Classroom Environment Observation

Susan Davison
April 14, 2016
1. What philosophical/theoretical position about child development and learning
does the teacher have? What evidence and teacher action supports your
ideas?
This teacher seems to be very student centered. The teacher seems to be
very hands on during outside play because she plays with the children. She
also sits on the floor with the students while reading books or doing other
activities to be on their level. This teacher also uses active listening while
communicating with each child and repeats what they say so that she is clear
that she understands what they have said to her. This teacher uses a lot of
Montessori tools in their classroom such as self-correcting and individualized
activities such as puzzles and the sand box to trace letters and numbers in.
This teacher also uses different lessons to approach different learning styles,
such as using worksheets for the visual learner, whereas the kinesthetic and
musical learners are approached by songs and dancing for lessons.
2. What role does play have in this environment? Are there areas inside and
outside that support open-ended play? Sketch the layout of the classroom
and playground. How are the materials arranged?
Play is a very important part of the childs day in this U-Gro classroom. The
students spend their mornings doing their lessons, but it is broken up by the
children separating into their stations to play. The afternoon after each childs
nap is spent outside playing until they are picked up by a parent, and there is
one 30 minute recess break after lunch as well.
The layout of the classroom is: The back right corner is the reading cove with
lots of books and mini sofa and chairs. Underneath the cove is the block area
that also has trucks in it. Next to the cove, is the circle rug area where the
white board easel is located and on the walls has the calendar, clock, and
daily schedule. The science area is along the wall of windows looking to the
playground, and contains: a computer, measuring equipment, weather
information, fish tank, and their science projects (growing seeds). Next to the
door leading outside is the set of bathrooms and sinks with a water fountain.
The kitchen is along the wall and has a large refrigerator and sink with an
oven and kitchen cabinets. There are two long tables low to the ground with
little chairs that displays each childs name on the back. The math center is in
the middle of the room, which has a lego table, a train table, and cubbies that
hold counting bears, shapes, and puzzles. The dramatic play area is in the
back left corner of the classroom, which has a kitchen, dollhouse, play
clothes, and cribs with dolls. Along the left wall of the classroom is lined with
the childs cubbies which contain their personal belongings. Each of these

different areas of the classroom are separated by tables or cubbies so they

appear to be their own rooms to the children.
3. What types of languages are heard in the classroom? Who does most of the
talking? What are the adults and children saying? Describe their
conversation.
During my observation, I heard the teacher count in both Spanish and in
English while the children would line up or during their math lesson on
counting the bears, in which the children were encouraged to count along
with the teacher. While describing each childs facial attributes, the teacher
would ask the child their hair and eye colors to place in a class chart, which
was in both Spanish and English names of the colors.
The teacher probably speaks 60 percent of the time compared to 40 percent
of the time children spend talking during their large group lessons. The
teacher does ask open ended questions to the children whether they have an
answer or a thought to how the lesson makes the students feel or if they
have heard of this idea before. Each time the teacher reads a book, before
flipping the page, she would ask the students a question about what they
listened to as to make sure the students are paying attention and uses active
listening to repeat what the child has said to the entire class. During small
group time, or stations, children are encouraged to interact with each other
without the teacher directing the conversation. The teacher may add a
question or thought for the children to elaborate on, but the students are
encouraged to work as teams to solve problems and use their communication
skills.
4. How do space and time effect student learning? How are students grouped
(small group, whole group, independently)? Describe daily schedule. Do
students have time for exploration? How do the students transition?
Students can arrive at school as early as 7am, but the classroom lessons do
not start until 9am. Several students were dropped off for 9am, which were greeted
at the door and told to sit down to eat breakfast after washing their hands and sang
a munch, munch song. After breakfast, the students had their morning routine of
calendar, weather outside, and introducing the lesson for the day. The students sat
in the circle time for about a half an hour, then moved into their stations using a
transition of hoping like their favorite animal if they were sitting like a big boy or girl
and being patient. Students stayed in their stations for around 30 minutes to 45
minutes before cleaning up and getting ready to go out for morning recess, which
last about 30 minutes. The children come back inside for more of their lesson in
large group time, and then transition to lunch using a transition of jumping to a
song and clapping with two students at a time, and going to the bathroom and to
wash hands. The children sit in their assigned seats and wait to sing their lunch
song, and then eat their lunches. At 12:30 each child lays down on their mats for a
nap until 2-2:30pm (depending on how long students stay asleep). They read a book
and then head outside for recess. The teacher said they normally do their science
outside if it is messy, such as planting their seeds in dirt, or will go inside. After this

lesson, the students normally have free play outside if its nice out or inside in their
stations until they are picked up. There is a very large jungle gym inside for the
older kids which has the foam matting flooring for children to run if the weather is
not cooperating. This area is separated from the younger childrens area (toddlers
and younger).
Overall, these students have a lot more free time than structured time but
the large amount of lesson time is in the mornings. If a student is late during the
morning time, the teacher has the ability to take a child one on one in the afternoon
to teach them the missed information. The students are also told to go play rather
than hanging around teachers and staff members, although many teachers play
along with the children outside on the equipment. The children are also allowed to
bring out puzzles or other activities to do on the picnic tables if they dont want to
play on the play equipment.
5. How do classroom decorations, time, curriculum effect diversity and
individual differences? What supports your answer?
I was lucky enough to see diversity week during this observation, so the
lessons were planned around this theme in the classroom! There was a large
tree picture on the back wall that had the students family trees on it with
their pictures of them with their families. There was a math lesson on the wall
that had the students identify the different family members that lived in their
houses and counted their families into charts and graphs by household. The
art gallery wall had cutouts of each student that was sent home for the child
to decorate with their families and families wrote back a paragraph as to why
they love their child for being different, which the teachers read aloud to the
class with each child. The students had a chart on the teachers easel that
had their hair and eye colors on it. The teacher read a book about children of
different cultures and asked open ended questions to each child as to why
they were different than the child sitting next to them on the floor or in the
book. On the mirror, there was a paper that asked mirror, mirror, I am
special because.