Fabric collage
During outside play, the children played in different areas. Some of the children played in varies areas. For example: in the sand box, climber, block area and in the bicycle area. Most of the children went around the playground playing in the different areas except a little girl. I notice that everyday i aim there she mostly plays in the sand box. She is usually one of the first children to arrive and right away she goes to play to the sand box. First she takes off her shoes and places them inside the shoe basket that is next to the sand box. then she goes along and plays in side the sand box. She usually plays solitary or parallel to others.
Inside the classroom I observe the children played in the varies areas as well, but one area that I really enjoyed was the art table.The teacher had set on the table a dark blue plastic bag with different fabric inside of it, but the children weren't able to see the fabric. Also there were cardboard squares, glue bottles and scissors. What I like is the teacher let the children choose what cardboard they wanted to used. After each child got there cardboard she pass the blue bag around and told the children to put there hand inside and take out what they like best. One of the girls put her hand inside and looked away. As she moved her hand inside the bag she said " oh I like this one because it soft." Then she took out the fabric she liked and looked at it. Then she told the children at the table why she like it. she said she liked it because its black and soft, then touched it with her hands. Finally, she cut out what she wanted to glue glued it on her cardboard.
The next day to extend the children learning I would talk about the sense of touch. I would bring out the different fabric and talk about how each fabric feels. I would sit with the children on the carpet and have the children pass the different fabric. That way all the children will be able to touch it and feel the different textures. As we are doing the experiment I would talk about the different texture and write down how each feels; soft, hard, rough, etc. I would ask the children to help me out with words.
My experience has been very interesting. Since I been working in a classroom for over five years I was not use to observing from far away. I am use to interacting with them on a daily basic. While I observe the children would go up to and asked me to play with them but I couldn't. At first it was a little challenging to observe them because I didn't know them. I didn't know there personalities, behaviors, likes, social skill, etc. As the semester went on I was able to know each child's personalities. I was also able to see how much the children had learned and develop along the year. The children have develop in different areas like self and social, language and literacy, cognitive, math, physical and much more. I have seen how much the children have grown and develop along the year. I enjoy observing the class because I was able to see another side of view. Sometime, us teachers get stuck on subjective things rather them objective. I learned different documentation formats that will help me document children along the year.
