When drawing with pencils, and crayons. Supervise them when there is loads of children doing that activity. 4 years old When engaged in conversation they would say why? How ? Enjoys role play and acting out e.g-superhero.
The Poudre School District Early childhood program at Kruse Elementary School is where I decided to do my observation. It is a preschool classroom with children between the ages of 3-5 years old (Play Years). There is a total of 16 students, one lead teacher, a paraprofessional and a speech therapist. I began my observation at 8:50 am when the children were beginning to arrive in class. From the very beginning a four year old boy I will call John, came right into the classroom, put his lunch bag on the book shelf and then went directly to his cubby where he took of his coat and placed it on the hook.
| 10.00 – 10.15 | Tidy up time | A tidy up song is played and children have to tidy up any mess they have made. | 10.15 – 10.45 | Toilet time/snack time | Children are taken to the toilet in groups of 4 to wash their hands. Children then help staff to make the snack of their choice. | 10.45 – 11.00 | Story time | Children are split into their groups and get to choose a book for practitioner to read. | 11.00 – 11.45 | Play time | A selection of actitivies are set out such as 1-1 arts and grafts, physical play and move to music | 11.45 – 12.00 | Tidy up time | A tidy up song is played and children are required to tidy up.
According to Berger fine motor skills are “physical abilities involving small body movements, especially of the hands and fingers, such as drawing and picking up a coin”(Berger 145). Berger states that “toward the end of the first year and throughout the second, finger skills improve, as babies master the pincer movement and self-feeding” (Berger 145). According to this information Maya being two years old is inside the range of this skill and within the norm. Cognitive Development: As Maya observed the toys she quickly started banging on them using her hands. She looked amused with the “bang” noise the toys were making.
They will be saying a couple of clear words – ma, papa, dada and my personal favourite ‘no’. Between the ages of 2 and 3 the child will enjoy colouring, learning names of objects, forming sentences, developing a personality, throwing tantrums, play with water sing nursery rhymes, run, put together jigsaw puzzles, put their shoes on and even dress themselves. 3 to 7 year olds will start to understand the difference between right and wrong, between 3 and 4 they develop motor skills. They can play games; start making friends in nursery and follow instructions. They attempt to write, recognise the alphabet and numbers and build on their social skills.
They are more then little babies who need to be feed with information to learn. They are eager to observe and interact with their environment. They like to make there own discoveries about their world by constructing their own theories, testing and adjusting to new information or results in their own way. They basically like to test their environment to see what happens as an effect of doing something. For example dropping toys to the floor, or playing with water, smashing food on the floor, squeezing a cat, etc.
From three years children develop associative play: the child interacts and is interested in others and may copy them. For example; dressing up games where one child copies another and dresses up themselves. By four children are in the stage of cooperative play; the child is interested in the other child and the activity and actively plays with them, for example; playing shops where the children talk about their role and decide who is shopkeeper or shopper. School Playground The typical age range for this type of setting in a primary school is between five to eleven years. After children are eleven they move onto secondary school where the age range is from eleven to sixteen years.
Infants will need a safe space for crawling, pulling themselves up, and learning to walk. Fine motor skills can be developed by using a variety of materials such as: play dough, crayons, scissors, and buttons. Have them practice buttoning and unbuttoning on old shirts, rolling play dough into shapes, and cutting paper with the scissors. Encourage infants using Cheerios for a snack and toys like: soft balls, rattles, and keys. Cognitive skills can be developed using hands-on activities allowing children explore, problem solve, and satisfy their curiosities.
The child observed was male and approximately two and half years old. This was a natural observation; the place was a classroom at the college’s daycare center. There were two school aides and four other children in the room. Time of observation began at 2:20 PM and ended at 2:55PM. The boy was playing with an abacus (counting toy) by himself when the observation began.
Our book says that a 4-year-old child can tell simple stories and can engage in conversation with adults or other children. Cognitive development is defined as thinking, problem solving, concept understanding, and information processing and overall intelligence. As I got to watching her play I acknowledged her ability to interact with kids and how well she problem solved for herself. As the book suggests preschooler’s vocabulary increases hugely by age 4 and their intelligence even more. She was given a puzzle to do while I was there and noticed her ability to problem solve very well.