I especially thank you to all preschool children in 2-3 years old classroom. All of you are my little teachers and your innocuousness is my first reward of the day. I greatly appreciate Mu-Chia Chen for your friendship and educational support, Jerry and his wife, Merrilyn, for their generosity, and for introducing me to the real world of toddlers.
Purpose
Purposes of the third academic diary are to record experiences I had during the course of the semester which providing me with real-life contact with a group of preschool children in a multicultural setting, and to understand early childhood development. I spent two occasions each time hours for three hours of unobtrusive observation in the classroom at Children Learning Center at Denton Bible Church.
Describing of participants and Children Learning Center
On the Sunday morning, the 8th, and the 15th June in summer 2008, I went to the Denton Bible Church and filled out the volunteer application form, and I was interviewed about my purpose to be a volunteer at the Children Learning Center. I started working as a day care volunteer in the same day. I had an opportunity to work and observe the two to three years old preschool classroom. The main purpose of Children Learning Center is to provide a service for parents while they were attending Denton Bible Church activities meanwhile children spent time in classrooms to focus on preparing for the preschool. Parents can bring children to school classrooms at 8 am. and can pick them up at 10 am. for the first round, or second round at noon. There were five boys and six girls. Most of the boys are taller than girls but girls are more social than boys. Some of them still felt asleep and did not want to talk or interact with peers in class. There are four volunteers including me. The ratios of staff and toddlers is 2:1. All equipments were appropriately provided for fitting children’s size; rounded table, chairs, toys, stationeries
and children’s book collection. Diverse class activities were separated into two parts, classroom activities and outside classroom which would support gross motor skill being developed through everyday such as jumping, tip toeing and fine motor skills such as drawing, painting.
Discussion
Primarily, what I have found from this observation is that children development is a universal process which means children in the same age have the same growth patterns even though they were born in different geographic areas, and cultural settings. The analysis of this observation showed the toddler’s artistic expression. As Berger (2008) stated that during this play year, physically children grow bigger and stronger. Cognitively, children are imaginative and creative and all forms of artistic expression blossom during childhood. During the observation period, drawing was prompted for children to draw for their “daddy” in occasion of the father day on the 21st of June 2008. Children’s artworks were drawn as the following pictures; They used solid colors such as black, red, green, yellow, and blue. Children’s drawings were in the scribbling stage which expressed the simple records of enjoyable and kinesthetic activity, not attempts at portraying the visual world (Lowenfeld, 2008) Children’s artwork connected to their unique perception and cognition. Also I found that toddlers in my classroom were able to follow two- or three phrase commands, helped to organized toys, sort objects by shape and color, and imitate the actions of volunteers. Based upon this observation, I realized that safety is the most important issue for children in this age. Teachers, parents and caregivers should closely pay attention to children’s safety for example, by encouraging toddlers not to put pencils or crayons in his mouths when coloring or drawing, and checking toys often for loose or broken parts.
In sum, children in 2-3 years old or play years developed physically and cognitively. They grew up bigger and stronger. They can run for pleasure, feed themselves draw line and spiral, can follow short-three phrase commands, and they had a short attention. Parents, caregivers, and people surrounded them should provide a safe environment and creative activities that support their growth.
References
Berger, K.,S.(2008). The Developing Person Through he Life Span. 7th ed. New York :
Worth Publisher.
Lowenfeld, V, & Edward,B. (2008). Drawing Development in Children. Retreived
June 25, 2008, from http://www.learningdesign.com/Portfolio/
Purposes of the third academic diary are to record experiences I had during the course of the semester which providing me with real-life contact with a group of preschool children in a multicultural setting, and to understand early childhood development. I spent two occasions each time hours for three hours of unobtrusive observation in the classroom at Children Learning Center at Denton Bible Church.
Describing of participants and Children Learning Center
On the Sunday morning, the 8th, and the 15th June in summer 2008, I went to the Denton Bible Church and filled out the volunteer application form, and I was interviewed about my purpose to be a volunteer at the Children Learning Center. I started working as a day care volunteer in the same day. I had an opportunity to work and observe the two to three years old preschool classroom. The main purpose of Children Learning Center is to provide a service for parents while they were attending Denton Bible Church activities meanwhile children spent time in classrooms to focus on preparing for the preschool. Parents can bring children to school classrooms at 8 am. and can pick them up at 10 am. for the first round, or second round at noon. There were five boys and six girls. Most of the boys are taller than girls but girls are more social than boys. Some of them still felt asleep and did not want to talk or interact with peers in class. There are four volunteers including me. The ratios of staff and toddlers is 2:1. All equipments were appropriately provided for fitting children’s size; rounded table, chairs, toys, stationeries
and children’s book collection. Diverse class activities were separated into two parts, classroom activities and outside classroom which would support gross motor skill being developed through everyday such as jumping, tip toeing and fine motor skills such as drawing, painting.
Discussion
Primarily, what I have found from this observation is that children development is a universal process which means children in the same age have the same growth patterns even though they were born in different geographic areas, and cultural settings. The analysis of this observation showed the toddler’s artistic expression. As Berger (2008) stated that during this play year, physically children grow bigger and stronger. Cognitively, children are imaginative and creative and all forms of artistic expression blossom during childhood. During the observation period, drawing was prompted for children to draw for their “daddy” in occasion of the father day on the 21st of June 2008. Children’s artworks were drawn as the following pictures; They used solid colors such as black, red, green, yellow, and blue. Children’s drawings were in the scribbling stage which expressed the simple records of enjoyable and kinesthetic activity, not attempts at portraying the visual world (Lowenfeld, 2008) Children’s artwork connected to their unique perception and cognition. Also I found that toddlers in my classroom were able to follow two- or three phrase commands, helped to organized toys, sort objects by shape and color, and imitate the actions of volunteers. Based upon this observation, I realized that safety is the most important issue for children in this age. Teachers, parents and caregivers should closely pay attention to children’s safety for example, by encouraging toddlers not to put pencils or crayons in his mouths when coloring or drawing, and checking toys often for loose or broken parts.
In sum, children in 2-3 years old or play years developed physically and cognitively. They grew up bigger and stronger. They can run for pleasure, feed themselves draw line and spiral, can follow short-three phrase commands, and they had a short attention. Parents, caregivers, and people surrounded them should provide a safe environment and creative activities that support their growth.
References
Berger, K.,S.(2008). The Developing Person Through he Life Span. 7th ed. New York :
Worth Publisher.
Lowenfeld, V, & Edward,B. (2008). Drawing Development in Children. Retreived
June 25, 2008, from http://www.learningdesign.com/Portfolio/
