Kirsten Blomster

Foundations of Early Childhood Education

ECHD

4/8/15

Observation 3
 I. Observation 1:
English Language Arts

II. Grade:
Kindergarten

III. Students:
3 girls, 4 boys

IV. Setting:
Kindercare
Multi-Age (3-4 years old) classroom, 7 students, 1 head teacher.

V. Pre Observation
I conducted this observation to analyze the teaching of English Language Arts
(ELA) in a early childhood education classroom. I also planned to identify any
improvements that could be made. I selected a kindergarten class from the
Kindercare learning center. I set aside a two-hour block to use to observe and
form a running record. To better prepare myself for this observation, I conducted
some research about instructional ELA.

VI. Data:
Observations were conducted on April 2, 2015.

Upon entering the classroom, I noticed several aspects of ELA around the
classroom environment
o Everything is labeled, in both English and Spanish, and in both
type and in a students handwriting
o Cubbies with the students names and photos line the wall
o There is a cabinet next to the teachers desk, on which there is a
poster with the list of kindergarten jobs and Velcro pictures of the
students to stick next to each job
o There is a bright and colorful calendar with the days of the week
and of the month, the year, the season, etc.
o There is a poster of colors with each color labeled.
o Reading books are propped up and lined on a shelf.
o There is a star chart for good behavior
o There is a puppet show area
o There is a mini library
o There is a mini kitchen
o Students artwork and photos cover the walls and hang from the
ceilings
o There is an alphabet chart
o There is a poster with the kindergarten rules:
Looking eyes
 Listening ears
Quiet mouth
Helping hands
o There is an easel with short story on it
o There is an art easel
o There are fish
o There is a countdown to the next holiday
Immediately after lunch, the students take a piece of paper and write down
what they have learned today
Once they are done with this, they quietly read
As they put their books away they sing a clean-up song
Next the students all gather on the carpet and play freeze dance
They all sit down on the carpet and the teacher asks them questions about
the calendar, and the students all take turns answering. The teacher does
not tell them, she has them keep making educational guesses until they get
it right. They also have a different pattern piece that cycles every four
days. They have to identify what the next piece is each day. Calendar
aspects:
o The month
o The day of the month
o The day of the week
o The season
o The year
o Upcoming holidays in that month
o Day of the school year
They then go over their countdown to Halloween, and subtract today from
that countdown to find how many days are left now
One student is having difficulty. In response, the teacher says encouraging
things and helps him arrive at the answer
They then spell out the different calendar aspects
They identify what day of the week yesterday is and what day tomorrow is
The teacher asks them to look out the window to identify the weather.
They say the pledge of allegiance
They get up and dance to the gummy bear song
They all sit down and practice writing letters on their white boards. The
teacher is now sitting on the carpet with them
One student is being disruptive, so the teacher asks him to please be quiet
The student speaks out of turn again, so the teacher asks him to remove a
star from next to his name
They clean up their whiteboards
They go over the difference between the past, present, and future, and list
examples for each
 They sing Rhyming Bridge (to the tune of London Bridge) and run
under the outstretched arms of two other students until the end of the song,
at which point the student who is under the bridge at that time lists two
words that rhyme
The students then have a choice of educational activity: cutting out
pictures from a story and pasting them in the correct chronological order,
or copying a poem from a book onto a sheet of paper and writing what
they liked about it
When the students ask questions, the teacher helps them arrive at the
answer themselves rather than just answering it outright
Once they complete their educational activity they can choose to go to a
learning center, which is a educationally profitable area of fun and play

VII. Analysis:
In this classroom, English Language Arts is taught in a way so that the students
have fun while learning. This helps the students love to learn from an early
developmental stage. The literate environment was astounding. The art/classwork
that covers the walls allows the students to be proud of their accomplishments.
The labels help the students learn what certain things are called, practices their
reading skills, and strengthens their spelling. The star poster promotes good habits
and respect for both the teacher and for one another. The mini library creates a
place for the students to look at and read books, and is always an open option.
Several other props for learning such as a play kitchen, a puppet show theater, a
large and colorful calendar, etc. are present in the classroom. The students are
always encouraged to learn as much as they possibly can. Writing down what they
have learned each day helps it resonate in their minds so as to better remember it.
When they clean up, they sing a song doing so. This forms good tidying habits.
Playing freeze dance/dancing the gummy bear song (etc.) helps the students take a
break from learning to get their sillies out, so that they can refocus for the next
lesson. Rhyming Bridge creates a fun way to take a break from the curriculum,
but still learn at the same time. Going over the calendar and asking the students to
spell out the different aspects covers a variety of aspects of ELA. They learn the
days of the week, the months of the year, and the seasons, and they also learn how
to spell out each day of the week/month/season. They learn pattern forming by
identifying the pattern piece for that day. They learn what an ordinal number is
and how to know what today is. They gain knowledge of the year and how it
progresses. By going over the upcoming holidays of that month, students learn
about these holidays and why they occur. They also learn how to tell what the
weather is like outside by evaluating it themselves. Saying the Pledge of
Allegiance teaches memorization, and promotes language development. It also
uses new vocabulary and linguistic structures for them. Practicing letters on
whiteboards helps the students to learn the proper way to form these letters in a
broken down, simpler style than writing out full words and sentences. Once the
students understand how to create the letter, they write down words that go with
that letter to further their understanding and help them form words properly.
Learning the difference between past, present and future gives them an
 understanding of the concept of time, and the progression of lifes stages. Coming
up with examples of each of these personalizes the lesson for the students,
allowing them to understand it better. Cutting and pasting a story in chronological
order also helps with their understanding of time and process in which events
happen. Copying down a poem out of a book and then writing what they liked
about it helps the students with reading, reading comprehension, spelling, letter
recognition, letter forming, word formation, sentence formation, writing and
handwriting. When a student doesnt know how to spell something or cant quite
figure something out, the teacher helps them sound out the word or helps them
arrive at he answer themselves rather than just telling them the answer. This
allows the students to practice problem solving and spelling on their own. Doing
things themselves makes learning more efficient.

VIII. Recommendations:
Overall, the English Language Arts in this kindergarten classroom is more than
satisfactory. The only thing that I would change would be more arts infused into
the ELA teachings.

IX. Citations:
Machado, J. (n.d.). Early Childhood Experiences in Language Arts.
Huppenthal, J. (2013, January 1). Early Childhood Experiences in Language Arts.