Observation in kindergarteners classroom

Observation of Kindergarteners’ room Introduction Normally, kindergarten children are in the beginning of their schooling life. For many, kindergarten plays as the first separation point from parents to school. The children thus need an environment that would support growth and self-confidence. However, different children take the changes differently. I had not realized this before my third born went to the kindergarten. His behavior changed from being friendly to being hostile and protective. I therefore developed an interest to visit the school even after calling the teacher concerning his behavior. On Friday 12 April 2013, I visited Hacienda Elementary School just to observe how children of my son’s age behave while away from parents and other siblings. This was out of numerous behavior problems I had observed with him when relating to his siblings at home. Among the issues I had noticed with him were the following. He is more reserved at home and does not want to participate in doing anything, he is quick to talk back regardless of who he is talking to, he often throws things at other siblings, and he is quick to abuse other children and when asked for an apology, it has to be squeezed out of him. This behavior was contrary to the report I got from his teacher when I made a call to inquire of his behavior at school. According to his teacher, my son is so cooperative and industrious at school. He plays well with other children and respects the teachers and the students. The teacher had actually said that at school, he is the last person to yell as compared to other students. This left me mixed up on why he behaves differently in different environments. I was interested to know if the problem was only with him or it was an age issue. I also wanted to know if the behavior issue was any way related to the school since he spends a bigger part of his day at school with other children (Lee 3). I visited the school during recess time, which was some 30 minutes before lunch break. The teacher was still in class, but had allowed the children to have some free time where they could do whatever each child desired. I must admit that this was an interesting moment especially since I had not visited a kindergarten class before. The development milestones, where children reach by playing and learning, were at play (US Government 1). I observed my son, together with a group of four boys, take on a more serious activity as compared to other children. Majority of the children in the class choose to play while my son and his team took storybooks to read. This was so unusual of him. At home, I find him less concerned with books. Instead, he prefers watching television and running errands uninterrupted. I was surprised to see them exchange storybooks and discuss what they read. At home, my boy is untouchable. He does his things with no interruption especially from his siblings. I observed the teacher call him to come and great me and he did not take it as an interruption. He came smiling and immediately after greeting, he ran back to his friends laughing. This observation was so strange, since this was the exact opposite of what I have known him to be. He is quick to answer back to anybody including his parents, when interrupted from what he was doing. I preempt that if this could have happened at home, he could have shouted back, “ I am reading”, before being coaxed to come. During this time, I also observed some children in a corner doing some role-playing in a brick game. This was thrilling, as I had never imagined before that 5-year-olds could share duties and come up with one constructive thing. However, in the same class, I observed a couple of children sleeping and some two were just staring at what the rest of the class was doing. Never the less, the children had some form of organization in class that I had expected. There was less shouting and running around. This left me wondering if it was a class discipline issue or it just occurred to them that a class is not as big as a playground to play. It was interesting to see how 5-year-old children behave when a way from parents. Their characters are different, especially when left free. I actually noticed that my son was blending well with the same group of four boys than he did with everybody else. During lunchtime, these five boys, my son included, sat in the front table to take their lunch. They showed some level of organization and cooperation. I observed them passing lunch boxes to each other unlike what happens at home. My son particularly passed on the lunch boxes to every other boy before he took his box to eat. This was unusual, since at home he is literally forced to take anything to anybody. He usually complains of his siblings sending him more than they are willing to serve him. Though they engaged in some kind of games while eating, the play at the table was not as much as I see him doing at home. There was some level of table manners observed by all the children. After lunch, the children went out to play. My son and his friends played football. I observed them from the time they were choosing team members to the time they settled to play. I noticed that my son had a preferred team to work with. This was after they had a brief argument on who should team up with whom. This was the case with other children, since I could observe some two girls in a corner of the field playing. All the time, these two girls had been together. At some point, I noticed that one more girl who did not stay for long had joined the girls. I, therefore, noticed that this was an age-related thing, since many children in the field seemed to have stuck to their teams the whole playtime. Conclusion From my observation, change of environment has a great contribution to the child behavior. The environment at home is not the same as in school. At home, the elder brothers command my son around, which I think does not correspond to what other children in school treat him like. In school, my son seems to be team leader but at home, he is treated like a junior. The two treatments could be in a contrast of each other thus the change of behavior. I also observed that, at school, the teacher has all the time to listen to children. These made me think to myself maybe my husband and I are playing busy when our son need somebody to talk to and play with. Thus I have resolute to creating more time for him just to see if he changes his behavior. Works Cited Lee, Katherine. Child Development: Your Five-Year-Old Child. Child Parenting. Web. 18 Apr. 2013. . US Government. Preschoolers (3-5 years of age). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web. 18 Apr. 2013. .