Sydney Van Fossen

FCS Child Lab

Response
Girl
Boy
Girl
Boy
Girl

Why?
It had Minnie Mouse on it.
During the movie Brave there was a bear.
It had pink on it.
Boys run
It was walking slowly.

Her responses were interesting because she seemed very distracted and didnt put much thought into
her answers. She mostly just ranted about topics that were completely unrelated to what we were
trying to discuss. The answers that she did give that were related to gender showed that she has been
influenced some either by her peers or her parents as to what makes an object a boy or a girl item. Pink
is for girls so because the ball had this color on it thats who it was for, and running is associated with
boys because of sports and other activities, thus the tennis shoe belonged to a boy.
Next I placed two groups of five coins evenly apart and asked which group had more or if they
were the same. Child 1 answered and told me that the two groups were the same. When I asked the
same question a second time I spread one group of coins farther apart making one group appear longer
than the other. She answered that the one that was closer together had more, but could give me no
explanation as to why. I tried several times to see if she could give me some sort of explanation, but I
could not.

Lastly, I had two balls of play dough of roughly the same size and placed them side by side on
the table and asked a similar question as the coins. Which one is bigger or are they the same and why?
She told me that they were the same, which was in fact true. Then I flattened one while keeping the
other in a ball and asked the question again. She told me that the one in the ball was bigger because it
was taller than the one flattened. This did impress me because she showed understanding of size and
shape as well as the vocabulary used to describe them.
Developmentally she has a hard time maintaining focus even for a short amount of time and her
answers do not make sense for the situation and are slow and sometimes hard to understand.
Female Child: age 5
For the second child, I conducted the same three observational tasks as child 1 so I could do a
comparison between the two because of their age difference. Just like child 1, I began with the gender
association task and received the following responses:
Object
Bear
Ball
Indian toy
Shoe
Ant

Response
Girl
Girl
Girl
Boy
Boy

Why?
Character on it.
It has pink on it.
The Indian is a girl.
Boys wear tennis shoes.
Its a bug, and boys like bugs.

Child 2s responses made much more sense as well as show signs that she has also been influenced by
her peers or parents as to what makes an object for a boy or girl. For instance, boys wear tennis shoes
and if a character on a toy is a girl or the toy itself is a girl, it must be for a girl.
Next I grouped two sets of five coins and asked which was bigger or if they were the same. Child
2 answered that they were the same. When I spread one group out farther than the other and asked the
same question again her answer changed. She said that the group more spread out had more because it
was longer. This shows that she has a good understanding as what makes something more or less by the
use of her vocabulary words like longer.

Finally I placed two balls of play dough on the table and asked which was bigger or if they were
the same. She told me that one was bigger than the other because she knew they were not the exact
same. Then when I flattened one and left the other in the ball the one she chose as bigger the first time
she chose again. I could tell that she had maybe done these activities before and just wanted to get it
over with as soon as possible.
Observation Deck Report
As free time began and more children began trickling in I was able to start observing the way the
kids interact with each other as well as what they like to do during free play. Gabe remained in the
reading center for the entire duration of free play and didnt seem to be distracted by everyone around
him. Adrianna, Adisyn, and Brady went back and forth between the water table and the kitchen. Sawyer
was playing with anything and everything as well as putting anything and everything in his mouth. Jack
played with the train set for most of the time while Andrew played with the toys around him on the
carpet. Lastly, Child 2 just wandered around the room not really choosing an activity and sticking with it.
For the most part I didnt see any gender patterns as the kids played, but I did see some possible
gender roles being played out that could have been socialized easily. For example, Adrianna played in
the kitchen and the baby dolls possibly because of how she has seen her mom act at home also known
as deferred imitation. Jack played with boy associated toys like the train set for most of the time. It
seemed that the activities that the children chose to do were based on what they normally might do at
home and what is supported at home.
This was a perfect time to witness how the teachers were interacting with each of the kids.
Emily did an excellent job of scaffolding with the kids when they were trying to build with the blocks.
She would say things like What if we tried this? to help aid them in their success. Kailey was on the
floor playing with the kids which was great to see because she was getting on their level and making
playing with someone older more comfortable. Eric, poor thing, was mostly trying to keep the chaos in

the room to a minimum. As I observed I also heard some words being used from class like assimilate
accommodate in association to Sawyer putting everything in his mouth. The only negative thing that I
saw was that too many adults were trying to tell Sawyer what to do all at the same time and that can be
either overwhelming for a child or annoying and he tends to ignore you when that happens.
Next, it was time for reading time with the start of the Clean Up song. Andrew shouted the
entire song showing great enthusiasm and that he enjoyed being at play school. Everyone did a great job
with quickly putting the toys away and sitting down to get ready for story time. Andrew still wanted a
lap to sit on and stood and waited until he had one.
While the story was being read they were all asking a lot of questions which showed that they
were paying attention and were engaged in the activity even though it was a sit-down one. Most of the
kids were sitting quietly and listening to the book, while Sawyer only listened if he was moving around
or had something in his mouth. What stood out most was when asked what the word frustrated meant
almost all of them gave a very reasonable answer which was very impressive.
Art time followed soon after and the kids were ready and done within ten minutes of starting.
They made kites and all were very impressed with their own coloring job. Andrew especially took
initiative over his coloring and was very excited to show off his art project. When Brady and Jack were
done with their kite they began running around to see if it would fly showing they understood some
cause and effect concepts. When Dr. Hoskins pointed out how well Adrianna did completing her project
all by herself she was very impressed with her new found independence. Once lunch came I did not see
very much in terms of development because most of the food was finger food. I did however see Sawyer
demonstrate assimilate accommodate again when he took his sandwich and ate the goldfish because
the big fish eats the little fish.
Lastly, I was able to see the kids line up to walk outside and this was a perfect opportunity to
witness physical development. Most of the three year olds took on the steps by putting one foot down

then the other. The older kids were able to conquer to steps with the leg separation and taking the steps
one by one. This was so awesome to see because it mimicked exactly what the research had expected
from children in this age range.
Overall, observation was a success and I was able to witness a lot of what we have discussed in
class. As much as I hated sitting in the room by myself instead of interacting with the children I realized
the importance of this assignment as it relates to the in-class lectures. We still have a couple of more
labs and I am interested and excited to see where these kids are developmentally by the end of this
experience.