Quezada 1

Esther Quezada

Dr. Bob Wortman

TLS 309

1 May 2017

Observing the Center

Field Notes #1

The kids were playing at the dramatic play area in the Mexican restaurant. We had just

put up the new clothing so they were exploring these items. Zeke decided to put on a bandana

and a sombrero. He said, this is what the customer is supposed to wear. I asked him why and

he told me, the customer wears this because you wear hats when you work, and when you work

you get hungry, so the customer has to wear this. After he explained this to me Zeke went to the

table to sit down.

He sat at the table for a while. He finally said, I need a menu! Im hungry and I want to

order something! From there, one of the girls dressed in a traditional Mexican shirt named

Mayra came up to him, handed him a menu and said, Im sorry, here is the menu She then left

and stood behind the counter. Zeke opened his menu and started looking at the options. He said,

Im really hungry, so Im going to want a lot of food. He then grabbed an expo marker (which

was attached to the menu) and started circling the food he wanted. As he was circling the food,

he would say it out loud. He said, I want a quesadilla and a burrito. I want my burrito with beef

and cheese and lettuce and tomatoes. The menu has pictures of the food, which includes

burritos, quesadillas, and tacos al pastor. They can choose from three types of meat, chicken,

pork, and beef. From there they can choose whatever topping they want on their food. For each
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of these foods there is a picture of the food and right below it there is the word for the food in

both English and in Spanish.

As Zeke was circling his food on the menu, Mayra was watching him from the counter.

Once she saw that he was done, she went up to him and took his menu. She then walked to the

food preparing station. Mayra placed the menu in front of her. She would look at what he ordered

and then grab the ingredients and make the food. The different ingredients were made of felt.

They were in different baskets on the shelf. Each of these baskets were labeled with the name of

the food in English and in Spanish.

Once she was done preparing the food, she put it on a plate, walked over to Zeke and

placed the food in front of him. He said, Thank you. Mayra then went on to ask him if he

wanted anything to drink. She said, we have jamaica, horchata, and water. She had to ask me

for help in remembering the names of the drinks. Zeke responded that he wanted jamaica. Mayra

walked over to the drinking fountain, filled a cup of jamaica and handed it to him. He said thank

you once again.

Zeke began to eat his food as Mayra waited behind the counter. Zeke would pick up the

food, take a bite, and chew. He would then take sips from his drink. When he had finally

finished, he said, Im done! Mayra then rushed over to him picked up the plate and the cup of

water, went back to the food preparing station and sorted all the ingredients back in the baskets,

put the plate and cup back where they belonged and went to serve the next customer.
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Field Notes #2

Before I came in to observe these children, there was a conflict of who would be the

cooker, who would be the waiter, and who would be the customer. The two most popular roles

to play were the cooker, and the waiter. Someone was already the customer, so they had to find

a way to split two jobs between three people. I walked in as this discussion was happening.

Rowan said, I think I should be the cooker because Im wearing an apron and thats what cookers

wear. Miguel said, No! I want to be the cooker! I stepped in and said, being a chef is a really

hard job. I think that you two can work together and make the food. How does that sound?

Rowan said, It is a lot of work; we can both do it. I then said, Are you okay with that

Miguel? he responded, yeah! I then asked Emily what she wanted to do and she responded, I

wanted to be the waitress.

This whole time, Augustus was waiting at the table waiting to be served. Once they

decided the jobs, Emily grabbed the menu went to the table and handed Augustus the menu.

Augustus said, my tummy is grumbling! He grabbed his expo marker and said, I want a beef

burrito with cheese and I want some horchata. Emily waited next to him as he ordered. Once he

was done circling his food, he handed it to Emily and she took it back to the food preparing

station where the two chefs were at.

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Rowan and Miguel received that order and started putting it together. Rowan said,

Miguel you fill up the cup with horchata and Ill get the tortilla for the burrito. Once Miguel

filled up the cup with horchata he handed it to Emily and she gave it to Augustus. As she was

doing this Rowan and Miguel were back at the food preparing station putting the burrito together.

Rowan then shouted, Orders up! Emily went running to the food preparing station, grabbed the

food, and went back to the table and delivered it to Augustus.

Augustus grabbed his burrito, took a bite and screamed, Yum! Its so yummy. Burritos

are the best. He finished eating his burrito, decided he was still hungry and said, Emily, I want

more food. Emily grabbed the menu and handed it to him. He grabbed his menu and said, I

want to try something different. I want a quesadilla and I want jamaica. He handed the menu to

Emily and said, thank you. Emily took the menu to Rowan and Miguel. Rowan took control

and said, Miguel, you get the tortillas and Ill get the cheese and the plate, He did as he was

told. They grabbed the food and the plates and they put the food together. Once it was on the

plate they handed it to Emily and she delivered the food to Augustus. He ate his food, when he

was done he said, Im done! Emily took the food back to the food preparing station.

Augustus waited at the table. When he noticed that Emily was not going to come back he

said, Emily I have to pay. She came back and said, Oh sorry, give me 2 dollars. Augustus

slapped Emilys hand and he was off. Back at the food preparing station Rowan and Miguel were

sorting the food back into the baskets. Rowan was observing Miguel put the quesadilla tortillas

back into the wrong basket and she said, Miguel no! Thats that basket for the taco tortillas. The

quesadilla tortillas go here. She pointed to the correct basket and Miguel placed the tortillas in

the correct basket.

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Reflecting on the Center

Before introducing this play center, we had already talked about Mexico, introduced the

cultural story box, and we had made a Mexican restaurant in the dramatic play area based off the

interests of my students. One day we read a book called What Can You Do with a Rebozo, and

we pulled out the rebozo from the cultural story box and we handed it out to my students. They

had the opportunity to explore this artifact. They were so interested by it and they were asking

several questions. Because of their interest in this piece of clothing, I decided to put the rebozo in

the dramatic play area so that the kids could use it to dress up while they played in the Mexican

restaurant. This proved to be a hit and one rebozo was not enough, so I decided that it would be a

good idea to add a dress up component to the dramatic play area.

To do this, I had to go out and collect traditional Mexican clothing. I reached out to some

of my kids families and I reached out to my family as well and I was able to collect a good

amount of clothing. I was very aware that this was traditional Mexican clothing, and that this was

not typically worn on a day to day basis in Mexico. Before I put the clothing into the dramatic

play area, I wanted to introduce it to my students and talk about each item. One thing that I

emphasized about this clothing was that this is not what is typically worn by Mexicans. I told
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them, they use clothes like you and I. I also talked about how this clothing was used during

festivals and special celebrations. I really wanted them to listen to this and understand this. I was

trying to make this culture relatable; I didnt want it to seem like it was exotic. I then went ahead

and took out all the clothing talked about it and had the children pass it around. Once I had

introduced it at circle time I set it out in the dramatic play area and from that point on, they could

explore the clothing and play dress up.

Some roles that I took on while I was at this center was the role of the observer and the

customer. I took on the role of the observer because I wanted to know how this center was

coming along. I dont know what needs improving, whats working, and what isnt working if I

dont observe and see how things are going. Another reason I took on the role of the observer

was because I wanted to see how my children interacted and played with the materials they were

presented with. Also, children learn so much by playing; I wanted to see what they would learn

and what new vocabulary they pick up by playing here. I took on the role of the customer

because this was probably the least desired role to play. Most of my students wanted to be the

chef or the server, but they would have no one to cook food for and no one to serve. Because of

this, I would sit down at the table and order something to eat so that they could play.

I think that the clothing in general was a strength that in reality completed the dramatic

play area as a whole. Sometimes I wonder how the Mexican restaurant center would have

worked out if it werent for the clothing that we placed there. Through my observations, it looked

as if the clothing determined what role the person would be playing that day. So, I think that the

clothing was a great enhancement to this center. Some troubles that we had were that we did not

have a lot of clothing for all the kids that wanted to be playing at that center. More specifically

we had a couple of pieces of clothing that were the most popular and there was often conflict
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between the students because they all wanted to be wearing that piece of clothing. To resolve

this, we had to put on a timer so that the children could share the clothes and take turns.

I learned from my field notes, as aforementioned, the clothing often dictated what role the

child would be playing that day. For example, one of my students Zeke, had a bandana around

his neck and he was wearing a sombrero. He insisted that he was going to be the customer that

day. I asked him why that role belonged to him and he told me he was supposed to be the

customer because he had just come back from working; he told me that the sombrero and the

bandana indicated that. Another thing that I learned that was not a direct result of this center, but

I learned nonetheless, was that it is important to interact with your students and ask them

questions. I used to never ask questions because I thought that I was interrupting their thought

process and their play. It is true that we can interrupt them if we talk too much, but it might be

just as worse if we dont interact at all.

The times that I have observed my case study child play, most of the time he has been

playing at the block center. Sometimes I wondered if he would refuse to play elsewhere, and I

often wondered why he would only play there. Day after day, this was the place that he chose to

play at. However, one day we had some trouble at the block area, and my mentor decided to

close the block area for a couple of days. During those days, no one could play at this center,

including my case study child. I was curious to see how my case study would react to this. His

mother has previously told me that he does not too well with change, so during the days that we

did not have the block center available, I closely observed my case study child.

I was surprised to find that Miguel did not seem affected by this change at all. This time

around he went straight to the dramatic play area, and he started playing like there was no

problem. This was when I was able to get an observation of him at my play center. I initially
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thought that I was going have trouble getting him to play somewhere other than the block area,

but it was not and I was able to get some data on him as well. A couple of days later we opened

the block center back up. We announced this at circle time and at the same time we also

announced all the other centers that were available that day. One specific center was making

patterns with different colored animal figurines. When I asked, who wanted to play at this center,

Miguels hand shot straight up. I dont know if this was a direct effect of him playing at my play

center, but I thought it was interesting that he was so open to playing at a place other than the

block center, even when the block center was an option. I learned that at times my case study

needs to be pushed out of his comfort zone.

My mentor was a great help in getting this center put together. She really helped my ideas

come to life. The initial ideas were mine, but we both put it together and in the end, we were

really impressed and satisfied with the product. She helped me in putting the Mexican restaurant

together, and I organized the dress up component of it. The center was a hit with my students and

it was something that they enjoyed playing in. There was never a day where there werent kids

that didnt want to play there. My supervisor was also really impressed by what we put together.

She reminded me to take pictures of what we had done and to document my students playing

because it was such a hit with my kids, and she also told us that we had done a great job; so, we

had great feedback from my supervisor, and my mentor also approved of what we had done.

We only did the Mexican cultural story box for a week in my classroom, and we had the

Mexican restaurant up for longer along with the dress up component. I sometimes wonder if that

was enough time to introduce a cultural story box. Looking back, I think that I would have liked

more time to talk about this culture and do projects with my students. Right after I took down the

play center, and we moved on to the next theme I had students asking me, Why arent we
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learning about Mexico anymore? Through comments such as these, I can tell that they would

have enjoyed learning about this some more. All the way up until last week I had children asking

me if we could learn more about it; it also gives me a lot of satisfaction having done this. We

recently got a globe in the classroom, and my students keep on going up to it and saying, this is

Mexico. And they are pointing to the right place. Whenever they see a map they do that. We

have a couple of maps up in the classroom and some puzzle maps as well, and they always tell

me, this is where Mexico is at. Even though I feel that we could have stretched out this theme for

a while longer, I think that what we did worked very well, and that this is something that they

will remember for a long time.