Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Field Blog-HB (Day 1)

     For my ten hours of observations, I chose to go to Hathaway Brown and observe a Pre-K classroom. When I walked into the classroom, I was warmly greeted by the little girls and boys. A bunch of the kids ran up to me right away and gave me hugs and immediately grabbed my hands, wanting me to come join them and play. The majority of the children weren't shy at all and the ones who were a little more shy warmed up to me right away. I already knew a few of the children in the class from working at the infant and toddler center at HB; some went there as babies and some had siblings who went there. I also knew one of the teachers prior to coming in, so I wasn't very nervous and had an idea of what to expect. One good thing about this classroom is that there are two teachers, and also the students have an option of half day or full day, so a decent amount of them went home early, giving the teachers a break and less to worry about.   
     When I first got there, the kids were all playing together nicely, and a few were playing individually. The classroom was a pretty good size and there were many different stations for the children to play at, such as a sand table, a kitchen area, a reading area, and much more. At first, when I walked in some of the kids didn't notice me or just chose to continue playing with their toys, while others ran up immediately, curious to know who I was. Mrs. Harris introduced me to the class, they all said "hello Miss Musso" which sounds so weird to me, and then they all came over to play with me. After playing with the children for about a half hour, they had snack. Prior to snack, they all washed their hands in the bathroom and sat down at their assigned tables. Each table had a pitcher of water and three of the kids had the responsibility of bringing it to their tables. They poured their water out of the pitcher and after they were done eating, they put their plates and cups away. I like how they weren't reliant on their teachers to do everything for them. 
     Then, they all went and sat on the rug and did an activity with one of their teachers. They took a vote about what the name of their bakery should be and one little girl who voted for the name that lost became very upset and threw herself on the floor, crying. Mrs. Harris brought her away from the rest of the class and sat down and talked with her. A few minutes later, she was back playing with the children, about to head off to dance class. While they were at dance, I had the chance to sit down with the teachers and talk about why I was there, what I wanted to get out of it, and other things. The children cam back after about 20 minutes and I played and interacted with them the rest of the time. I read them books, they made a "movie" for me, we colored pictures, and I made sure they didn't get too out of hand. If they were arguing a little, I sat back to see if they can work it out, but if not, I intervened and helped them come to an agreement. Overall, I really enjoyed being in this classroom and am excited to go back. 


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