A Brief Reflection on a 4's/5's Class

After working in a 4's/5's classroom today, there were several interesting things I noticed. As I sat with the kids during nap time, I noticed that most of the books that they are allowed to "read" through (those who do not sleep) on their mats are actually not true picture books, but filled with a significant amount of text. I noticed that one of the children looking through the book, even spent time looking at the pages that were text only. However, when she told me about the story, she did so, solely by flipping through the pages to show me the pictures that illustrate the story, showing her understanding and meaning of the pictures in relation to the story. I also notice one child using her fingers to count while laying on her mat during nap time. This is typical of a child learning to count between the ages of 4-7. She showed that she is in the math stage of development where she needs to see things concretely in order to understand them. 

One thing I found difficult was trying to figure out a way to deal with a child who didn't listen. One child, when told not to do something, or to stop what he was doing, actually seemed even more likely to continue his actions, like pushing other kids, blocking the slide on the play ground, or taking other kids' toys. The more I said, "don't do this", or "don't do that", the more he wanted to do that behavior. It wasn't until the director stepped in and took this child to help her in another room to do something else, did he stop. From this I learned that some kids do not want to be told and will not respond to that, so sometimes finding a different activity or something else to distract them with is actually a better solution, and more a positive focus that telling them what they are doing wrong over and over again, when I am sure they already know what they are doing is wrong. At a later point, as the day wound down, I used coloring, as well as stamps, as a means to do this with one of the children, which seemed to work.