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Lluvia Rodriguez

Early Childhood Education 252

Ms. Cheryl Brecheisen

September 30, 2012

Play Observation

1. Description

My observation took place at The Abel B. Sykes Jr Child Development Center.

The children I observed during play time averaged from ages 2yrs to 2yrs1/2. In

the classroom there was one adult who was the teacher, along with five children

who were: 1) Chriselle 2yrs ½, Jadan 2yrs ½, Kenberly 2yrs 4 months, Nathan

2yrs 4 months, Isabella 2yrs 2 months. In the classroom there are many play

areas: 1) The House Keeping Area, which has a small sized pretend stove, dish

washer along with a shelf that has small plastic plates and plastic foods. 2) The

Music Area has containers with instruments such as kazoos, tambourines, shakers,

drums, rhythm sticks, and whistles. 3) The Art Area, which has paint, different

sized paint brushes, markers, crayons, and different colored construction paper. 4)

The Block Area has different type of blocks such as plastic blocks and wood

blocks of different shapes and sizes. The last play are is the Reading Area which a

colorful mat and a red bean bag for children to sit in along with a book shelf filled

with different types of hard cover books and plastic spongy books.

2. Play Materials
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A. Play materials that were appropriate for the children in the classroom were blocks,

stuffed animals, dolls, puzzles, dress up clothing, cube sorting boxes, animal sound

farm house ,fisher price medical kit which included multi-colored stethoscope, blood

pressure cuff, thermometer, a pretend echoscope, spring pressure syringe, and a

bracelet style bandage. Other important toys were wooden shaped learning table tops

with rounded corners and smooth edges with a raised base accommodating the floor

or table top.

B. The first toy that I observed a child grab was a cube sorting box. This Plastic Cube

box is a multi-colored educational toy for toddler’s that is safe and easy to use. Its

interactive design allows toddlers to begin sorting shapes into corresponding holes

by matching the color of both shapes into the cube holes. As the child played with

this toy, the child got the chance to develop his fine motor skills due to the holding

of the shape and making it fit in the proper hole. The variety of colors and easy to

hold blocks encourage creative play and helps him recognize shapes, and colors. The

second toy that another child played with was the Animal Sound Farm House toy

which includes a farm house with an adorable Farmer Jed figure and a collection of

farm animals like a horse, pig, cow, sheep, and goat each with a built in animal

sound. The farm hose includes activities like dropping-through action the farm house

silo, fun surprises when the chicken is pushed along the hay loft; and peek a boo

doors on the barn’s side. The colors of the farm hose are red, white, yellow, brown

and green. Each of the animals has its appropriate color as well. The third toy that

was used by another child was the Wooden Shape Learning Table top which had 4

triangles, 4 squares, 4 rectangles, and 4 circle wooden shapes all varying in different
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colors including: blue, red, yellow, and green. Through this toy the child will be able

to recognize shapes and colors as well as fitting the shape in the correct molding.

C. With the first toy (Plastic Cube Sorting Box), the child took about 1-5 minutes to

sort in the correct shape into the corresponding cube holes. From my observation I

can tell that the child had previously played with this toy because he was very

familiar with the shapes and did not hesitate or got frustrated while fitting them in.

With the second toy (Animal Sound Farm House), this child played with this toy for

approximately 10 minutes. From my observation, I saw that the child would take

each of the animals one by one and would place it wherever she thought it belonged

in the farmhouse. The child seemed really interested and would verbally make the

animal sound as she moved it from place to place in the farm house. The third toy

that was being used was the Wooden Shaped Table Top. With this toy the child took

about 5 minutes to play with it. While observing the child, the child seemed

frustrated because she wasn’t able to fit the correct shape into the correct molding so

she would roughly rub the shapes onto the moldings and would through the shapes

on the floor. After about 5 minutes the child decided to leave this toy away and left

to another play area.

D. From my point of view, The Plastic Cube Sorting Box stimulated the child because

he was using his fine motor skills and eye sight to fit the correct shapes in the cube

holes. The Animal Sound Farm House from my point of view contributed to

language due to the built in sounds the animals made as well as the child making the

animal sounds. The Wooden Shaped Table Top was a stimulant toy as well because
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it affected the child’s behavior. The child was not able to fit the shapes into the

moldings so she it seemed as if it was too difficult for her to do.

3. Social Play

A. While observing the child that was playing with the Animal Sound Farm House I

noticed that one of the other children in the classroom joined in and the first child

allowed her to play along with her. Through my observation I could tell there were

positive interactions between the two children because they did not fight over the

animals and both used the farm house.

B. I believe the play material (The Animal Farm House) helped determine their level of

social play because they were both involved with one another; they both were using

the animals as well as making animal noises together.

C. While observing the child that using the wooden shaped table top I believe this was

negative interaction between the child and classmates because no one seemed to want

to go help her or at least join in the play.

D. From my point of view the adult had no interaction with this child and this affected

the child’s play. Due to having no interaction, the play was affected because the child

was not able to learn how to fit the shape into the molding and simply gave up. Rather

than having no interaction with the child, if the adult would have joined the play and

interacted with the child as she attempted to fit the shapes by telling the child words

such as square then pointing or showing her the square molding perhaps the child

would have fitted the shapes into the moldings as the adult would have fitted a shape

in the molding as well. This way the child would have had an interaction and would

have tried to fit the shapes with the help of the adult.
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4. Conclusion

A. From this observation I learned that different types of toys can be engaging and some

cannot. I learned that all children have different interests, some like to socialize and

share and some do not. I learned that having different types of toys in the classroom is

very beneficial because it gives children the opportunity to learn about shapes,

sounds, counting, texture, color etc.

B. My first recommendation would be for the caregiver to join in and interact with the

children as they play. Children in this age span enjoy sensorimotor play such as

touching, hearing, smelling, tasting, pushing, lifting, pulling, and dropping as well as

developing different ways of playing all needing some type of interaction either from

a classmate or an adult to help them understand and learn how to use or play with a

toy. My second recommendation for this age group would be for the caregiver to

provide the classroom with two of the same type of toys. Even though there was no

fitting for the same toy, having two of the same toys or similar toys would be

beneficial when children do fight for a toy they do not wish to share.