Observation of Children Free Play

Play is important for children, there are plenty of reason why play is an important thing for children such as learning how to socialize, learning their cognitive, exploring their imagination and much more from just simply having fun. For example, in the video 'Cute Is a Four-Letter Word' by Sarah Curtis she talks about how important play is and how it affects children to adulthood. In the Video she stated that there were two groups of children who were split up, one group was direct instructions for play and the second one was free play and it shown a big difference by allowing children to play freely. Thesis statement: This essay will reflect on my observation of children free play.

Topic sentence: During free play Chole went to the dramatic area to play in the kitchen with some friends, as soon as she got to the kitchen, she told one of her friends “ok you can get the drinks and I can get the food and we can eat.” They started looking around the kitchen and grabbing all the cups, plates and utensils, the friend than told her “Chloe I need juice” Chole reply back to her “we have no more juice I need to make a order” Chole than went over to the counter and grab a toy ice cream sandwich and place next to her ear. The friend looks and said “Chloe that’s not a phone” Chloe look at her and said “well it’s my pretend phone” Chloe went on and pretended it was her phone and place an order for some juice.

Topic sentence: Soon after placing an order for juice Chloe saw some friends playing in the block area, she went to the block area and ask them “what are you guys doing?” one of the friends at the block area told her “we playing with the cars” Chloe ask them “can I have one car?” the friend replied and said “no you can’t play with us” Chloe got upset and told them “fine I'm going to go on a bus and you guys can’t ride on it” as she walks of, she was stomping her feet and went back to the dramatic area (Kitchen). She told some of her friends at the kitchen “you guys let's make a bus” one of the little girls said “Chloe but we don’t have a bus” Chloe started getting the chairs and placing them one behind another. Chloe told her “see we have a bus, I sit in the front” Chloe got super excited and ran to the drawing center and told two of her peers “guys look I made a school bus!” she than started running back to the dramatic play where her bus was at.

They all sat on a chair where it was lineup and ready to go, as they sat on the chairs they laugh and giggle. Chloe told her friends “put your seat belt on guys”. One of the little boys who was at the block area came over and ask her “can I play too?” Chloe told him “I don’t have room, I only have four chairs” as she got up and counted the chairs “1, 2, 3, 4, see I only have four chairs” Chloe reassure him he can have a turn when someone leaves. The little left back to the block area and Chloe and her friends went on playing, the girls are singing and chatting away as Chloe was driving the bus.

Topic sentence: In the SLUSS Handout there are different characteristics of play. The first one is play is voluntary, the second one is play requires active involvement, the third one is play is symbolic, the fourth one is play is free of external rules, the fifth one is play focuses on actions rather than outcomes and the last one is play is pleasurable. Functional play is often a play that a child is enjoying the time, or they are playing with toys such as feeding a baby, pushing a car and anything that is a development for their social skills or cognitive. In my observation a little girl who I name Chloe is in the kitchen playing with her friends socializing and enjoying her free play. A symbolic play is children who plays and use toys or object to represent an abject, a sample from my observation is when Chloe is in the dramatic area playing in the kitchen is using an ice cream sandwich toy as a phone.

Conclusion paragraph: In conclusion to my observation essay I found that throughout free play Chloe’s play was functional and symbolic play equally. She switches from function play to symbolic play off and on, she was all over the class socializing with her peers.

References

1. Talks, T. (2013, July 10). Retrieved March 10, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7y6ZgQCnvw&feature=youtu.be
2. Valuing Play (2003) David Elkind