Observation 10

Today the children were allowed to play outside in the playground first thing in the morning since today's forecast was suppose to be rain in the afternoon. Boy #1 is a few weeks new to the class and he usually only plays with puzzles. But today he interacted with the other children and played on the slides and jungle gym. He called out for his teacher to come help him climb the steps the first time. The teacher came over and told him "you can do i" he was saying "I can't do it, I need help" as she stood by him she told him yes you can try it. He slowly stepped up the stairs and went down the slide. Once he went down he clapped his hands and said "yeah, I did it!" aftter his first try he kept going up and down and was slowly adjusting and letting go of his fear of falling. An activity I would choose is have the children create a painting of whatever was on their mind at that moment. I would give them easels and white paper, brushes, paint, glitter so they can add some brightness to their drawings if they wanted. Then at the end they can go around sharing what they drew and explain why they chose that piece. They could draw their favorite food, toy, character or whatever they wanted, just a way to express something on their mind.

Observation 9

There is a lot of movement in the classroom today. Girl #1 is playing with paint brushes and painting on a canvas that are set up in the art area. Boy #1 and boy #2 decided to come play in this area. Boy #1 takes the paints and grabs a brush and starts painting in his own paper. Boy #2 tries to dip his brush in the paint that boy#1 has but boy #1 doesn't want to share and says "No!", boy #2 begins says "i want to paint." But boy #1 still doesn't want to share. Boy #2 frowns and calls out for his teacher, he says" teacher, he doesn't want to share the paint." The teacher comes over to talk to both of them and suggest a solution for boy#2, she tells him he can play with another activity until boy #1 finishes because he was there first. Boy #2 finally agrees and goes over to the next table and he begins playing with paper and tape. He tapes up a roll of paper to create a sword. He then runs around the classroom playing with his sword. Him and boy #1 made up by then and began playing with each other again. An activity i would choose with children is getting a big canvas where a group of four or five can all paint. I would provide many watercolors they can choose from with brushes. I would add shaving cream on the canvas so they can swirl the paint on it and create a cloud looking surface. They would explore new colors and could all participate at the same time.

Observation 8

I arrive and see some children playing with puzzles, some children coloring, some children listening to stories that the teacher is reading to them, and one boy is getting dropped off my his mom but he doesn’t want to stay. She walks in carrying him because he is still tired. The mom explains how he didn’t get much sleep last night so that is why he is tired. He is crying and doesn’t want to play with the other kids. The teacher has to pick him up and hold him while his mom leaves the class. She asks him if he wants to sit and color, he says no. She then asks him if he wants to lay down and he responds “yes”. She tells him okay I’m going to lay your bed out for you while the other kids get here so you can rest a little. She lets him get a little rest while the other children continue to play. Once more children arrived he heard the class getting louder and he got up. Once he rested his eyes for a little while, he was in a better mood. He began interacting with the other children and sat in the art area and picked up a marker and started scribbling in the paper. He moved to different areas of the class and played with puzzles and then ran around chasing the boys.            An activity I would use is dress up. I would have all the children pick a costume from the costume area and let them dress up for the day as the character or super hero they would like to be. This activity would allow them to use their imagination through out the whole day because they would get into characters and role play. This can motivate them to use dramatic play if they want to reenact something they have seen at home or on TV. They can switch costumes in between if they get bored of being one person.