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OBSERVATION 1

Observation 1
Michlin Durazo
HD306
March 8, 2015
Ljumaa Jordan

OBSERVATION 1

Observation 1
A Child in Activities Observation
This observation took place in the 3 year old classroom of the preschool where I work. The
children had come back inside from the playground and lined up to wash their hands. As they
finished, they slowly made their way over to the carpet to wait to be excused for free play. The
little boy that I chose to observe, which I will refer to as Oliver, is very active and seems to have
a hard time keeping still. The task of standing in line to wash his hands seemed to take a lot of
redirecting from the teacher, just to keep his place in line. He was about in the mid-point of the
group to wait in line, but had gotten out of line and distracted so many times that he was the
second to last child to finish washing their hands. As he made his way onto the carpet, he was
laughing and moving around on his square, trying to talk to the boy next to him. The teacher
commented, Oliver, we are waiting on you to sit quietly so that we can be excused. He
immediately criss-crossed his legs and put his hands in his lap.
The children were asked to sit down quietly and wait to hear their name called. At that time,
each child would be able to get up and chose an activity that they would like to do. The choices
that day included all tabletop activities, such as large Legos, Lincoln Logs, lacing cards, puzzles,
Uniflex cubes, colored Kelsey bears for counting and sorting, dinosaurs, gear connectors, and
magnets, as well as many more. The home living (dramatic play) center was open also. The
theme this week was Occupations, so home living area was transformed into an office, which
included a desk with writing materials, an adding machine, calculator, envelopes, paper and pens,
books, extra seating around the desk, a key board and computer monitor (non-working), and a
coat rack, which held a coat, shall, suit jacket and 3 hats. The children also had the choice to go

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the block area, the library, and the writing area which had paper, markers, crayons and colored
pencils. Each center or table is limited to a maximum of four students at any given time.
All of the children had been excused other than four, at the time Oliver was able to make his
selection. He immediately went over to the dramatic play area and began to take a coat off the
rack, when another child in the same area quickly pointed out to him that there are already four
kids in home living. He went straight back to the teacher, in a whining voice, and said Isabelle
wont let me play in home living. The teacher explained to Oliver that there are only four
children allowed at a time and when one is finished, he can have his turn. He let out a Huhm!
sound in disagreement and made his way over to the Lego table, where 2 other boys were already
playing. Oliver approached the table, taking a seat in one of the chairs and immediately dug into
the tub, grabbing out 3 blocks. Another child had previously been sitting at that table, and had
left what he had built, so Oliver took his blocks and began to add to it. The three boys played
together, side by side, laughing and showing off their airplanes to one another, comparing size
and shape. Oliver took his in his hand and began to run around the small table with it, pretending
to fly the Lego plane. One wing had broken off during his second lap, and so he stopped to pick
up the piece, sat back down to fix the wing, and then took off flying the plane again, this time
around the room. The wing broke again and pieces fell off. As he stopped to pick up the pieces,
the teacher came over and reminded him that the blocks were to remain at the table where he is
playing. Oliver said Okay and headed back to his seat with the pieces in hand. As he walked
past home living, he notice that there were only two students playing there, so he threw (literally)
the Lego plane back into the tub and ran to the dramatic play area.
The children had been involved with free play for about eight minutes at the point when
Oliver entered the dramatic play area. The coat he had previously put on was being worn by
another student, so he took the suit jacket off the coat rack and put it on. He went up the desk,

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where Anne was already playing with the monitor and keyboard, and started pounding on the
keyboard keys. This upset Anne and she told him, very loudly, Stop it, I was here first. She
pushed his hands away. Oliver started whining and again ran over to the teacher. Anne pushed
me. He said. The teacher, who had not seen the incident, followed Oliver back to home living.
Anne was still sitting at the desk. The teacher asked Anne, did you push Oliver? I was here
first she said. Anne, you need to use your words and keep your hands to yourself. Oliver,
you need to wait your turn. When Anne finishes, then you can sit at the desk. Before the teacher
even finished her sentence, Oliver was sitting on the floor playing with the adding machine, as if
there was never even a problem. The teacher walked away. He played with the adding machine
(which had no paper, but did turn on and make the sounds) for 3 minutes straight, uninterrupted.
The teacher gave a 2 minute warning before clean-up time. Oliver looked up and realized that
the other two girls that were in home living with him had left. He sat down at the desk and
started pretending to type on the keyboard. He lost interest after a minute and took off the jacket,
dropped it on the floor and ran back over to the Lego block table where he had previously been
playing. While Oliver was gone, another child had joined that table and had used the pieces of
Olivers plane to make his own. Oliver got to the table and started yelling at Jake, saying thats
my plane and trying to grab it out of his hands. Before either boy had a chance to continue their
argument or tell on each other, the teacher rang her hand bell and announced that it was clean-up
time. Jake threw the plane back in the tub and walked straight to the carpet. The other two boys
(that started out at the Lego table and had stayed there for the entire free play) also put their
creations into the bucket and headed to the carpet. Oliver sat down and started to play with the
Lego blocks again. The teacher told him to put the blocks away and to come have a seat with the
rest of the class. Oliver listened, without a complaint or word. He picked up the tub, put it where

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it belonged and went and sat down at the carpet (right in front, almost in the lap, of another
child).
Oliver seems to have an incredible amount of energy in everything that he does. It did not
seem to matter what center he was playing in, he had a hard time keeping still and calm. He
seemed to be happy and enjoy the activities, although he was very impulsive and easily frustrated
or upset when he had to share, or things did not go his way. Oliver did not seem to choose
particular children to play with; he seemed to be more interested in the particular activity over
any particular child. The Lego blocks and the home living area were the only two centers that he
made any attempt to play in.
Gender Play Observation
This observation took place in the 4 year old classroom, at the preschool where I work in the
afternoons. I observed a mixed group of boys and girls (17 students) during recess on the
playground. As they were excused to play, the children took off in all directions. There was a
group of six boys that ran to get a ball and headed to the grass area to play soccer. Two other
children, one boy and one girl, also went to get the last two balls in the bin. They both, together,
took the balls over to the basketball structure and began to attempt to throw them in. There were
five tricycles, which quickly became occupied by three girls and two boys. They all took off
together racing around the track as fast as they could go. Of the four students left (all girls), two
went to play on the play structure together and the other two had each taken a large Duplo block
out of the bin and were using them as cell phones as they walked around the playground together.
After about 5 minutes of play, the groups started to mix around a bit. One of the girls, who
originally had taken a bike, parked it and made her way over to the grass area and joined into the
soccer game with the boys. She is a considerable amount taller than all of the boys, and equally
as fast, so she was able to join in with no problem and keep up. In fact, she was a better player
than all the boys, except one or two. The girl that were walking around with their cellphone

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blocks, were now being chased by two boys that were pretending to be dinosaurs. All four of
them were laughing and screaming as they ran around the playground and through the play
structure.
Throughout the entire recess time, there was always at least one child riding a bike, usually a
boy. But the riders were continually changing, as a child would jump off to play ball or go on the
play structure, and then another child would jump on and go. Boys and girls both rode the bikes.
There was one scenario on the bikes that included a boy and girl riding around the track together.
The boy pulled his bike over to the light pole and pretended he needed gas. He sat there for a
moment and then drove off. As he came around the corner, the girl was sitting on her bike and
told him she had a flat tire. She remained sitting on her bike as the boy got off his and pretended
to fix her tire. He got back on his bike and they continued riding.
After a short while, the soccer game was down to three players left, all boys. They were hot
and sweaty, but continued to play hard. The play structure constantly had children climbing and
sliding on it, both boys and girls. There was a group of two boys and a girl playing pirate ship in
the play structure. They would quickly slide down the slide and have a pretend invisible sword
fight, then race back up onto the structure. The girl participated equally in the game of pirates,
including the invisible sword.
The hopscotch never was used by any children during this time. All other balls and equipment
were used by both boys and girls. Although the soccer game was played primarily by the boys,
they had no problem letting they girl into their group to participate with them. Both boys and
girls played ball and on the play structure. The gender patterns that were noticeable were the
boys that started off playing soccer and the other boys playing the role of the dinosaurs, when
chasing the girls, although they all still played together and there were no issues with arguing or
tattling. There was also a gender pattern displayed when the girl on the bicycle waited for the

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boy to come and fix her tire. I did not notice anyone being excluded from a group based on their
gender. A lot of energy was exerted on that playground.
I did not notice children being treated differently due to their gender, other than the teacher
having to remind the boys a few times not to play so rough. There were a couple times that the
soccer match turned to tackle, for the ball. She reminded the boys playing dinosaurs, with the
girls, that they needed to keep their hands to themselves and just pretend.
The teacher kept a close eye, but did not discourage any girls that may have wanted to play
soccer with the boys. Although there was only one girl interested in playing, she was not shy and
joined the team at her own will. It would have promoted a gender bias if the teacher would have
told her she could not play because the boys are too rough or that it was just the boys turn. That
could have also affected her confidence level and maybe would have discouraged her from
wanting to play other sports if boys were playing. In this case, she had enough confidence in her
ability to just join in, without any hesitation.
This observation showed the positive effects of gender equality on the playground. All
students were allowed to participate freely in activities of their own choosing, and showed a
positive outcome of mixed gender play. As children are exposed to playing with both genders on
a regular basis, I would hope that they would grow up with a better tolerance for interactive play
together over future years.