Child Observation Log
Name: Lisa Reagan
CHILD Day of the Content: Strengths and/or
WEEK with Weaknesses
DATE Name the content area and state only what
(chose 1 or 2 days you observed (hear and see)
per week
depending on days
in the field)
Observation 1
Child 1 Tuesday, 9/24/19 LA- Phonics – working on short e,
changing beginning and end sound
The student followed along with the teacher
and classmates to sound out the word with
their arm. Beginning sound on hand, middle
on elbow, and ending on shoulder, then a
scoop down to say the actual word. The
student raised his hand to have a turn at the
smartboard, but he did not get chosen. He
started to look down at the carpet, instead of
looking at the board.
MATH – Odd and even numbers
The student used a bead manipulative to
work on telling if numbers are even or odd.
He moved around a lot on the carpet area.
He moved the bead when the teacher gave
directions. He mimicked the teacher’s
actions to learn how to use the
manipulative, then continued with less
scaffolding.
Child 2 Tuesday, 9/24/19 LA- Phonics – working on short e,
changing beginning and end sound
The student is raising her hand to
manipulate the words on the smartboard.
She is participating by sounding out the
word on her arm. She was called on to write
and manipulate a word on the smartboard.
She changed the word “Ted” to “ten” by
hearing the change in ending sound.
Additional Thoughts: (observed
learning style, S/E) You may now add
some personal interpretation here.
The student seemed to be excited to
participate in a kinesthetic activity. He
may have been disappointed that he
couldn’t go up to the board and it
discouraged him from participating.
The student really enjoyed the
auditory/kinesthetic mix in sensory to
sound out the words and put them back
together.
He answered whole group questions
such as yes and no responses but did
not raise his hand for “why?”
questions. The student seems to do
really well when hands on
manipulatives are involved in a lesson.
Though, he was moving around a lot,
the student was able to clearly listen to
the teachers directions.
The student is very quiet and only
raises her hand to answer questions at
appropriate times. The teacher was
impressed with her work. This student
was very eager to participate and
practice hearing the change in sound.
 MATH - Odd and even numbers
During the math lesson, the student sat in
the very front of the carpeted area. She
always looked at her board, then her
teachers board to make sure that the number
of beads matched. She always says the class
responses aloud such as “yes” and “no.”
She raised her hand to answer the “why”
questions as well.
Observation 2
Child 1 Monday, 9/30/19 LA- Phonics – working on short i, finding
short i words
The student is trying to find the real and
nonsense short “i” words. The student has
his hand raised to have a turn, but was not
chosen to answer. He is still participating by
using the hand/arm motions for CVC. The
student raised his hand to make a sentence
for the word kit, he stated. “I need a kit for
my arm, so I don’t keep on hurting.” He
raised his hand again to answer if “mit” is
real or nonsense. He sounded it out on his
arm, said it was real, and used it in a
sentence.
MATH – Subtraction
The student was using spiders and flies
game with dice for numbers to see what we
are subtracting. The student was behind in
the activity. He could not follow along with
the teacher’s instruction. He had the
incorrect columns filled in on his graph.
Child 2 Monday, 9/30/19 LA- Phonics – working on short /i/,
finding short /i/ words
The student answered for the word “jit.”
She said the word, did the motion for CVC
on her arm, and stated that it is a nonsense
word. The student is coloring only the real
words on the sheet. The student follows
along and does the hand motions some of
the time.
The student seems to really enjoy
verbal direction and hands-on
manipulatives. She is always more
active in class participation when there
is a hands-on activity. She really like
doing the check list to make sure that
her answers were correct.
The student is moving around a lot in
his seat. He is trying to stay focused but
seems to have difficulty doing so unless
he is actively doing something. When
he answers the teacher’s questions, the
student responds with unusual syntax
and pronunciation. I can see how this
could hinder his communication skills,
but was clearly understood by his
classmates and teacher.
I feel that this showed that the student
could not understand the mathematical
concept without manipulatives. When
the student worked with another
student on a hands-on activity, he was
much more able to complete the
activity correctly. This was a difficult
concept for him to understand.
The student is keeping to herself. She
seems to do well with color coding,
which she seems to be doing a lot with
her crayon box. This shows that she
does well with visuals to help her learn
and organize thoughts.
 MATH – Subtraction
The student was able to follow along to the
teachers modeling of the activity. She was
clearly able to keep track of the colors and
the amounts needed. She followed
directions promptly. When working with a
partner on the activity, she was able to fill
in the correct boxes and find the difference
between the two numbers.
Observation 3
Child 1 Tuesday, 10/8/19 LA- Phonics – working on short /o/,
finding short /o/ words
When asked to change the first consonant to
in “hot” to /n/, the student said “not”. He
was able to identify a short /o/ word in a
passage. He raised his hand and said, “We
highlight Frog.”
MATH – Math Facts
The student is last to go to the board. The
teacher asked him to show a count on fact.
He moved 9 out of 10 beads on the first
row, while he moved 8 out of 10 on the
second row. The teacher explained that he
may have been showing a add nine fact, not
a count on fact. The teacher guided him in
being able to show a count on fact by
keeping the first row of 9 out of 10, then
adding 1 out of 10 beads for the second
row. The teacher helped him learn that
counting on can only work for adding 1, 2,
and 3 to any number.
Child 2 Tuesday, 10/8/19 LA- Phonics – working on short /o/,
finding short /o/ words
The student raised her hand to have a turn
on the smartboard. The student was asked to
change the ending of the word “cod” to /d/.
The student was able to change the word to
“cob” by hearing the sound.
MATH – Math Facts
The student has her eyes on the board. The
student was asked to show an add nine fact
on the math manipulative board. She moved
9 out of 10 beads over in row one, and 5 out
The student seems to understand the
topic well with and without
manipulatives. She was not very
challenged with the subtraction concept
but having the activity with different
steps added a challenge for her.
The student was able to change the
consonant in “hot” to “not” by hearing
the letter sound. This shows that the
student has awareness of letter sounds.
He was eager to participate by
sounding out the word on his arm
during phonics instruction.
The teacher was very proud of the
student by figuring it out with process
questioning and some guidance. This
observation shows that the child needs
explicit instruction. He struggles when
he cannot clearly see a visual of the
teacher’s example.
The student had a great grasp of letter
sound manipulation. She was able to
quickly change the word from a /b/ to a
/d/ ending. The visual of the word on
the smartboard aided the student in the
process.
The student works extremely well with
manipulatives. The visual
representation and hands-on aspect help
her understand the concept further. She
had a grasp understanding of what add
nine math facts are.
 of 10 beads over in row 2. By adding
9+5=14, the student showed an add nine
fact.

Observation 4

Child 1 Thursday, 10/17/19 Language Arts/Science: Details and

Living Things Cause Changes

The student was asked to read a passage

about beavers and highlight things that
beavers do to change the environment. The
student had to then write two things that
beavers change. The student highlighted a
lot of information, nearly half of the entire
passage. Mrs. Ferrier reviewed with the
class and asked this child to redo it doing
work time.

Friday, 10/18/19 Math: Place Value/Digits/Regrouping
The student was asked to regroup beans into
tens and hundreds. The student helped to
put groups of ten in the tens column. When
asked to regroup the tens into hundreds, the
student froze and did not answer.
The student had a difficult time
understanding the concept of
regrouping. Seeing the visual of the
sheets for hundreds, tens, and ones was
helpful to the student.

Child 2 Thursday, 10/17/19 Language Arts/Science: Details and

Living Things Cause Changes She understood what change to the
environment means. Mrs. Ferrier
The student worked on the Beaver provided positive praise for her answer,
worksheet. She read the passage, she reread as she understood the concept clearly.
the passage and highlighted things that she
believed to be changes made by the beaver.
When she shared her answer, she said “the
beavers gnaw trees into small pieces.”

Friday, 10/18/19 Math: Value/Digits/Regrouping The student used the manipulatives to

The student was listening to the lesson on
regrouping. The student was given the task
to regroup the beans into the correct place
value. The student moved 10 cups of 10
beans to a bigger cup to represent 100.
When estimating a number of beans in the
jar, the student was fairly close and had a
realistic answer. She was able to use >, <,
and = correctly when comparing numbers.
accurately regroup 10 groups of 10 to
the 100s mat. She did this with very
little guidance, which shows that she
has an understanding of place value.
The manipulatives aided the student in
having a hands-on and visual
representation.
 Observation 5
Child 1 Monday, 10/21/19 Language Arts: Phonics Long Vowels
The student listened to and participated in a
whole group phonics activity for
introducing long vowels. The student was
picked to spell out the word “ham.” The
student said that the vowel is short. The
student asked to sound out the word on his
arm. He did the hand motions and isolated
the sounds /h/ /a/ /m/.
Math: Regrouping
The student raised his hand multiple times
to volunteer and answer questions. He was
not called on and sat there quietly. He put
his thumb up to agree with another
classmate that was chosen to answer.
Child 2 Monday, 10/21/19 Language Arts: Phonics Long Vowels
The student participated in a whole group
phonics activity for introducing long
vowels. The activity started off with short
/a/, then moved on to long /a/ and asked the
student how to spell the word if it’s a long
vowel. The student looked at a picture of a
snake, sounded out the word on her arm,
them spelled it for the class. She pointed out
that the special “e” would be at the end to
make the a long.
Math: Regrouping Tens
The student was picked to scoop their
estimation of 50 lima beans. The child and
two other students counted out the beans in
small cups, ten in each. It was found that
her estimation was actually 68 beans.
The student had a great understanding
of the short vowel a. He was able to do
the hand motion for isolating sounds,
which adds a whole brain teaching
aspect as well as verbal manipulation.
The student felt accomplished because
he smiled knowing that he got the
correct answer.
He seemed discouraged when he could
not participate in the activity. He was
so eager to participate and learn from a
hands-on experience. Observing others
do it was not ideal for this child.
The visual presentation of long a on the
board may have helped the student
come to the correct conclusion. The
student had minimal trouble when
identifying what makes the vowel long.
The student was excited to participate.
She seems to understand the concept,
as when working on the partner activity
after this she showed that she has the
ability to successfully regroup. The
visual representation of an estimation
of 50 beans was overestimated but
showed the students that they had 18
more than 50.