Maggie Rimkunas

October 12, 2021

Jami Pollis

ED347: Special Topics: Observation, Curriculum and Assess

Observation Paper

Responses From Interview

I interviewed the lead teacher in room 7. Her name is Ashley. She uses Desired Results

Developmental Profile (DRDP) to observe the children in her classroom. The DRDP online

platform allows teachers to enter notes as well as photos and videos. The teachers can tag the

observations under specific children and developmental milestones or markers. Through the

DRDP observations she is able to rate the children on specific areas of development such as

socialization, fine motor, gross motor, problem solving, and communication. If a rating in one of

these areas is low enough to be of concern, she is able to do further assessment on a child

called an Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ). ASQ’s can be done for specific areas of

development at specific intervals of age ranging from 1 month to 66 months. Through Ashley’s

DRDP observations she can determine attainable goals for each individual child as well as what

interests each individual child has. She then can create her curriculum based off of what the

goals and interests of each child are. There are many theories of child development or learning

that can guide a lead teachers practice. The theories of child development or learning that

guide Ashley’s practice in room 7 are Reggio-Emelia, Montessori, Nature, Exploration, and

STEM. Ashley really focuses her curriculum on letting the children explore things in nature as

well as in the classroom through the use of the projector and lots of time outside.
Description of Setting

I observed in room 7 at Educare which is an Infant/Toddler classroom. The age of the

children in the classroom was between ages 1 and almost 3. There can be children younger

than 1 in the room as well they just don’t have any children younger than that in their room at

the moment. The number of children that were present at the time of my setting observation

was 7. The number of adults that were present at the time of my setting observation was 4.

Educare is a beautiful building located directly next to George J. Mitchell School which

happens to be Waterville’s school for grades Kindergarten through 3rd grade. It is strategically

located in a densely populated area of Waterville that is less than wealthy. The building that

Educare is in is also used for trainings done by the larger umbrella organization called KVCAP

which stands for Kennebec Valley Community Action Program.

As you walk into the building you first walk through a set of double doors that brings

you into an entry way in which there is another set of double doors. After walking through the

second set of double doors you will walk into the lobby. To the left of the entrance you will see

a large area in which there is seating in case you need to wait. If you look to the right you will

see a desk in which you sign in and out as a guest. At this point the lovely lady named Deanna

will double check that you are signed in and if you will need to go through the double doors to

the left, to get to the Infant and Toddler classrooms, or if you will need to go through the

double doors to the right, to get to the Preschool classrooms. The children arrive by going

through the gate to the playground to arrive by entering the classroom door that leads directly

to the outdoors and playgrounds.

set of cubbies on the right side with 4 cubbies on each side which makes 1 cubby for each child

in the classroom. On the left side of the door there is a cubby for teachers to hang bags as well

as coats and jackets. On the left side of the teacher’s cubby there are 2 sinks that are the

perfect size for young children. To the left of that is the classes entrance to the bathroom that

room 7 shares with room 8. Along the classroom wall of the bathroom there is a sensory table

for the children to explore in. To the left is the kitchen area in which the children eat breakfast

and lunch that Is provided by Educare as well as do activities in which they need to be seated.

There are 2 small tables as well as child sized chair for the children to sit in. In the kitchen area

there is also a microwave that can be used by the teachers as well as a small refrigerator that

they can store milk along with other things in. After this area you will see a door that leads to a

hallway in which you can access other classrooms and rooms in the building and leads you to

the lobby of the building. To the left of the door there is an area that is used for the care of the

babies and young toddlers. In this area there is a rocking chair as well as a crib for the child to

nap in. To the left of this area there begins a pretend play area in which there are toys as well

as a toy kitchen and dining table area. The next area to the left is an exploration area in which

there are jars with different objects that make different noises and things such as magnifying

glasses. To the left of that is a quiet area or safe area where the kids can go if they want to be

left alone or are needing to calm down. That then brings you to the other side of the children’s

cubbies. In the middle of the room there is a climber which has a set of stairs and a slide/ramp.

Some other areas that were used by the class during my observations were the

playground outside and the bathroom. The playground has a sandbox that has a wooden bridge
across it and a wooden boat. There are two wooden house like structures on the playground as

well as large blocks that the children can use to build things. On the playground there is also a

sand and water table that the children are able to use when the weather is warmer. The

bathroom has a changing table as well as 2 child’s height toilets and 2 child’s sinks. The door to

the bathroom is a divided door so the top of the door can stay open while the bottom of the

door is closed.

Developmental/Hour By Hour Chart

Hour # What I Saw

1 Children were eating breakfast. When they were done, they cleared their own
places. They dumped their extra food and milk into the correct bucket and placed
their dishes into the other bucket and went to go wash their hands after being
asked no more than twice.
2 Children played outside. They collected leaves for an art project to do later in the
day. They naturally as children took all the blocks off the shelf. Children played in
the sandbox for a long period of time. Children seemed excited and happy to have a
new face in the classroom and were very excited for me to come back another day.
3 Child was doing “pew pew” with the magnetic foam number in the classroom.
Multiple teachers saw this behavior and told child that this behavior was not
acceptable behavior for school.
4 Child became mad and upset when told that he was not able to take the sand out of
the sandbox. He exhibited this anger by screaming and gripping the railing of the
gazebo and ended up scaring another child in the class with this behavior.
5 Child declares that he likes pickles. Teachers start a conversation with the child by
declaring that they like pickles as well. Teachers ask child if he likes sweet or sour
pickles. Child replies to teachers by saying that he likes sour pickles and sweet
pickles.
6 Children did a science experiment. They poured baking soda into vinegar that had
 food coloring in it. Children had bath toys to play with in the vinegar baking soda.
Children loved it and kept asking for more “water” vinegar and “salt” baking soda.
7 Child was in another child’s personal space. Child ended up accidentally hitting the
other child and was extremely upset claiming that the other child had hit them.
Teachers separated the children and explained to the children that they need to be
more careful when around other children.
8 Child was repetitively running up to the wall when they were watching videos of
animals. He was kicking and hitting the wall as was asked to stop multiple times by
the teacher. He was told that if he was unable to stop the behavior the video would
have to be turned off. The child got the same reaction from the teacher when he
was staring into the light of the projector.
9 The children were using spoons to eat cream of wheat and blueberries. A younger
child was able to mimic an older child when she rolled a ball down the ramp of the
climber.
10 Child used the large blocks on the playground to build a tower and when asked what
he was building he replied by saying that he built a crane operator.
Observational Tools

The observational tools that I used during my 10 hours of observation were the setting

observation which I did for the first 2 hours of my observation hours. The next observational

tool I used was a running record. I did a 20-to-30-minute running record observation on one

child and then continued to do a running record observation on the rest of the children. The

next observational tool I used was an anecdotal note. I did a 20-to-30-minute anecdotal note

observation on an individual child and then finished the 2-hour block of observation time by

doing anecdotal note observations on all of the children. Along the way with the 10 hours of

observation I completed the Developmental/Hour by Hour Chart.

Data Analyzation
 One of the children struggled with leaving her mom during drop off. But once her mom

left and she had calmed down she was running around saying that she was Rainbow Dash from

My Little Pony then she decided she was a Rainbow Ranger and was singing the theme song.

The teachers then said to me that the struggle with separation is not normal for this child and

that it probably had to do with the classroom being closed down the previous week due to a

case of Covid. This was meaningful because it shows that a change in the normal routine of life

has effects on children that can last for a while after the disruption happens.

As a whole the children seemed to struggle a lot with boundaries of personal space. This

seems to be the case especially when it comes to being in the same space as the youngest

member of the classroom. This is important because it shows that children can learn that

something is not okay to do but that won’t stop them completely from doing what they have

been taught not to do.

One of the children was building what looked like a tower with the bottles full of items

that make different sounds. One of the teachers asked the child what he was building. He

replied with “crane operator”. The teacher did not quite understand what the child was saying

so she asked him to say it again. At that point she still did not understand what he was saying

but I did so I spoke up and said, “I believe he is saying crane operator”. The teacher then was

less confused. There are times even when you know a child well and how they form words that

you are unable to determine what a child is saying.

Child was using the shape sorter. He was able to sort the shapes into the shape sorter

correctly and name colors correctly when he was asked what color one of the shapes was. I can

assume from this observation that this child is most likely developmentally on track when it
comes to shapes and colors. I can also assume that this child is probably 2 years old or almost 3

years old.

A child made it his mission to find worms on the playground outside. He eventually

found 3 worms which he held onto for an extended period of time roughly 30 minutes to 1

hour. During this time he named the worms “Three, Four and Five” respectively. The worms

ended up begin put down the storm drain. This observation would cause me to assume that this

child enjoys spending time around animals and nature.

How Observations Will Inform My Curriculum

This series of observations will inform my curriculum in a couple of major ways. One

major way that these observations will inform my curriculum is that I would like to incorporate

STEM elements into my curriculum because the children seemed extremely interested and

enthused by the STEM activities in the classroom. Another major way they will inform my

curriculum is that I would like to incorporate sensory experiences and elements into my

curriculum because I saw how interested the children were in the sensory elements of the

classroom as well as knowing myself how influential and helpful sensory experiences and

elements are. The last way that the observations informed my curriculum is that I would like to

incorporate routine things in the classroom that the children could do independently or mostly

independently with gentle reminders. There is so much that I witnessed in my observations that

will be helpful when creating my curriculum in the future. Educare is an amazing facility for

childcare.