Jaime Gonzalez

ECE 252

18 February 2021

Play Observation

1. Description

For my play observation assignment, I observed my students/children from my neighbors at

home child care. There are 6 children in her at home preschool that range from the ages of

18-28 months, however I will be focusing only on the children in the 18-24 month age group.

The at home preschool rooms setting is colorful is filled with skill building activities such as

building blocks, books, and matching games.

2. Cognitive Play

a) List of Materials:

 Doll house with playable dolls

 Giant Legos and Logs

 Building Blocks

 Toy cars (jumbo sized)

 Toy instruments (drum toy and piano)

 Mini toy kitchen set

 I believe that these materials are appropriate as they give children the opportunity

to build knowledge and skills.

b) When observing the classroom, the children showed a strong interest in the Dollhouse,

building blocks, and the Kitchen Set.

c) Amount of Time Spent on Each Toy:

  Doll House: 7-9 minutes

 Building Blocks: 11-12 minutes.

 Kitchen Set: 11 minutes.

d) It was clear that the children were fully engaged with the toys. They were had complete

concentration on the activities that they were doing. They were hands on with their toys,

which gave an indication that they had heavy interest and were engaged with their toys as

well.

e) What Children Learned:

 Doll House: Children were learning about communication. While playing with the

dolls, the children are opening up and expanding their pretend play. The are

practicing their language and speech skills. While conducting my observation, I

saw a couple children babble when playing with the dolls, making them act out a

conversation.

 Building Blocks: With building blocks, children are learning fine motor skills as

well as their problem-solving skills. They are also learning about balance and

shapes.

 Kitchen Set: When using the kitchen set, children are once again using pretend

play which can help further develop language and speech skills as well a problem

solving.

3. Social Play

a) While observing, I noticed that children started to move by themselves and began to play

alone. I specifically observed a child who repeatedly emptied and refilled a bucket up

with giant Legos. I could see how the child was trying to make it so that all 6 of the giant
 Legos could fit. The child was able to explore and learn how things work (specifically

how to make all Legos fit).

b) An example of Parallel Play that I observed was when two children were both playing

with the Doll House. Although they were playing with their own dolls and seemingly not

playing together, they both seemed to occasionally look and see what the child next to

them was doing and then modify their play based on what they saw.

c) While observing, I noticed that in the beginning of play time, they played together in

groups but as time went on I noticed that they moved into parallel play. I did not see a

certain material that encouraged a higher or lower level of social play. Of all the materials

that observed children playing with (doll house, building blocks, and kitchen set) they all

had 2 or more children performing parallel play.

d) In a way I think the teacher interrupted the children’s play. The teacher would go from

one group of kids to another and ask them what they are doing and would join in their

play by grabbing a doll, building block or plate and show them how it works. She would

spend about about 5 minutes per group before moving on to the next. This cycle allows

children to play together with an adult, with and next to other children as well as with

themselves.

4. Conclusion

a) From this observation, I saw with my own eyes how different types of play can create a

learning opportunity. Children are able to build language and speech skill from playing,

dressing and caring for dolls. They can also learn and improve on their problems solving

skills with trying to perfectly fit all of the Legos in a bucket or trying to build a tower

with blocks without it falling down.

b) I would recommend including other skill building materials such as puzzles like fitting

shapes into holes. This will help with problem solving skills.

c) Another recommendation I have includes the teacher interacting and engaging in play

with the children instead of leading the play. When the teacher joins the child’s play, she

should take the passive role and follow the child’s lead and suggestions. It’s the child’s

play and they should gather the information at their pace.