Hannah Aguilera

ECE 251
Observation of Caring Elements
9/30/15

School: CSN Charleston ECE Lab

Telephone: 702-651-

7391
Teacher: Susan Smythe

Age/Grade: 3-5

yrs/Preschool
Teacher Characteristics: Calm, but lively. Fully engaged with each
child, very aware of what was going on around her.

1. How unconditional is the teacher in her acceptance of childrens

differences?
The teacher was very unconditional in her acceptance of
kids individual differences. A 4 year old girl, Maya, was very
rowdy, loud, and started to cry and hop up and down on the
carpet during the morning meeting. Susan addresses the child by
asking her not to hop up and down around the carpet, as it was
distracting other children. Maya stopped hopping around, yet
still talked off and on, even though is wasnt as loud. After the
morning meeting, when it was time to collect all the childrens
circular placements, the teacher looks at Maya and commends

her, saying Thank you, you did a good jobs not distracting
others by hopping. I believe the teacher realized that Mayas
personality was loud and bubbly, and instead of bluntly telling
her to stop talking, she knew if she got Maya to physically settle
down, it would help her focus and stop talking as much.
2. How accepting is the teacher of children who present challenging
behaviors?
The teacher is very understanding of challenging behaviors,
but especially when it comes to physical harm of other children, she
is quick to communicate lack of acceptance. When two children
were playing blocks, a boy wanted to use a few blocks another child
had. He tried to grab the block but the girl wouldnt give it to him.
He then hit her on the back, and then tried to hit her a 2nd time
when the teacher grabbed the boys arm. He started to cry and the
teacher was calm, yet stern when she spoke to him, her tone
displayed her lack of acceptance. She held him while he cried for a
moment, as she told him he couldnt hit others.
3. How consistent is the teacher re: the enforcement of classroom
rules?
Susan seemed somewhat consistent with the enforcement of
classroom rules. There were no rules posted on the walls, yet the
morning meeting consisted of going over 1 classroom rules. She sat
down in front of the children on the morning meeting carpet, and

wrote down 1 rule on the white board: keep others safe. She told
students to use their words, dont grab, pull or hit other students,
talk to them. She told students to ask before we touch others and
had students say which touching was nice (hugging, high fives,
gentle), and which was bad (hitting, kicking, rough touching). She
then talked about inside voices, and how we dont yell at others.
Right before the morning meeting was over, one boy screamed
loudly into another childs ear. That child started to cry, and Susan
reminded the boy of their rules from the morning (using inside
voices & keeping others safe.) She said to him She doesnt like it
that you screamed in her ear. It scared her, and it did not feel good.
We have to keep others safe, and be gentle to them.
Another example of this was when Franklin tried to feel Jakes
foam stickers on his picture. Jake grabbed the picture away because
he didnt want someone touching his picture. Franklin was told to
Remember our rule: use your words, ask Jake before touching his
picture.
Bonding
1. What kind of bonding rituals does the teacher use?
After the morning meeting, while some students went to use the
restroom, or transitioned to playing with other toys, the teacher
stayed in the carpeted area and her and the children that wanted
to, sang the Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes song. By doing this

almost every morning, the teacher establishes a ritual with these

specific children. She also acknowledged their feelings in a personal
way. When a boy was upset because he wanted to paint but the
painting station was full, the teacher knelt down to him and
acknowledge how he felt, instead of dismissing his feelings and
distracting him with a different activity. Another example of this was
a girl seemed a little out of it, she was quiet and seemed tired, and
teacher made sure to sit down in a personal manner with the child
to ask how they were feeling.
2. Other ways of bonding?
She tried to give individual time to her students. She fully
focused and put most of her attentiveness onto one child, while still
being able to hear and see what else was going on in the class. For
example, one girl was painting on the painting easel, and she asked
Susan to paint with her. Susan stayed with the girl and painted with
her for almost the whole time the girl was there, for around 10
minutes. The girl was smiling the whole time, and was fully engaged
in conversation with the teacher. By giving children individual
attention, such as the girl painting creates a bond between the two.
Schedule & Routines
1. Classroom Schedule
Child Directed Play as Children Arrive
(Outside )
Morning Meeting
Large Group Time

7:30
9:15
9:30

Open Centers, Snack, Small Group Activity

Clean Up
Story time
Transition Inside/ Hand Washing
Lunch
Outside Time
Transition into Rest Time
Quiet Activities/ Rest Time
Wake up/Snack
Playground Activities
Combined in the Dandelions

9:45
11:00
11:15
11:20
11:30
12:00
12:30
1:00
2:45
3:15
5:00

The meeting time for the morning is appropriate for this age
group. The 15-minute length is right in between the amount of time
that is appropriate for 4 year olds. The meeting had opportunities for
children to be actively engaged, when the teacher asked students
questions about touching others, using inside voices, etc. Also during
the morning meeting, students got to pick their Job for the Day when
their nametag was pulled out of a bucket. According to the handout
Elements of a Daily Schedule, 3 to 5 yr olds do best in an open setting
in which most of the class day has child-paced activities, and from this
schedule and what I saw, this is true. The arrival of children was childdirected play, as was the open centers, snack, and small group time
period. The children were free to choose what they played with, either
in the water tub, painting, a little kitchen area, blocks, etc. This time
gap, from 9:45-11:00 gave the children the choice of how long they
stayed at one activity and where they went to next. With this amount
of time, the children did not feel rushed. This schedule also
demonstrates balance. By planning both active periods and quiet

periods evenly throughout the day, such as Quiet Activities/ Rest time
coming right after outside time, children get to participate in both
passive and physically active activities.
2. Interview the teacher.
At the beginning of the school year I had the pictures from our
daily schedule taped on the white board. Each day we talked about
what happened at each time. I mainly focused on the times that the
children would go home to help relieve separation anxiety and to help
them to know how close it was to pick up time.
A teacher signal they had was ringing the bell for 5 more minutes
left of their activity.
We use the signal of ringing the bell to tell the children they
have 5 more minutes. After five minutes we turn off the light and say,
Hands up clean-up We dont have signals to gather children in lines,
and for fire drills, the signal for that are just the alarms going off. With
the fire drill, the first time we told them when it would happen and
then what to expect, and how we would leave the classroom. Fire drills
are practiced once a month.
For clean-up, we just modeled it and over time they understand the
transition.
We sing songs to gather the children for large group times.

3. 2 observations of transitions.

The first was the transition from group meeting, to open

centers/snack time. When the teacher got up and said she would start
getting the snacks for those who were hungry, some kids got up to
help her. The rest of the kids sat on the carpet, When Susan left,
another teacher sang a song with the students still on the carpet
(hands, shoulder, knees/toes), and then helped stagger the children to
go to centers by saying things such as anyone an wearing orange
shirt can go. This transition was appropriate because when the
children moved to learning centers, the teacher staggered the
transition so only small groups of kids left at a time. A way this
transition time could be approved is if when some kids went off to the
centers and wandered about without playing with anything/anyone, a
teacher could go up and help the child make a choice when they arent
sure.
The 2nd transition was from clean up time transitioning to story
time. Since many different centers were used and played with, Susan
first rang the bell to indicate 5 more minutes, and when she rang it
again, the children knew it was clean up time. Since some centers took
more time to clean up (such as painting center over the book area),
some kids finished cleaning before others. Some children who finished
early wandered about trying to help others, or occupied themselves by
playing with other toys. Other children sat on the carpet, where
another teacher sat with them, choosing a book to read.

This 2nd transition was appropriate because the teacher provided

5 minute warnings before clean up had to take place, as to make sure
each child got to fully finished hat they were engaged in. The teachers
also went around the gave signals/expectations about transitioning:
Once you finished putting those blocks down, it will be time to clean
up. This transition was also appropriate because one teacher went
around and help others clean up/transition, while another teacher sat
on the carpet to gather children and sit with them. Teachers also used
this time to foster emotional development by giving positive
feedback when children clean up nicely, or help other children clean.
This transition could be improved if there was something the children
could do while waiting for next activity. Because clean up time took
long, many children finished cleaning up, but didnt know what else to
do, so they started to play with other toys. Maybe the teacher sitting
on the carpet could sing a song with the children, or play some sort of
game while others are still cleaning.
Rules
1. Classroom rules that are posted.
There were no classroom rules posted, as the teacher said We have
been working this week on classroom rules so they are not posted or
finalized yet. In the morning meeting though, they went over one of
their rules, which was Keep Others Safe. This rule was written on the

white board in front of the class. There was also a poster above the
whiteboard area that has steps in resolving conflict.
2. Describe all the rules you heard.
A rule I heard implied was throw away your trash, for example a
little girl left her squished paper cup on the table after snack, and a
teacher reminded her to throw trash away, clean up after yourself.
Another verbalized rule was when to talk, and when to listen.
During the morning meeting, children started to talk over each
other, and the teacher reminded them the rule of listening when
others are talking, and when they finish, you can talk; we cant
hear if everyone is talking at same time.
A verbalized rule of no running inside; when a boy started to
chase another in the class, a teacher stopped him and reminded
him and the whole class you can only walk or crawl inside, no
running allowed. Another rule implied was their ask, dont take
rule. A young girl Sarah wanted to take a few blocks and people
figures a boy was using. She tried to grab them when he wasnt
looking, but the teacher told her to ask, not to take. When she
asked and the boy told Sarah he was still using them, the girl got
upset, but the teacher reminded Sarah of respecting other people,
and to go find other blocks that arent his.
3. Evaluate the rules in classroom.
From the verbalized rules I heard, and the one rule written on the
board, I thought the rules reflected a classroom what valued

safety, but also childrens development. Considering there was

no official classroom rules posted (yet), the emphasis of rules
was about safety and respect, which teachers verbalized that
throughout the whole day. By not having posted classroom rules,
the teachers didnt feel obligated to follow unnecessary rules
that would prevent child development, because simply there
were none of those rules to follow. For example, just as when
Sarah wanted to take the young boys blocks/dolls, the teacher
verbalized to her that sharing is good, but there are many other
toys here to play with, and these blocks are being used right
now. This was also mentioned in the Rethinking Rules handout:
there are many toys to share in centers, but not everything is
for sharing. If its not OK for me to borrow another adults
jewelry, watch, or sweater, I dont think its OK for us to expect
children to share their things (pg. 5). The lack of unnecessarily
strict rules allowed the adults to participate fully, and engage
with children in their activities, as opposed to enforcing minor
rules (5). I think the rules could be improved if there were a
posted sheet or the rules theyre going over now, or will go over.
Although the teachers do write a rule on the board each
day/week, a constant visual reminder of those rules on a poster
would be beneficial to children. It would also benefit teachers, by
knowing exactly what rules they want to discuss that day, as well

as a visual reminder to them as well to keep encouraging

positive energy and certain behaviors.