Guidance Observation

Observation One:
A. Child: (Hits classmate when the classmate tried to take the child’s toy)
Teacher: “___ are you okay” (Looking at the child’s face who got hit)
Child: (Watching teacher check on classmate)
Teacher: (Holds child that got hit and turns to the child who hit) “___, you hitting ___ hurt them.
___ is crying because you hurt them, now they are sad.”
Child: (Begins patting the back of the child who they hit)
Teacher: “___ are you patting ___’s back so they feel better?”
Child: (Nods yes)
B. I believe that the caregiver’s response was very appropriate. They did not force the children
to hug and make up but instead the teacher helped the nonverbal child to communicate how they
felt after being hit. This showed the hitter child that they hurt their classmate. The hitter child
was also able to empathize with their classmate without being prompted to apologize.

Observation Two:
A. Child: (Dumps the paper plate of paint onto the ground)
Teacher: “No thank you ___!” (Flips the plate back over and moves it away from the child)
Child: (Cries)
Teacher: “You should not have dumped the paint all over the floor.”
B. This situation was handled inappropriately. There was an opportunity for the teacher to
extend the child’s learning and it was not taken seriously. One way the teacher could have
handled this would have been by asking the child to clean up the paint with them. The child
would have learned how to clean up their own mess and also learned that when making messy art
you have to clean up after yourself. The teacher did not speak with the child also until they began
to cry. The teacher shouldn’t have taken the paint away from the child because the child was also
still exploring and creating with it.

Observation Three:
A. Caregiver: (notices a child watching them as the tape artwork to the walls) “___, would you
like to help me hang the art on the wall?”
Child: (Runs away and begins ripping the art off the walls)
Caregiver: (approaches child and gets down to their level) “___, when I asked you if you would
like to help, I meant putting up the artwork, not taking it down. Could you help me put the art
back onto the wall?”
Child: (nods yes and hands the caregiver the art they had torn off the wall)
B. I believe that this situation was handled appropriately. The teacher saw how the child could
have misinterpreted what they asked of the child and sympathized. They made the child feel that
they did nothing wrong. I also liked how the caregiver allowed the child a new chance to help
put artwork on the walls by starting with the art they had torn off the wall.

Observation Four:
A. Child: (pushes a classmate out of the way so they could play with a toy)
Classmate: (begins to cry)
Caregiver: “___, why would you push your friend out of the way. They were playing with that
toy.” (Takes toy and gives it back to the classmate)
Child: (begins to cry)
Caregiver: “You hurt your friend”
B. This was not appropriate guidance at all. The teacher should have helped communicate the
classmate’s sadness to the child so that the child could learn empathy. Instead, the caregiver
made the situation worse by making the child more upset. The teacher could have said something
along the lines of: “___, do you see how ___ is crying? When you pushed him, he fell and hurt
his arm. Now ___ is feeling sad because you pushed him.”

Observation Five:
A. Child: (laying on the slide, blocking other classmates from using the slide)
Caregiver: (gets down to the child’s level) “___, you slid down the slide! Now that you are at the
bottom of the slide your friends want to take their turn on the slide. Do you want to go down the
slide again?”
Child: “YES!”
Caregiver: “Okay! How about we get off the slide and walk around it to wait for our turn?”
Child: (stands up and walks to the other side of the slide to wait his turn)
B. This guidance was appropriate. The way the teacher explained the reason for not laying on
the slide made sense for the child. The child understands what taking turns are and he also
wanted to take another turn down the slide. The teacher did a great job empathizing with the
child and also guiding him to letting his classmates to take a turn going down the slide.