Alexis Fodor

Professor Bottliglieri

Educ 111

December 7, 2019

School Age Observation Requirement

15 Minute Snapshot

Placement: School Age

Child Name: “Child L”

Child Age: 8 Years

Observation:

This observation took place early in the morning before school starts. Child L entered the

classroom with cereal in a bag and a water bottle full of milk. She approached the teacher and

asked for a bowl and grabbed a spoon off the counter. She then sat down at the table. She

carefully poured the cereal into the bowl, but got caught up in her conversation and spilled her

milk on the table. She immediately jumped up to grab paper towels and cleaned up the mess. She

chatted with the other students who were sitting at the table, also conversing in between bites.

She finished eating before the other two students, but sat patiently while they finished. All three

got up at the same time and cleaned up their breakfast. Child L then led the group over to a toy

shelf and pulled out a bin of counting bears. She started sorting the bears by color and the other
kids followed. The three talked about other students in their class, about school and who had

harder homework the night before. Child L got up and ran away to go find new toys to play with,

leaving the youngest child behind. The teacher called her back to the toys and reminded her that

she needed to help clean up since she helped to play. After the bears were cleaned up she raised

her voice and exclaimed that she wanted to color. The group of kids ran over to the art center and

discovered that there wasn’t any paper. She then whispered in her friend’s ear. The friend

approached the teacher to ask if they can leave the room to go find some paper. The teacher said

no and explained that they can’t leave the room unsupervised. Child L pouted and stomped

across the room back to the art station and picked a coloring book. After she found a clean page

she started to color. She narrated everything she was doing to the group saying things like “Now,

I’m going to color the skirt pink… or maybe purple… I don’t know yet.” She then told the group

that this picture was going to be for her parents. Just then a crying child walked in the room.

Child L rolled her eyes, whispered to the group of coloring children and went back to coloring.

Shortly after, one of the younger children at the art station started whining. She gave him a stern

look and quickly hunched down closer to her coloring page as the teacher approached. The

teacher came over asking what was going on and she immediately answered telling him “He’s

crying because he wants a new coloring page, but he didn’t finish his first one yet.” The teacher

reminded the whining child that Child L was correct and he needed to finish his first page. She

sat there snickering the entire time. She then led her group in singing “Mary had a Little Lamb”

together.
Reflection:

Child L is able to do things independently without adult assistance. She is capable of noticing

when something goes wrong and uses reasoning to fix the situation. She displayed this when she

spilled her milk and immediately got up to clean it up in a timely fashion. A younger child may

have just sat there, or called out for a teacher to assist. Child L took the initiative to clean it up on

her own. Once she finished eating, she took charge of her friend group. She definitely stood out

as the leader as she picked the next activity. Unfortunately, I could see that this could potentially

cause some problems for her. When the boy didn’t want to finish his coloring page she almost

got aggressive in redirecting him towards the correct task. She showed that she has an

understanding of the rules, but hasn’t yet figured out how to assist other struggling with that

concept in a kind way.

Implication for teachers:

I think that Child L could be a huge asset in the classroom if she is taught people

management skills. If she learns appropriate ways to speak to her peers without sounding bossy,

I think she could benefit as a classroom helper as she continues to age. A refresh on manners

and/or classroom rules could benefit not only Child L, but the entire class as well. Since she

narrates her actions, she could be taught how to write stories and add flair along with descriptive

language to those writings. She could even draw pictures and write a short narrative about the

picture.
 Reflection

The before and after school programs that this learning center offer are a big help for

working parents and continue learning outside of the normal school day. In this setting, the

school age group doesn’t have their own designated space. Most of the time they are involved in

the preschool’s activities. I noticed that the older kids are almost regarded as helpers in the

morning. Most days, when kids come in and finish their breakfast they are allowed to have some

free play time as the rest of the students trickle in. The older school kids ended up playing with

younger kids acting as almost a mentor. This helped keep all kids entertained for the most part,

and created good socialization for all age groups.

Teachers seemed to be more relaxed with the school age students. I think that this could

be contributed to the maturity and understanding that the older kids have. Most of them can be

trusted with more than what you would expect from a three or four year old. I would imagine

that this also leads to more fun and interactive activities. These kids seemed to have enjoyed

being helpers to their teachers by wiping down the white board, cleaning up snack messes, or

other small jobs. Children of this age group are more suited for little projects of that sort – they

are able to complete the tasks because of their independence.

I really didn’t see any students that were special needs in this environment so I wasn’t

able to observe how that was handled. There were some big examples of inclusion that stood out

to me though. I noticed that there were some older kids that didn’t really have a friend group for

the free play time. Teachers made an effort to pull the student aside and encourage them to join a

group or ask someone to start a new activity with them. This particular student seemed really shy

and was still timid about approaching other kids. The teacher then asked where the child would
like to go, and helped them get integrated into a group. It was refreshing to see the other students

in that group welcome the shy student and include them in their activities.

I have had prior experience with school age kids. I think there are a lot of perks to

teaching and mentoring kids of that age group. Most of the time they are independent and

capable of handling themselves. This allows the teacher to be able to monitor larger groups, or

even take a little time out of the day to work with struggling kids while the rest of the group

works on something independently. I have also experienced that the older kids get, the stronger

their attitudes and voices become. This isn’t always a bad thing, but it also isn’t always a good

thing either. I think that I would enjoy working with children who are school age, but I think that

my preferred age group is definitely kindergarten or first grade. I love the innocence that they

still have, but also think it’s so neat to watch them grow and blossom into their own persons.
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