Children's Center Observations - Classroom

In order to not have one extremely lengthy blog, I decided to break up the three environments. Also, I thought comparing the similarities and differences would be easier if they were separate. The demographics, ages, and gender are all the same for this as well.

In the classroom, the dynamic is completely different than it is on the playground/gym. The children are a lot calmer and listen to the teacher as they are expected to. Even though they usually sit together and are not able to run around screaming, the children do get a lot of play in the classroom. They are able to interact with one another, along with the teacher, and expand their minds in ways they never would have thought to do themselves. It is crucial that they have some sort of direction with this play, unlike the other plays they have throughout their days. The teacher is able to give the students activities to do that will stimulate their minds without them even knowing it. For an example, the children learned about the different colors associated with Valentine's Day. Instead of sitting there trying to remember colors and how to spell them, they played a game where they were able to learn the colors in both English and French. This broadens their minds and allows them to learn new information without them knowing what is going on. In addition, to emphasize what is associate with Valentine's Day, the children played a game in which they passed on a smile. The students would not have to get up, but simply sit in a circle and pass their smile on to another classmate of theirs. They were interactive with one another, everyone was equal, and everyone wanted the entire class to succeed. I found this reassuring because it was demonstrated very simply that children can play in various ways. It is not restricted to them running wild and doing whatever they want, whenever they want. In order for children to see the differences from a young age, they are being exposed to many different aspects of play that they can continue to nurture throughout their lives. Also, all of the children worked together, it did not matter what age, gender, or demographic they were, they were all equal and no one noticed any differences.