Anecdote / Commentary

Kindergarten Field Experience

Name: Arden (Age 4) (Santi) (Psuedonyms)

Date: 21st of October,

2014

Learning and development areas

Learning context

Identity

Play

Connectedness

Real-life engagement

Skills for connecting with and relating to others

Routines and transitions

Awareness of own and others rights and responsibilities

Understandings about fairness
Wellbeing
Exploring ways to interact positively with others
Interest and desire to interact with others
Active learning
Confidence, interest and involvement in learning
A sense of wonder, imagination and creativity
Making choices and organising resources for learning
Communicating
Skills for listening and taking turns in conversations
New behaviour Typical for child Spontaneous

Teacher-initiated

Observation
During morning group time the pre-prep children are asked for their input regarding
what they are wanting to do throughout the day. Arden indicated that he wanted to play
shops in the home corner with his friend Santi.
After morning tea the boys went straight to the home corner and became actively
engaged in the socio-dramatic play. Miss Chloe noticed this engagement and wondered
toward the home corner.
Arden: Miss Chloe we are caf owners! We make coffee and cheese sandwiches! Can I
take your order?
Santi: I will make your coffee!
Arden: Im just going to sweep the floor so we dont get snakes in our shop, because
that will scare the customers away!
Santi: Im going to make some more food.
Arden: My Mum is on the phone she would like a cheese sandwich too.
Arden: Santi! We could have lots of people come into our caf for a barbeque, we have
to invite them!
Santi: We can make cheese sandwiches and coffee!
Arden and Santi remained actively engaged in this game for the entire morning. They
planned a barbeque and discussed the tasks they would need to undertake in order to
adequately prepare for the event.

Queensland Studies AuthoritySeptember 2015

1

Why is this observation significant?

Through engaging in this socio-dramatic play Arden and his friends were able to
develop a thorough understanding of different peoples roles. The boys were able to
connect prior real life experiences to their play and incorporate this knowledge into
their game. Through engaging in meaningful conversation with one another this
knowledge could be extended.

Analysis
Friedrich Froebel (1782, 1852), otherwise known as the father of the kindergarten,
advocated for directed play, which engages childrens interests as this enables them to
become engrossed in the learning experience, which involves hands-on materials
(Saracho & Spodek, 1995, Follari, 2007).
The children were able to utilise and incorporate a range of materials into their play in
order to become engrossed and meaningfully engaged in the play-based learning
experience.

Intentional teaching future plans

-

Providing the children with a toy cash register and pretend currency to incorporate
into their play in order to develop a basic understanding regarding the value of
money.

Placing a recipe book in the home corner for children to refer to when pretending to
prepare meals

Morning tea could be held in the centre which parents and families could attend;
the children could assist with preparing food and organising the event.

Modelled writing experience to write invitations for guests

References
Follari L.M (2007) Foundations and best practices in Early Childhood Education History,
Theories and Approaches to Learning (2nd Ed).
Queensland Studies Authority (2010) Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guidelines.
Retrieved 8th of October, 2014 from http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/p-10/qklg.pdf
Sarach, ).N. & Spodek, B. (1995). Childrens play and early childhood education:
Insights from history and theory. Journal of Education, 117 (3), 129-148.

QKLG Professional developmentObservation template