After School Observation Essay

For my after school program observation I chose to observe the after-school program at Washington Elementary. This after-school program is held in a small gym and since the gym is used during the day for school activities there was no real floor plan to the program. A small carpet was set in the middle of the gym for circle time and the supplies and check in sheet were kept on a table. The rest of the room was filled with tables that are used for school breakfast. When I arrived the group had just started circle time. To encourage bringing homework to work on the children receive tickets, this ticket will go into a bucket and one ticket would be drawn for a prize. At this time the teacher gave a few children jobs that they could do to help. They next recognized two children who had birthdays on that day. Each of these students were also allowed to choose a prize from the prize box. During this time the children all sat quietly and paciently. Before going outside, the teacher brought out a book of gross facts. Using this book really grabbed the attention of the children and allowed for discussion about the different facts that they were learning. The period of time that the book was read was short which was developmentally appropriate for the younger

I observed a group of girls helping each other on a spider bar toy as well as another group of boys playing with a ball in the grass. When there was a conflict between two of the children the teacher had both children come over and talk with her. They each discussed what the problem was and agreed to a solution. I felt that this was a very effective way to resolve the conflict and both children went back to playing with no further problems. When the outside time was over the children quickly cleaned up the balls that had been brought outside and lined up to go inside. One of the older children was given the job of holding the door for the others to come