Writing Observations in Early Childhood Care Settings

Writing an observation on children's learning and engagement is one of my responsibilities as a Preschool Educator. It is very crucial for all early childhood settings to write observations because this documentaton is used to build an understanding of children's skills, interests, and abilities. Observations also focus on what children can do to extend their current interests and learning.

We make observations on children whilst they interact with their peers, engage in activities, or perform their everyday routines. But observations are not done just because we have to do our job. There are reasons or purpose why we make observations. These are:

A. For planning the programs or experiences.

When we intentionally observe for specific purposes, we can plan how, where and when we will observe. We also need to observe the children how they participate and engage within the environment, and from these reflections on their learning, we will then set up new experiences to extend or follow through that learning.

B. For gauging or knowing if the child has achieved his or her goals.

Every start of the term or the school year, we collaborate with the children's parents to know what they would like for their children to improve on or achieve. Say, if the goal is for the child to develop social and emotional skills, we will be able to tell if there has been any improvement through the observations being made on the child in his interaction with his peers.

C. For describing children's abilities and skills

We observe the children on how they practice their skills at different times throughout the day. Is there any new skill that they learnt? For example, a child who at the start of the year was using both his hands to cut paper with scissors, then the Educator observes in Term 3 that the child has significantly improved in his scissors skills.

D. For providing parents with information about their children's learning and experiences

Parents want to know how their children are doing and we, Educators, need to collaborate with the parents for a continuous, cohesive learning journey of their children. These written observations give the parents an understanding of their children's development and learning and provide them an opportunity to see their children's learning in “action”.

Below is an example of written observation I made on two children for the purpose of describing the play behaviour and skills they demonstrated and how they interacted with each other.

House of Cars

I observed two boys working together in constructing something out of the big wooden blocks. When I asked them what they were doing, they said that they were making a "house for their cars". The cars represented family members: Mummy, Daddy, brother, sister, and baby. They both said, "But they're not people. They're cars."

One of the two boys pointed to each of the section in the "house" to indicate that those were bedrooms for each of the family member. The other one showed which one was the doorway so that the cars could get in and out of the house. They also used the curvy blocks that they linked together to construct roads, bridges, and roundabout.

This interaction and collaborative work between them lasted for over half an hour until it was time for pack up before afternoon rest time. It was good to see the two boys interacting well and accepting each other's ideas for their design and construction of their house. They both demonstrated creativity and imagination in creating something using materials available to them and used a representation to animate the characters in their play (e.g. cars instead of people). They communicated well with each other using clear verbal language and expressed satisfaction for their finished product. In the end, they even let others play with their constructed house and road, and they helped in packing up as well.

As the Educator in the Kindy room, I will continue to encourage them to strengthen their friendship and provide them opportunities to work together on a shared project or experience. I can also give them resources that they can use to draw or paint their "design" or "plan" for a new building construction.

Thank you for reading. If you have any feedback, please leave a reply in the comments section below. Thanks and bye for now!

References:
Observations in Childcare, Aussie Childcare Network, https://aussiechildcarenetwork.com.au/articles/childcare-programming/observations-in-childcare

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