Kearta Dailey

September 18, 2017

HDFS 421

Lab 1: for Getting to Know You

Classroom 4-year-old

# of children 17

Adults 4

Date & Time Observed Sept.13 3:00-4:00

Introduction

The purpose of this assignment is to get to know a child that attends the CDL. For this

lab, I will learn and get a clearer understanding of the childs communication and motor skills

early on. This observation will allow me to find out what interest the child before building a

relationship. The child that I am observing is a boy and between 36-40 months old. The head

teacher of the classroom name is Mrs. Mowers and the classroom I observed is the 4 year old.

classroom. The domains I observed were language/communication development and social

development. What I was looking for in the language/communication domain was for the child

to communicate his ideas/feeling with his peers and the teachers in the classroom. For the social

development domain, I wanted to observe the child interacting with other children and the skills

he uses to maintain those friendships. I conducted two types of observations for this lab, which

were running records and anecdotal records. Both observations allowed me to properly keep

track of what the child interest were and most importantly helped me get to know the child.

Running Record
Child O walked over to the pretend play area where Ms. T was sitting. Ms. T was reading a book

to 3 other children.

Ms. T noticed Child O coming over and acknowledged him with a greeting.

Child O smiled at Ms. T and Actively engaged in the story by pointing to the pictures and

answering Ms. T questions. Child O says Thats a cow and that one is a duck! pointing at the

book. He tell Ms T I like this book!

When Ms. T finished the book, Child O walked over to the block area with 2 other children. He

says Hey what are you guys doing?

Child O tried to put blocks on top of another childs head, Silly Hat Silly Hat! Child O said.

Mrs. M walks hastily walks over to Child O to redirect him and takes the block out of his hand.

Child O begins to pick up blocks and throw them on the floor while laughing in amusement.

Mrs. M redirects Child O once again telling him to pick up the block and to prepare for cleanup

time.

Child O puts blocks away in the block area and then walks over to the large group area.

Child O sits on the red line in the large group area where all the children sing songs along with

the teachers in the classroom.

Mrs. M tells the children the activity for small groups and have the children walk over to the

small group tables.

Interpretations

To interpret the running record above Child O uses both verbal and non-verbal

communication behaviors.

Child O was excited and engaged in reading the book with Ms. T and the other 3 children.
Child O used words to describe the pictures in the book. He uses his finger to point to the

pictures to show Ms.T which animal is present. He smiles at Ms. T as she turns the pages of the

book and ask questions.

Child O tends to stay active, so when the book was over he walked to another area to play. He

was interested in playing with the other children and wanted to join in their play.

Child O wanted put blocks on the other childrens heads, pretending they were hats. He tends to

get excited when he developed a new idea to play. He says, look you have a silly hat on your

head while laughing.

Mrs. M redirected him by saying Youre putting blocks on child OWs head. Im worried that

can hurt him. Put the blocks on the shelf.

Child O behavior tends to be showing aggressive behavior while showing signs of amusement

with laughter.

Anecdotal Records

Small group time at the Art table

The children are given an activity where they had to trace out the letters of their name using pipe

cleaners, paper, and pencils.

Child O is really upset. He is crying to Ms. B saying I dont have a piece of paper! I cant trace

my name!

Ms. B comforts him by kneeling at his level to listen to him and gets him a sheet of paper

Ms. B says to child O Can you trace the letters of you name?

Child O My name has a O, L and a E in it!

Child O says I need two pieces to make a L

Child O asks Ms. B for help tracing with a pencil and then after he traces the first letter he says

I can do it, Look..

Interpretations

Child O is upset and using his language skills to communicate to the teacher what he wants.

Child O is calming down as Ms.B rubs his back and comforts him.

Child O is really excited to tell Ms. B the letters in his name

Child O wants to show Ms. B and his peers at the table that he can make a O with two pipe

cleaners.

It seems like Child O is able to comfortable communicating when he needs help and when he can

do things on his own.

Follow-Up

Based on my observations of getting to know Child O, I observed that he is interested in reading

books, and using his language developmental skills to engage in play. To build a relationship

with him I could invite him to read a book that has multiple pictures. I noticed that while reading

books, he likes to be asked questions and a chance to show what he knows about it and how he

feels. I also observed that he like hands- on activities. So, this is another way I could build a

relationship with him.

Reflection

This assignment has taught me some valuable things on how to effectively observe a

child. Running records allowed me to quickly note the things I saw the child doing and what was

happening in the classroom at that time. The anecdotal records allowed me to take note of more
language and communication from the child to reflect his interest and the things that made him

excited. Both gave me the chance to take in account of his behavior during those different

activities and kind of gave me an insight of things that interest him the most.