The teacher sits with Max and Kerri and talks with them in a very calming voice. Then Kerri goes to the paper box and gets some crayons. She asks Max: "Can I show you how my sister drew me a firetruck? She uses shapes to teach me!"

She starts to draw it out on the paper and Max timidly looks over while she is drawing boxes and placing circles for tires, then starts coloring it red.

Max goes and gets paper and follows what Kerri did and pretty soon the two friends are coloring and talking again. The teacher talks smiles, and laughs with both of them, then gets up from the table to go check on two children in the home living center.

 

John-Carlton walks over to see the firetrucks both Max and Kerri are coloring. He decides he wants to make one too. So Kerri and Max start showing him how to do it with shapes. John-Carlton has some trouble making a square and a rectangle at first, but then Kerri walks over to the tracing box and brings back both tracing shapes, plus a circle. She shows Max and John-Carlton how to trace them all making them into a fire truck. 

The teacher starts the clean-up song. All of the children begin to clean up. All around the room is activity, children are taking their items and placing them back where they need to go. 

The teacher is looking around at the activity and commenting, making encouraging remarks about their jobs cleaning up. She directs the children to circle time, where she starts a fingerplay as children sit down. The children who are presently in the circle are joining in.

Maria, Imani, Max, Kerri, John-Carlton and Zui Li are all attempting to sit near each other. Zui Li ends up plopping down so close to Maria that he accidentally hits her knee and she begins to cry. Imani reaches over to give her friend a hug and calls out for the teacher. John-Carlton frowns at Zui Li and tells him," You need to remember your personal space!" (he makes a square around his body on the carpet to illustrate). "We need room to sit down!" Zui Li tells Maria he is sorry and that he did not mean to hurt her. Maria looks up and tells the teacher, she is mad and Zui Li hurt her knee. The teacher talks calmly with both children and the conflict is resolved. Zui Li is still very wiggly and thinks it is funny to fidget between his friends, however, his friends keep moving outward to give him space. All of a sudden Zui Li lays down between friends and the children start getting upset. The teacher walks back over to help redirect the children and Zui li. She finds another space on the end of the line and directs Zui Li there. He sits down and she goes back to her chair and introduces the story and begins reading. The children seem very happy about the story she is reading and most listen with intention. 

 

1. Name the children involved in this observation. Any  particular child or children that stood out to you and if so, why?  What did you take away from this observation of four-year old's? 
2. What stage are the children in according to Erikson's Psychosocial development? Explain how you arrived to that conclusion.
3. Is there any part(s) of this observation that demonstrate developing affective directly or indirectly? List and describe those segments below briefly.
4. What type of activities could you implement in your classroom to enhance socialization skills in a four-year-old classroom?  ( Think: relationships, friendships, cooperation, teamwork, helpfulness, taking turns, working with others.)