Kayla Boucher

Young Children’s Program

Classroom Observation

For this assignment I will discuss the literacy objectives set for this

classroom first. After that I will go over the other criteria. Within the other criteria I

will include reflections on what I have seen; dislikes, likes, observations, ect.

Literacy Objectives

The Young Children’s Program (YCP) promotes literacy on a regular basis.

The literacy objectives for the YCP are used for the 3-year-old morning group as

well as the 4 year olds afternoon class. The majority of the students attend the YCP

classroom at ages 3 and 4. Therefore they begin emphasizing these goals at age 3

and expect improvements but hope to reach the goal in full by age 4. The

overarching goal is for the child to, ‘grow in the ability to use language effectively”.

Within this goal are 5 sections that determine if the child has reached this objective.

(All information is taken from the YCP objectives book).

Section one: Listening and Speaking. This section involves goals such as;

demonstrate increased understanding of oral language through actions and

responses to directions and questions, respond appropriately in conversations and

discussions with peers and adults, and progress in clarity of pronunciation and

towards speaking in sentences of increasing length and grammatical complexity.

Section two: Awareness and Alphabetic Knowledge. This sections has goals

such as; begin to identify words that rhyme, growth in ability to discriminate and

identify sounds, growth in ability to hear and discriminate separate syllables in

words, growth in awareness of beginning and ending sounds of words, begin

awareness of alphabet letters, recognize that sounds are associated with letters and

that they form words, and understand that letters of the alphabet are a special

category of visual graphics that can be individually named.

Section three: Print Awareness and Concepts. This sections involves goals

such as; growth in awareness of different functions of forms of print, growth in

interest in reading-related activities, increased awareness of print concepts,

recognize a word as a unit of print that is formed by individual letters and read

some environmental print.

Section four: Comprehension. In this section the goals are; increased

comprehension and response to stories read aloud, recall specific characters or

actions from familiar stories, understand basic plots in a variety of ways, begin to

understand connection between books and personal experiences, understand main

idea of simple information and attempt to create jokes.

Section five: Early Writing. In this section the goals are for the children to;

use scribbles and unconventional shapes to convey messages, represent ideas and

stories, experiment with a variety of writing tools (pencils, crayons ect), use letter-

like shapes, symbols and letters to convey meaning, understand purpose for writing,

and begin to use familiar words in writing and drawing.

These are the literacy goals outlined by the principal for the teachers to work

towards achieving.

Physical Set-Up

The physical set up of the Young Children’s Program or YCP is quite

complicated. There are two main rooms that are separated by a small hallway. The

first room to the right is called the loft room. The loft room has the majority of the

pretend play props and materials. There are 6 small sections within this one room.

The first section to the right is full of costumes and props as well as materials that

go along with each specific costume. For example: near the fireman top and hat is a

backpack with a small fire extinguisher attached. I believe they specifically place the

materials related near the costumes so that the children can engage in a deeper level

of play. Past this section under the actual loft is a pretend kitchen. This kitchen has

counter tops, a fridge, a sink, an over and cupboards. In the center of the kitchen

area is a table with 3 chairs and a high chair. On top of the loft are tracks used to

make a train station. To the right of the loft stairs is a wood works station. This

station has blocks of wood, foam, nails, saws and hammers for the children to mess

around with. In the middle is a technology station that has things such as cameras,

phones and key boards that the children can play around and experiment with. In

the final section, to the back left of the room, is a small structure that has a slide and

a set of stairs. To the right of this structure are a bunch of toy cars and trucks that

the children can play with.

The second room to the left, the main room, is called the blue-room, which

has a more classroom like feel to it. Immediately when you walk in there is a section

for snack and the adult kitchen to your right. Past that and to the right is the water

room. This room has a sensory water station as well as a hand washing station to

promote good hygiene. This space also leads to the bathroom. Facing out of the

water section is the art area. There are usually two tables set up here, one with the

craft of the day and the other one set up with play dough and kinetic sand. In the

middle of the room (edge of art area) are easels that students can use to paint with.

In front of the art area is a building block section. This area is full of blocks of all

different shapes and sizes. There are also toy people, animals and dinosaurs of

different sizes that the children can use to play with. To the left of this area is the

reading circle area. This area is full of books and musical instruments. This is also

the place we conduct circle time and have the calendar set up. And finally across

from the art section, is the observation area. This section consists of physical items

they can observe and of things they are currently learning in class. This section right

now has live caterpillars with milkweed that are finally making cocoons and live

sunflowers that the students can touch and pull the seeds from.

To get a better understand of the physical set up refer to the sketch of both

rooms.

Use of Print In The Classroom

Print is found everywhere within the YCP. The YCP is big on not only writing

the print for items, but also providing a small picture of what the print is describing.

I really like this and think it is helpful because it allows the students to make the

connection that all items can be described with written language. It also helps the

child to realize that there is meaning behind letters and words, that words have a

purpose. Every toy, in the loft and blue room, has a spot it is supposed to be put

away at and this spot is always labeled with print and a picture of the item.

The observation table is also a place where print is always found. It typically

has questions on paper asking things like, “Can you pick the seeds out of these

sunflowers?”, or descriptions of what is on the table such as, “ These large green

balls are a fruit, called osage oranges. They are also called horse apples because

horses and cows can eat them”. I really like this idea because it is not necessarily for

the child to read them. However, I think the purpose is to encourage children to be

curious about words and sentences. Often when at the observation table, the

children will ask what the sign says.

There are also signs that some children can understand on their own. For an

example; In front of the snack each day there is a sign that says (varies by number

and picture each day) “Take 3” followed by a picture of 3 frogs (ect). The children

know the sign is explaining how many of the snack they are allowed. They often will

count how many animals on the page to find the exact number, and I think they can

relate this to what the print says.

Signs are also found surrounding the classroom. These all have pictures and

words together. For example by the snack table there is a fruit sign and a vegetable

sign. These sign have pictures of fruit or vegetables and the print for them

underneath.

All the activities for the day have print explaining what they are doing. For

example, for an arts-n-craft activity; there might be a sign that says “Painting

Caterpillars”. The YCP classroom really promotes literacy by providing the children

with words around the classroom for which they can become curious of and make

connections with.

Literacy Grouping

At the YCP there is no set in stone structural assigned groups for literacy

grouping. As a class in both the morning and afternoon class we will gather for circle

time to read a book and sometimes do basic literacy activities all together.

Often, literacy ‘grouping’ at the YCP happens on its own. Whenever someone

begins reading to one child (at the child’s request), almost always other children will

come to listen to the story as well. Two practicum classes ago I was doing a story re-

tell of The Very Hungry Caterpillar with one child, and half way through I had three

more children joining in. This is the closest thing the YCP has to literacy grouping.

There is no literacy grouping based on literacy level.

Individual Needs

To reach individual needs of the children, we often scaffold accordingly. We

adjust how much help is needed for each child. If we are reading to a child with a

strong literacy background at home we often will ask the student to make small

predictions like guessing what will happen next, or with rhyming books to see if

they can guess the next word. With children who are weaker with literacy we will

often talk them through plot predictions and see if we can come up with one

together or with suggestions made by us.

One child in my class often likes to babble and talk for the sake of talking.

When he does this we are suppose to say something like green ball or glass

windows. He will often repeat whatever we say instead of the babbling. I was told

we do this so he is actually speaking real words rather than making just saying

sounds.

In my classroom we have a child with an oral disability where she cannot

speak. When working with her we often really sound words out like ba-ba-ba-ball.

She will sometimes repeat the ba sound but never pronounce the actual word. We

also have a bracelet with a set of commands such as stop. We will show her the sign

of the action we want. She cannot completely understand the picture commands just

yet but we are working towards it. We are actually having a meeting to set new

guidelines for helping this child succeed more literacy wise in a few weeks. I am

going to be able to attend and am excited to see how they will decide the new

guidelines.

Type of Literacy Materials & The Instructional Techniques

Thee most obvious literacy materials available to children are books. There is

a wall that is a giant bookshelf. The children are allowed to look at or ask us to read

these stories whenever they want.

Near this bookshelf there is a collection of tapes and CDs. These tapes and

CDs are vocal recordings of professionals reading the books. Some of these

recordings are sung. This I believe is useful because the students can pick up on the

rhythm of the book as well as the rhymes.

Other literacy materials I have seen go along with the book, The Very Hungry

Caterpillar. They have a retelling activity set up for this book. It involves laminated

cut outs of all the food that the caterpillar eats (with a hole in the middle) and a

small wood pole (5 miles) attached to a square of wood (3 inches). As a teacher or

helper reads the story to the child, the child will take the laminated food and put it

on the wooden pole as the caterpillar eats it. I like this because it helps the child

with understanding what is going on within the stories.

One instructional technique I’ve noticed is during circle time the teacher will

show the class a child’s name in print. The children will then look at it and examine

what name is written. For hints the teacher will sound out the first letter and the

ones following. Sometimes the teacher will be like “ba ba b” and then follow it with

“this name end with the ‘ake’ sound” (child’s name is Blake). She always shows the

picture (that is on the back) afterwards to verify that what they found is accurate.

She also when reading a story will stop to see if the children can guess what will

happen next, ask questions, and at the end go over the story.

This is all the formal instruction done at the YCP. Sometimes I feel like there

should be more done. I don’t know necessarily what but I get that feeling. I might

feel that way because I am used to elementary classrooms rather than preschool,

and in elementary classrooms structural instruction is shoved down the children’s

throats. But I also understand that informally through play the children are learning

how to verbally talk with one another and can see the use of print in all settings.

Level of Engagement & Time on Task

The children can decide what they want to do for the majority of the day

(with basic guidelines). With that being said, the children are typically on task

because they can choose how long to be at an activity and when to leave. With

pretend play the children typically stay longer. However, with the arts-n-crafts I

have noticed that the children usually participate for about 5 minutes before leaving

to try something new.

In circle time it varies with the engagement of the children. Some children

can pay attention the whole time and answer the questions being asked. Others have

very small attention spans. One child in the four-year-old class cannot sit still one

bit. He is always rolling around on the floor and trying to touch everything. He

sometimes gets other children involved because he is so distracting. There are also

some children that won’t participate. When we are singing finger plays or using

instruments, some children just sit there and watch rather than participate.

During circle time the teacher try to keep it short, so the majority of kids can

focus most of the time.