Madonna Abdalla

Child development 48

Preschool Observation
On January 20, 2016 I went to observe Long Beach City Colleges child
development center. I was glad that when I arrived for my observation most of the
children in class were awake and doing activities. The class consists of 16 students
of the age 4-5 years old. During my observation I noticed many objective examples
of child development activities. There are specific activities I found very enjoyable
and educational to the children of the class
1. Dramatic play: I really liked this section of the class; it included many
puppets and animals masks. It was very colorful and had many non- gender
specific cloth and accessories. I didnt actually see any children playing in
this section but I can assume with all the types of masks and puppets that
boys and girls can be attracted to this dramatic play section when the teacher
use it. If the dramatic play area is traditional housekeeping corner with
girls cloth, shoes and purses, most boys wont be attracted. If a variety of
non- gender specific hats, shoes, ties, and accessories are added that can
help (Gonzales-Mena Pg.270).
2. Blocks/ building: I noticed that boys and girls both enjoyed playing with
blocks and building. In this section I noticed that there are many toys like
wooden dolls that appear like people. Some teachers have tried a variety of
techniques to encourage the girls to also go into the area. One technique is to
arrange the environment s that the blacks are close to the dolls or to put a
dollhouse in with the blocks (Gonzales-Mena Pg.270).
3. Art and design: there are many activities included in this section. I really
enjoyed watching boys and girls making bracelets. The reason that boys
were attracted to the activity is seeing their male teacher helping them. They
dont wear the bracelets but they were enjoying making them. Another
activity was making shapes out of the play dough and many boys were

enjoying this activity because the shapes also were none-sexist such as
animals shapes.
4. Addressing feelings and problem solving: I really liked how many feeling
activities were displayed in the class. I liked the mailbox activity which
basically kids writes mails to each other to express their feelings. Problem
solving is a reasonable way to cope with feelings that arise from problems
(Gonzales-Mena Pg.232). Jennifer, the teacher explained to me that this is a
great way for students conflict to express their feelings toward any
unpleasant situations. I noticed also a section called managing your anger
and there was this great poster called what is behind it. This poster showed
many feelings such as worry, hurt, sadness, fear, and guilt.
It would be
easier to teach children to accept, express and cope with their feeling
(Gonzales-Mena Pg.228).

5.

Familys involvement : I saw many filers that encourage parents to be

involved in the classroom such as a family volunteer hours it is a way to
involve parents in their children progress in the classroom and also to show
parents many helpful educational approaches they can use with their
children and allow teachers learn more about the childrens families. Long
beach city college center can be considered as a family- centered program.
the first and the most important resource is the family of the child
( Gonzales-Mena Pg.235)