Early Head Start Classroom Observation

On 01/24/2018, I observed one of an Early Head Start classroom at Kidango, Eden Palms. At 9:30 AM there were four children and one teacher inside of the classroom. At the sand box, Chanel sits on the chair next to the sand box. She uses a red measure cup to scoop the sand from the small sand box. She grasps a wooden square cutout shapes, she holds it and look at it. She places them back to inside of the sandbox. She continues to get a rectangles and diamond shapes. She lines them up inside the sand box. Next to her, Alex stands up next to the sand box. He uses his hand to touch the sand while looking at Santiago. Santiago sits on the chair close to the sand box. He holds a plastic spoon with his left hand, and he uses his right hands to hold …show more content…
For example, Chanel explored with provided materials freely at the sand box, then she walked to block and dramatic area to lay down. The teacher displayed materials on the open shelf at child eyes level, so children can reach independently when they want. Based on the observation, I notice children in this classroom has reached different stages of social play in Mildred Parten’s theory. For instance, Chanel engaged in solitary and parallel play when she played next to her peers at the sandbox, but she only focused on her playing. In addition, she did not interact with her peers. Alex has mastered in solitary play because he played side-by-side next to his peer, but he did not communicate or join to play with his peer. Litzy engaged in associative play when she laid down next to Chanel, and they interacted with each other. According to eight stages of Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, I realize that children has reached the second stage, autonomy because children explored with provided materials independently without help from their teachers. In addition, children led in their playing by making their own choices of what materials they wanted to