Who: 3.4 years old Josh, black male, about 15 other children
What: Observation of Pre-k
When: November 5,2008 7:30 until about 8:35
Where: M.O.L. Child care and Pre school
Josh attends a preschool while his parents both work. His parents drop him off at the center at 7:30, and pick him up at 4:00. I started my observation with his arrival, but did not stay for the entire day. Instead, I observed Josh for one hour, with the first fifteen minutes given to simply watching him. During this first fifteen minutes, I avoided taking notes, not wanting to miss any behaviors that might go unnoticed if I was busy writing. For the following fifteen minutes, however, I jotted down, with as much detail as I could, everything that Josh said or did.
When Josh's father dropped him off, he was riding on his father's shoulders. I watched Josh try to take a leaf from a tree before coming up to the preschool door. His father stopped so he could get the leaf. Josh entered the door and immediately went over to a table, which contained some modeling clay. While he was handling the clay, his father signed him into the preschool for the day. Josh said goodbye to his father. While Josh was rolling, pounding, and tearing the modeling clay, other preschoolers kept arriving. Later, he said hello to Todd, David, and Troy. He showed the others what he was doing with the clay. He got up from the table several times to get various toys in different parts of the room. When he returned to the table right before breakfast was to begin a little boy named Todd was sitting in his seat. He tried to get the attention of the teacher but she was busy with another child, so he pulled Todd by the shirt and begin to cry saying “get out my chair” Todd refuse to move. Once the teacher got to them they had already started to tussle a little. They both were placed in time out, but before than the teacher made them apologize to each other and give hugs, and told them that they were friends and they had to...