Running head: OBSERVATION 1: SETTING 1

Observation 1

Jeremia Vergara

Raritan Valley Community College

Professor Kimberly Schirner

February 26, 2019

SETTING 2
Education 212-01 Field Experience

I. Observation #1:
Setting

II. Grade Level and Subject Area:

Pre-Kindergarten

III. Setting:
Facility of the classroom is located in a suburban town. The school is private and
specializes specifically in early childhood care and education. This classroom has
a main teacher, two assistant teachers and about 18 students.

IV. Pre-Observation:
In previous years, I have helped a family member who currently is a
teacher set up her classroom for the last couple of years. The layout of the
classroom differs depending on the ages of the students. For example, the infant
room would contain no low tables whatsoever, as it proves useless for them. The
only thing that should have been in the spaces would be carpet and changing
tables, along with counters and cupboards to place the baby’s necessities
throughout the day. For the older children, the layout should involve more hands-
on and social activity. “Although it is generally agreed that children learn through
play, it is also clear that they do not come to school for the fun of it...In western
countries kindergarten are typically well-stocked with play materials and other
equipment” (Prochner 2011). The room itself should be eye-catching and colorful,
but to an extent to avoid distraction or even destruction. Activities for the children
to do should be available, such as building blocks or other fun toys. However,
they should be neatly put away on a shelf or in containers to avoid being a
distraction. Tables should be arranged in a way that allows the children to be able
to talk to each other. An example would be allowing a certain activity per table.
One table would be playing with Play-Doh while another may be puzzles or any
other hands-on activity. The only time there should be solitary play is when iPads
or other forms of technology are being used or if the children themselves decide
they want to be independent from the group.
Play places, such as a pretend kitchen and dollhouse, spark the imagination of the
children. Toys resemble what they see in real life, If any in a classroom, it should
be limited to a certain amount of friends to prevent any cause of trouble.
Regarding a teacher’s desk, if there was to be one, I would expect it to be
somewhere that allows the free space for it. Depending on the size of the
classroom, sometimes it may deem inappropriate to have one.
SETTING 3

V. Data:
● Classroom lighting is bright - allows all parts of the room to be lit up and
be seen
● Teacher’s supply closet contains certain supplies children cannot use
themselves, i.e. personal lotion, science supplies, “special snack” for
children with allergies
● There are specific places where artwork is hung up, as well as calendar,
classroom rules, and jobs the children are assigned each day. Names are
written on a popsicle stick and velcroed near whatever job assigned.
● Mailboxes for the kids is located right next to the entrance. Mail that
would be taken home would be special announcements for an event or an
old art project done in class. A general bulletin board is placed right above
it that tells parents about allergies and safety procedures.
● A large rug with an easel is in the corner of the room. Kids will sit there
when told as the teacher prepares to read them a book, which is right next
to the rug area. Lessons are taught here as well.
● Station activities on the shelf sometimes deem to be too distracting
sometimes - children will open the containers at inappropriate times.
● Technology allowed were iPads - a separate table against a wall would
allow two kids to sit and play for a certain amount of time. Since iPads are
portable, the teachers can move it or take it away at any time.
● Children here are taught to help themselves - if they need help, they only
need to ask politely.
● Bathroom is connected to the other classroom. Two toilets and two sinks
are placed inside. Sometimes kids would crowd in the bathroom and
socialize.
● Extra clothes and diapers are located on a shelf in the bathroom. Should a
child ever have an accident in school, he/she has a fresh thing of clothes to
change into.
● A sign telling kids to always wash their hands is placed over the sink. It
has a teddy bear on it so the kids would pay attention to it.
● Supplies were easy to reach for the children.
● A container meant to hold water bottles is placed in front of cubbies. Kids
can come here anytime to have their drink.

● Absolutely no toys used for naptime with a hard interior is allowed, i.e., a
stuffed toy that is operated by batteries. Can be used as a weapon.
SETTING 4
● Children who are misbehaving are told to go to another station - it is up to
them whether they want to put themselves in “time-out”.
● There are two entrances: the one near the mailbox is considered the main,
the second is mostly used by teachers.
● Kidney table is not used during lesson time or snack time.

VI. Analysis:
In this observation, I had noticed that there were two rooms connected by
a bathroom. This made it easier to talk to the other teacher in the other classroom.
A teacher’s supply closet was located on a far end of the room near the play
kitchen and dollhouse. During my time of observation, the kids were near the end
of naptime. As soon as they cleaned up and put away their sleeping mats, the
teacher would take out activities and put them on different tables, or take them to
the playground depending on the weather. If it was stations time, she would tell
them that it was time to go choose a “station” to play in until afternoon snack
time. Stations would enhance their socialization skills. “Physical activity is a
fundamental to the early development of each child and affects many aspects of a
child’s health” (Nan 2017). If the children are asked to choose a station, they
SETTING 5
would go right up to the shelves where the objects are stored.
Each table in the classroom is used for a variety of activities. The children
would either play, eat, or make their projects on them. It is always being wiped
down with soap and water to avoid the spreading of germs that the toys and kids
may have. The tables were arranged in a way to avoid collision, which was
effective. However, sometimes the teachers would not see the conflict happening,
such as the children spilling their drinks on their snack or seeing who is throwing
their food. Snack would end up on the floor and kids would eat it or step on it.
Rather than having a teacher’s desk, personal objects of the teacher would
be placed in a cabinet locked with a child safety lock, or placed above a row of
unused cubbies. There, it would be out of reach and the children would disregard
it. The kidney table usually has one chair larger than the rest. The teacher would
sit there to help a child get dressed before pickup time or to help them with an art
project. A curriculum would be on the personal computer of the teacher, for they
get to choose what to teach since the school is a private school. A sign-in/sign-out
sheet is located in front of the cubbies that the children use. Teachers are in
charge of writing the times the children come in during the morning and when
they leave in the afternoon. During reading time, children are told to sit in a circle
on the big rug and to “catch a bubble”, which meant filling their little cheeks with
air so they would stop talking and pay attention to the story. However, the
children would get over-excited, bored, or would do inappropriate actions such as
laying under the easel. The main teacher decided to create little floor mats of
laminated paper to prevent this from happening. Whoever listened would get a
star sticker under their mat. However, this still makes the children fidgety at
times, as the increased time sitting down progressively makes children go off-task
(Wiebelhaus 2016). The noise levels often fluctuates, depending on what the kids
are doing and what time of the day it is.

VII. Recommendations:
Children need a lot to grow and function. I believe that some changes in
the class would be appropriate. “Classroom management -- managing both
student behavior and the physical learning environment -- is an ongoing concern
of all teachers” (Zauber 2003). To engage a child can be tough at times, especially
young ones. “It may well be that the generally accepted idea that attention spans
of preschool and primary-grade children are limited to from ten to fifteen
minutes…Let us not conclude, however, that this represents the average child’s
limit of concentration on either a play or work task” (Moyer 1954).
To begin, the pretend play area should be moved more towards the
opposite wall of the room. During naptime, the children sometimes get distracted
with the toys there and would play with it. Also, sometimes you’d collide into it,
SETTING 6
knocking over some of the toys. Since it’s so close to the main entrance of the
room, there’s always that slight fear that the non-attentive adults will hit the kids
with the door. Since it’s also considerably close to the bathroom, children would
try to play there when it’s time to wash up for snack. The shelves for the station
would be moved more to where the pretend play area is. During reading time, the
toys would prove to be a distraction, so I’d also move the big rug to the corner of
the room where the station shelf currently is. Since the children play with the
blocks and puzzles on the carpet, I’d also move the shelves containing those.
These would be used to wall off the carpet from the pretend play area. I’d also
remove one of the long tables, since the kidney table, from what I observed in the
data, was not being used much during lesson time.
Second, the art area is clustered into a small corner of the room near the
second entrance. It’s hard to maneuver through there, and a child can easily be out
of sight behind the art easel. The drying rack is placed above a storage container
that would hold “special snack” that wouldn’t fit in the teacher’s closet. I would
want to move the unused cubbies and push the art easel towards the wall, right
where the iPad table is located. That way, kids can’t hide behind it.
Finally, regarding the iPad table, the current location was behind the main
teacher’s big chair, preventing them from being able to see what the child is
playing. I’d move it to the far corner of the room where the unused cubbies were,
then move the big kidney table to the middle of the room where the pretend play
area is. That way, a teacher could peek at what the child is playing and monitor
the amount of children who go to the table.

VIII. Post-Observation:
Looking back upon my research, a lot of a child’s surrounding influences
how they learn. The importance of playtime is also strongly needed in this early
stage of his/her life. “Play, a critical component of a young child’s development,
has well-known benefits that span all aspects of development – cognitive,
physical, social, and emotional” (Nitecki 2016). Playtime improves social skills,
cognitive ability, and motor skills. These skills, especially motor, are considered
important for children’s physical, social, and psychological development and may
be the foundation for an active lifestyle (Hestbaek 2017).
I observed that the open spaces did provide positive traffic flow, but the
teachers couldn’t see what every child was doing. The idea of having more tables
and not using one was also an issue. It looked like lots of kids were congested into
one area. During naptime, children would sleep in the pathways. Sometimes you
would trip over them if you weren’t careful. The setup of the furniture also
prevented you from seeing what each child was doing.
The negative behavior of the children stemmed from not being able to sit
SETTING 7

in a station. It also happened from having too many people in the pretend play
area. Since it was the end of naptime, some were still tired or didn’t get the full
three hours of sleep. Allowing more time to sleep would not be beneficial as it
would cut into snack time and story time. Kids who were crying were not able to
eat snack, let alone play with the other children. If the teachers left the iPads on
the iPad table, kids would sometimes flock to it during reading time. When it was
taken away, the kids would get upset.
The setting of the classroom affects students deeper than I thought. From
the lighting to the furniture placement, you see how the children flow and use it to
build up skills such as motor and social. The lesson plan is embedded into the
function of the classroom as well, such as allowing the children to sing and read
along with the audiobook playing. To tell a child to stop this and be quiet is like
telling a bird to stop singing during the spring season. Through this observation, I
was able to understand why some things needed to be in the places they were and
how important it is to make sure the children learn and grow as they play on!

IX. Citations:

Classroom FloorPlanner. (n.d.). Retrieved from

SETTING 8
https://www.kaplanco.com/resources/floorPlanner.asp

Hestbaek, L. (2017). Influence of motor skills training on children’s development

evaluated in the Motor skills in PreSchool (MiPS) study-DK:

Study

protocol for a randomized controlled trial, nested in a cohort study.

Retrieved from https://link-springer-com.ezp.raritanval.edu

/article/10.1186/s13063-017-2143-9

Nitecki, E. (2016). Play as Place: A Safe Space for Young Children to Learn

about the World. Retrieved from

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1

120144.pdf

Prochner, L. (2009). “Their little wooden bricks”: A history of the material

culture

of kindergarten in the United States. Retrieved from

https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.ezp.raritanval.edu/eds/pdfviewer/

pdfviewer?vid=5&sid

=292b10e2-3df1-4889-9e66-b8af5913ded5@sessionmgr400

Wiebelhaus, S. (2016). Effects of Classroom-Based Physical Activities on Off-

Task

Behaviors and Attention: Kindergarten Case Study. Retrieved from

The Qualitative Report 2016 Volume 21, Number 8, Article 1,

1380-1393.
SETTING 9
Zauber, K. (2003). Management Tips for New Teachers. Retrieved from

http://www.nea.org/tools/management-tips-for-new-teachers.html

X. Appendix: Attachments being used as supporting documents