Alexis Fodor

Professor Bottliglieri

Educ 111

December 7th, 2019

Toddler Observation Assignment

15 Minute Snapshot

Placement: Toddler

Child Name: “Child H”

Child Age: 15 months

Observation:

Child H walked around the room holding a toy truck in his hand. He then turns and laughs at

Child X who was bouncing in a jumper seat. Child H then crawled into a foam playpen-type toy

with Child Z. Both children giggle and speak gibberish to each other. Child H then exits the play

pen and yells “truck” three times. He then walked over to a play mat with toys and picked up a

plastic pig. He continued wandering around the room while smashing the truck and the pig

together yelling “boom”. Child X sneezes from in the jumper seat – Child H turns around and

watches as the teacher gives attention to Child X. He then sat down beside the toy mat dropping

the truck behind him. He then examines a new colorful toy and quickly stands up mumbling to

himself again. Child H runs across the toy mat kicking all the toys off. He then finds a toy phone
on the shelf and rams it into the wall five times. Child Z approaches, both stare at each other for

a few seconds until Child H walks away and finds a cabinet door that was left open. He stood

there pointing at it until a teacher acknowledges him and closes the door. Child H spotted the toy

truck again and ran across the room to retrieve it as the teacher follows. She asks him if he

pooped and checked his diaper as he shakes his head no. As she prepares to change him, Child H

plays with the trashcan, opening and closing the lid. The teacher picks him up and lays him on

the changing table. The child still has the truck in his grasp and spins the wheels during the

duration of the diaper change. After being put on the ground, Child H drops the truck. He

exclaimed “Oh!” and then yelled “Boom!” Another parent and child enter the room and Child H

approaches just watching them. Child H then notices me, he came over and placed his hand on

my leg just staring at me. He then held the truck up in the air until I acknowledged it, then ran

away to play with Child Z. Both children find toys from the floor. Child Z said “Uh oh” and

Child H laughed in response. At that moment another teacher enters the room. Child H goes

running over to her and she picks him up. She said to him “Miss Rachel is coming to take you to

the bear room.”

Reflection:

Child H is able to play by himself, but also plays well with others. He is capable of parallel play,

but not really playing with the other children. He seems to have a sense of what is right and

wrong – we see this when he finds the cabinet door that was left open. He wasn’t able to move

past it until someone corrected it. I believe that Child H had some sort of understanding when his

teacher asked if he had pooped in his diaper. He responded to her, even though his answer was

not correct, he knew that “No” was an appropriate response. Child H showed that he is capable
of knowing that some actions have consequences. We see this when he dropped his toy and said

“Uh oh” and he knows that when he smashes toys together they make the “boom” noise.

Implication for teachers:

Since Child H is curious about his surroundings, teachers can explain what things are to

him in an effort to expand vocabulary. He also is starting to show interest in playing with other

kids, creating activities or games that are age appropriate would potentially help Child H and the

other toddlers learn how to play together, instead of side by side. These activities may help with

gross motor and fine motor skills as well depending on the activity.
 Reflection

I was a little disappointed with the toddler age group. I was there early in the morning so

there was not a lot of kids in the classroom and there really wasn’t any curriculum going on at

the time. Despite that, the teachers didn’t really interact with the kids that much. Some were

being fed breakfast, but other than that the teachers stood around gossiping about the weekend

drama not paying much mind to the kids. At one point, the one teacher use the giving cues, hints,

and offering assistance when a child struggled to put the correct shapes in their hole for a sorting

game. She still didn’t get down on the ground or truly interact with him, just talked to him across

the room.

The daycare has a skeleton schedule that each classroom models their curriculum around

each week. The theme that week was the letter P and pumpkins. I noticed that some of the kids

were bringing in pumpkins and things that began with the letter for their classrooms to share.

Each classroom also had crafts and projects hanging on the walls. The toddler classroom had

finger paintings hanging on the window. I was able to observe a little of what they had been

teaching by the lesson plan and other visual aids that were posted around the room. They were

learning about different life cycles (like frogs, flowers, butterflies, and even turtles). There were

also magnetic letters on the mini fridge that were at the children’s height to play with.

There were a decent amount of toys in the room despite the small size of the classroom.

Things like a kitchen set, soft blocks, wooden blocks, musical instruments, stuffed animals, cars

and even puzzles were neatly organized and in their place. Some of the shelves were labeled

according to the type of toys in them like, “dramatic play”, “kitchen”, “music”, and “blocks”.
 I had a hard time identifying the different strategies used in the classroom. I tried

engaging the teachers in conversation about their lessons but they weren’t really willing to speak

with me and were almost bothered by my presence. With that being said, I didn’t really see any

of the toddler teaching strategies being used. The kids were mostly playing on their own with

adult intervention as needed. This was a very difficult observation for me because I felt like I

wasn’t able to get enough out of it.

 Door to Changing
Play yard Table & Toy Kitchen
y Wall Shelf Set
Shelf

Closet Door
Tall
Cabinet

Tile floor area

with group
Cubbies/Shelves

Cabinets/Sink
feeding table

Mini
Fridge

Colorful carpet

Toy
Toy
Shelf
Toy Shelf Shelf

Door