Observation For Preschool Observation

Preschool Observation

I am in preschool. I see imaginations creating large green dinosaurs. I see children learning to interact with each other and learning to understand how their bodies work. I see children embracing what they know to be true. As I observed the BYU- Idaho preschool lab I realized that it is a wonderful place for children to develop and learn.

The Encyclopedia of Children’s Health defines preschool as an early childhood program in which children combine learning with play in a program run by professionally trained adults (Preschool, 2015). Play is an essential part of a child`s development. Social play allow children to develop their minds and social skills (Berger, 2015, P.317). Play provides an audience, role models,

Three tables lay on the opposite side of the room. A table for snacks, hammering nails, and coloring pictures. In the center of the room there is a table full of water, with boats floating on top. There is a play area full of building blocks, wood pieces, and toys. All around the classroom are bright colored letters and numbers. Many of the things are labeled with their name. Along with items being labeled, the students and teachers are also wearing nametags. The preschool lab is set up as a child centered program. Children are able to roam free and play how they please with teachers guiding them. This allows children to think for themselves and be creative. I noticed many other things that made this preschool child directed. The teachers were there to simply teach the students to say please and thank you, help them learn the importance of sharing, teach them how to wash their hands, and to encourage their imaginations.

A boy was walking around with a piece of wood declaring that his “slammer” was going to slam things. He would than bang on a toy. A teacher came up to and patiently explained that the “slammer” was not used to hurt toys. I found this situation interesting. The teacher choose to identify the wood as a “slammer” instead of its real

Many of the examples come from animism. A child was playing in the kitchen believing that the food was real. Another example is the little girl who put the tail on and was pretending to be an animal. An illustration of centration is when a boy was playing with a melon. Another child sees that it looks fun and tries to steal it from him. The child does not realize that his action are impolite, he only wants to have fun as well. Another example of centration is the way children speak. The use many possessive pronouns like, mine, my, my, I. An instance of static reasoning was when the preschool ran out of blocks and a teacher had to go and grab more. During this time a child was upset because he wanted to play with blocks. A teacher explained to him what was going on and that there would be more blocks in a few minutes. The child could not process the situation and stayed upset until the blocks