a question or tell a story and the student said ask a question. Miles said the student was going to ask himself a question. The student then told a story and Miles said that was a story not a question. Even though we were telling stories in a circle, Miles argued with another boy about who was going to tell the story first.

Inside: Project
During the project, Miles was asked to sit out for a while. When he came back, he painted his maracas with many different colors.

Inside: Free Play
Mile wrote his name on a piece of paper for me. He wrote his first name on his own. He wrote his last name as i spelled it out. I then asked him to copy a clapping rhythm. He did. Then we did a few more and I asked him to make one up. He struggled a few times, but then he made up an appropriate rhythm.

Who: Joey
Age: 5
Gender: Male
Where: SNC Children's Center
When: April 7 and April 10 (Inside), April 9 and 16 (Outside)

Circle Time:
Joey is usually a pretty good listener during circle time and large group activities. Sometimes, however, he is easily influenced by his peers and needs to move because he cannot help but talk to them. One thing with Joey that I have noticed is that he is very bright and has good questions, but if he can't ask them or talk when he wants to then he gets very upset, and that is when he begins to act out. I also noticed that Joey usually knows the answers to the questions that the teacher is asking, he just doesn't always share them. There have been several times where I have heard him say the answer under his breath, but he doesn't raise his hand. I often encourage him to raise his hand and share his answers with the class. Other times though Joey will just blurt the answer out and not show his teacher and peers proper respect.

Free Choice:
Joey is often quite the follower lately when it comes to free time. There is one child in particular that he is almost inseperable from. I noticed this a little bit last semester, but he was still content playing with me or other children, but it seems that this semester is has gotten worse and he almost refuses to go to an area without this other child. Joey is a big fan of the block area and is very good using them. He makes some very elaborate structures for a preschooler and he often surprises me. He also does a great job with patterning when using the blocks and can make his structures very symmetrical. I also noticed as I was observing that he is very aware of what blocks will balance where and when he uses the animals, he strategically places them on the blocks making sure that they aren't too heavy.
Joey is also very good when using the small manipulatives. He is able to make some very cool objects by connecting different small pieces into a much larger structure. I often see him making things and then his peers ask him to make them the same thing. He has a good understanding of which pieces will work together and he shows good hand eye coordination to be able to connect them and make them look like the final product that he is trying to create.

Outside Time:
Joey loves playing outside and running around with his friends! He often sticks to playing with the boys, but every once in a while they will chase some of the girls around the playground. He likes playing with the balls on the playground, sometimes this causes some rough behavior outside because they will tackle the person with the ball, trying to take it away from them. This at times needs to be broken up because it ends up being one child on the ground with about 4 other children piled up on top. He also enjoys racing around with the trucks on the playground. He likes to race other kids around the playground while each of them pushes a dump truck.
On top of using objects outside, he also uses his imagination to come up with games for him and his friends to play outside. They often play tag, or use the playground equiptment and some sort of large structure that only one person can be on and all the others want to get onto it. They also like to pretend that the woodchips are something else and that they can be stood on. They often laugh and me and tell me that it's not safe and I need to get to "safety." It amazes me how they can start something like that and it just takes off. It's like they can read eachother's minds because one child will come up with an idea and the others will just join in as though they came up with the idea themselves. I have noticed that Joey does tend to be a good leader when he isn't in one of his moods where he needs to follow the same child around. It seems to me that the others really enjoy Joey and he does a good child of using his imagination to create games for everyone.

Kavin

Who: Kavin
Date Observed: 4/20/09
Where:SNC Children's Center
Age: 4 years old
Gender: Male
Time: 1:00-3:00

Inside: Circle Time

It was very obvious that it was a rainy day today and the children had been stuck inside. During circle time, Kavin had a lot of difficulty knowing when it was his turn to talk and when it was time to listen to his friends or the teacher. He spoke out of turn a lot. He also had trouble sitting still. Although, whenever he did speak out, he had something important to say. He was always on task talking about the book, just was forgetting to raise his hand. Today we read the book ZOOM. It is actually quite an interesting book because it starts out really zoomed in on something and then as you turn the pages, you zoom out to see the bigger picture. They did an activity where the kids had the various pictures and had to put them in the correct order. Kavin was constantly helping his friends know when it was their turn. He could tell which picture came first and which one was a little more zoomed out. Kavin is a very observant child. He always notices even the smallest of details.

Inside: Free choice time

Kavin spent most of his time in the block area today. He was mainly playing by himself. He was creating different jumps with blocks that he would have some of the toy pigs jump off of. He also tested out the new sensory table. Since this week starts Earth week, the sensory table was full of dirt. Kavin would fill up some small pails with dirt, but he did not spend too much time there. I do not think he enjoyed getting dirty. Exactly why he did not participate in the art activity because the children were painting their hands and putting them on a picture of the Earth. When I asked if he wanted to make a dirt cup, his response was "ewww! I don't want that." I do not think he was able to realize that it was not real dirt.

Transition Time:

During transition time to go outside after preschool today, Kavin had trouble keeping his hands to himself. He did not like when other friends were touching him, but he was okay touching others. Today, we had a big reminder about keeping our body parts to ourselves.

Kavin

Who: Kavin
Date Observed: 4/16/09
Where:SNC Children's Center
Age: 4 years old
Gender: Male
Time: 1:30-5

Inside: Circle Time

Kavin did a great job sitting during circle time today. He was very attentive and was able to answer the questions that were asked. Kavin always provides thoughtful feedback and asks very intelligent questions. I can tell that his mind is always going. Kavin did a great job remembering the 4 stages of a butterfly (lifecycle). When we first sat down during circle time, he was being very social with a few other boys. Kavin is becoming much better at interacting with his peers.

Inside: Free choice time

It was a surprise to me that today Kavin did not opt to play on the computer by himself. Instead, he enjoyed playing in dramatic play with Nicklas. Kavin and Nicklas made the mail truck into their house but ended up being too rough with the toys that dramatic play was closed. Kavin's next idea was to play what they were playing in the block area. He is just so creative and can make a game out of practically anything. There was also a center with a multi-layered butterfly puzzle. Kavin loves doing puzzles and he is usually very dedicated to working on them until he finishes. Today he was not very into it. I think his frustration got the best of him.

Outside: playground

Kavin was very social on the playground today, interacting with mainly the boys. They were running around. At times the play did get a bit too rough. I ended up having to break up a fight between him and another boy in which he was on top of the boy and punching him. Kavin said the other boy punched him so that's why he did it. Kavin needs work on using his words to solve his problems, as do many children his age. He was racing the dump trucks around the equipment. Then, I started a game where the equipment was my castle and there were all these different animals or hot lava or something at the bottoms of all the exits. Kavin and a few other children took the game and let their imaginations run. They were jumping into snake pits and surviving when I sprayed them with my magical potion. It was really fun to see!

Megan

April 9th 2009
9:00-10:00

Circle time: Today was a crazy hair day so the preschoolers were very excited and full of energy. Megan was still very attentive to Ms. Bonnie however. She sat pretzel legged the entire time and was never talking to her neighbors or disruptive in any way. Bonnie read the class a book. When she asked the class questions about it afterward, Megan raised her hand and offered an answer. She was able to make a connection with the text, talking about how the characters were good friends to each other.

Free Time: At the beginning, Megan went right over to the computer. She played on this 10 minutes. Then, she went to the writing table. She immediately took a piece of paper and starting writing on her own. She wrote her first and last name, her mom and dad's names, and her phone number. All of this was without any assistance. Then, we looked for her address at the center. She used this and copied it down onto the piece of paper. There were only one or two times in which she asked me about a letter. For the most part, she worked completely on her own, reading it off to me. She stayed at the writing table past the required amount of time. Then, she went to snack. She stayed here for a while, talking to her friends and other teachers. Then, Megan went to the sensory table. She played here with three other girls. They were making conversation the entire time.

Megan

April 6, 2009
10:00-11:00

Free Time: Megan first went over to snack. She stayed here for a while and talked with her friends. Then, she asked me if I wanted to play Chutes and Ladders. We played this for around 8-10 minutes. She was a little confused about the direction of the board game and I had to help her count the spaces. I also explained the chutes and ladders concept. She was able to follow along with just a little assistance on my part. Another preschooler came and joined us, although he seemed to have more troubling understanding the game. After a while, someone else came over and said we should do a puzzle instead. Megan didn't like this idea, so she went over to dramatic play. She played here and then over at the sensory table for the rest of the hour.



Circle Time: Megan is very quiet and well behaved during circle time. Today was pretty typical behavior for her. She sat still the entire time and seemed to be paying attention. Bonnie read a book to the class and they talked about the author (who they are studying this week). Megan raised her hand a few times during the discussion.

Kavin

Who: Kavin
Date Observed: 4/7/09
Where:SNC Children's Center
Age: 4 years old
Gender: Male
Time: 1:30-5

Inside: Circle Time

Kavin has improved immensely during circle time. He is able to sit for the entire time and actually does not get distracted away from the story. Kavin was great about raising his hand when he has a question. The book I read for opening circle was about flying cows and Kavin had a cute story to share about how he would ride on a flying cow if he saw one.

Inside: Free choice time

Kavin loves to play on the computer. The rule is that however many minutes you are on the computer, you must spend the same amount of time at the writing center. Kavin used to complain nonstop about going to the writing center. Now, he goes without complaint. Today was a day when he even stayed longer than he had to. Kavin enjoyed playing with K'nex today. He loves playing with toys such as that and configuring them in many different ways. He also created patterns on the overhead using colored chips. Kavin has a two color pattern down.

Outside: playground

Kavin is definitely not lacking with his gross motor skills. He is a very active child. I usually do not get much of a chance to see him on the playground so it was nice to watch him move and interact today. He was running around with a couple other boys kicking a ball around, and playing monkey in the middle. At times, he would pick it up and throw it. There was no lack of rough-housing. There were actually 2 times when I had to pull him and a few other boys off of each other. One time he was the one on the bottom crying, and the other time Joey was. Kavin was also very mobile, climbing up and down and all around the playground equipment. He went down the slide, but when that became boring, he decided to go down the slide head first.

Update on Kavin (last semester)

Kavin started the semester, last semester seeming to be a little behind his peers. He could not count past 7 and needed help spelling and writing his name. Kavin's handwriting has improved immensely. It is much less of a struggle to get him to go to the writing center. He is beginning to enjoy writing and creating words. I think that is because he is finally developmentally ready. He was always on target with his gross motor skills, he just struggled with fine motor skills. He has improved a lot but still struggles a bit. He continues to struggle with his social skills and using a "baby voice". He has become a much more vocal child. He is able to compare and contrast things and does a wonderful job answering questions and figuring out situations. When it comes to blocks, Kavin is a genius. He is so creative. He does not enjoy drawing or participating in art activities. I think that he has a fear of doing things wrong. He does a wonderful job with puzzles and creating different pictures. His counting and number skills have improved immensely. He can now count into the double digits. Kavin has developed immensely since the beginning of the year. It will be interesting to see how he changes throughout the next few weeks.

Miles 4/6/09

Who: Miles
Where:Saint Joseph School, Inc.
Age: 4 years old
Gender: Male
Time: 3:15-5:00

Outside Play:
As Miles put his jacket on, he was able to zip up his zipper all by himself. He even helped another child zip up his zipper. Outside, Miles threw a frisbee in a straight line and flat. He threw it directly to the child he was playing with. After, he kicked the snow on the snowhill for a while, and then he kicked ice chunks on the blacktop. Eventually he and a few other children found sticks. They used the sticks to write in the snowhill. Miles wrote an "H". Later he went over to a metal pole and hit the stick on there because it made a sound. He hit it a few times (in no particular rhythm). Another child hit the pole with a frisbee. Miles waited while this child hit the pole. When he was done, Miles hit the pole again with his stick.

Inside: Snack
Again Miles was able to open the hand sanitizer up and pump it on his hands, close it and stand in line. Before we said our Our Father in Signed English, Miles said it on his own. He knew almost every sign without help. We have been working on this for about three weeks. His signs were very accurate. At snack today, we told stories. Every child had a few chances to tell stories, either made up or real. Miles went last. At first he was very impatient and did not want to wait his turn. After a few children went he calmed down. When it was his turn, he mostly told stories similar to the ones he heard already. One was made up, and he was jumping off a cliff. I asked him some questions about his story and he was able to come up with accurate made up answers related to the scenario. The second story he told was real. It was about a movie he had a home that was scary. It was about a bad guy who wants to kiss a good girl. He talked about this movie after one of his friends told a story about a movie. When Miles wanted water, he took the pitcher and poured it on his own. He did not spill anything. After snack he cleaned up his garbage and threw it away on his own.

Inside: Project
Today we made maracas. The teacher had to show the children how to papier mache the balloons. Put the strips of paper in the mixture, pick it up, squeeze it off, and put it on the balloon. Miles was able to follow each step in order. He was able to squeeze off the extra mixture by placing the strip of paper between two fingers and pulling on one end.

Inside: Free Play
Miles wanted to look in his Spanish folder. As he did, he pulled out the papers, showed them to me and put them back in on his own. When he was looking at one of the papers, he started giggling because he colored a man's pants and shoes yellow. He said they were made out of mustard. During this time I asked him and another child if they could skip, and Miles could with no difficulty. We had a balloon that had popped, and Miles took a scissors and cut off the bottom of it to create a "basket".

Miles 4/3/09

Who: Miles
Where:Saint Joseph School, Inc.
Age: 4 years old
Gender: Male
Time: 3:00-5:00

Outside play:
Miles played in the snow for a while. He picked it up and threw it down on the ground to watch it break. He also chased another boy around for a while. He got into an argument with another child. He listened to the child and told the child his side of the story. Eventually they came to a compromise they could both agree on. After he got bored, I asked him and a few other children to do the hopscotch. As he did this, he was able to count the jumps he took but he could not count along with the numbers on the blacktop. Then I challenged the children to see how long they could balance on each foot. Miles had over 10 seconds on each foot.

Inside: Snack
Miles was able to open the hand sanitizer, use it, and put it back without teacher help or encouragement. During prayer, Miles followed along to the Our Father in Signed English. After snack he was able to pick up his garbage and throw it away without teacher encouragement. During snack a teacher read a book aloud. During the book, Miles was able to make inferences and state his observations, as well as ask questions relating to the story.

Inside: Project
The project was to make a cross out of popsicle sticks and glue, and then they could decorate the cross with markers, crayons, and provided sequins. Miles first put one popsicle stick down, and another going across to make a cross. Then he put one on the bottom sticking out to the left. When another child pointed out that was not a cross, he took it off. Then he put a huge glob of glue on his cross, picked up the sequins one by one, and stuck them on there.

Project 3

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