Approximate Age (Or Age Ranger) of Students: 3.5-5 years
What impressions do you have of the overall environment?
These classrooms are large and open with many stations for kids to play at. They have many toys available with many activities planned and orchestrated so that there is large structure to the lessons. They have cues for class time on the ceilings and labeled on tables.
What are the students learning?
Students are learning how to build things with blocks, playing dress up with each other. They also have educational games available with blocks and counting. They study a myriad of things at a time, all in small portion.
What stage(s) of physical development do you observe? Give evidence.
I can see the preschool stage of development. They are working on their abilities to sort, clean, dress up, play, and color. We can see this because they are working on their fine motor skills with crayons and blocks to build.
What stage(s) of cognitive development do you observe? Give evidence.
They’re going through the Preoperational stages where they work on their handwriting and other gross motor skills. They are also working on jumping, running, ducking, obstacle courses to show these.
What student-to-student interactions do you observe?
The students played with each other when interacting. Play is really important to build bonds between them. They make friends and bond through these games.
What teacher-to-student interactions do you observe?
When the teachers wanted to say something to running and screaming kids, they turned the lights off, which drew all of the attention of the kids. This quick change in setting was amazing to see for the children change what they were doing so quickly. These teachers allow the kids to freely exercise and play and use their imaginations to the fullest of their abilities.
What technology is being utilized, if any?
They used toys like building blocks, kinetic sand, and plastic cutlery. These were all out and available for him to play with What are the strengths and/or challenges of this classroom? They allow a lot of creative freedom for these kids to do whatever they want. This may be good, but much like the 4 year old swinging around a plastic knife saying that he was “Jason,” these creative things might be negative for the young brain. Getting back on task might prove challenging after a long play time. The kids are very caught in their own worlds.